Author: V.C. Andrews
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books (February 26, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439155054
ISBN-13: 978-1439155059
Book Description:
I HAD EVERY REASON TO HATE HER, MY FORBIDDEN SISTER. SHE WAS LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAD DIED BUT WOULDN’T STAY BURIED. . . .
Emmie Wilcox was only six when her older sister, Roxy, was thrown out of their New York City apartment. Their stern father’s military-style rules left no room for rebellion, and Roxy was as defiant as Emmie—now an outstanding student at a private school—is compliant: a perfect daughter, un fille parfaite, as her Parisian-born mother lovingly calls her. Two sisters, total opposites—yet Emmie is secretly obsessed with the mystery surrounding Roxy: What had she done? Where is she now? And is there a hidden side to Emmie that resembles Roxy’s spiteful nature? Knowing only that Roxy is a highly paid escort to the city’s wealthiest men, Emmie goes behind her father’s back to track down the sister she fears, despises, and inexplicably clings to . . . and whose influence might run deeper than Emmie ever imagined.
Idgie Says:
When I received this book in the mail I was immediately flung back into my Freshman year of high school when I held the hotly discussed and parent-hated Flowers in the Attic paperback in my hands. A book that needed to be hidden from many of my friends parents because of the content. It was a damn racy book - filled with abuse, incest and murder of children...by family! I tore through that book filled with horror and my imagination going into overdrive. I immediately grabbed the next two in the series.
By the time the forth book came out I had moved on to other types of novels and never finished the series. I heard that VC Andrews had actually died and there was a ghostwriter continuing on with her series. Apparently they've continued on since 1986.
I went into the book having positive expectations of reliving my youth with a shlockfest of horror and naughtiness. Sadly, though this is not a bad book in itself, it's obviously not V.C. Andrews writing it. It's rather like the author that attempted to write Gone With the Wind Part II and just came up with a completely different romance book containing characters of the same name.
I would classify this as a YA novel. It has a 15 year old main character who tries to be everything her parents want as she remembers when she was little they kicked her older sister out of the house for not conforming to their rules. She deals with school peer pressure and bullying, she longs for boys and she wants to dress cooler.
When her father dies and then her mother becomes very ill, she sets on a quest to find her estranged older sister and perhaps form a bond again. Yes, her sister is a "bad girl", but she has also had to live on her own since she was 16 or so.
This is a family coming together again teen novel. A bit of raciness in that her sister is a high priced call girl, but really nothing more than that. Definitely not V.C. Andrews' dark thoughts coming out of the hidden corner in the room.