MY SWEET AUDRINA [Paperback]

V.C. Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 1985

A stand-alone mystery thriller from the bestselling author of Flowers in the Attic. MY SWEET AUDRINA The house in the wood was picturesque and charming. The family who lived there were happy and affluent. So what was the secret of the room -- empty of everything but the rocking chair? Audrina wanted to be as good as her sister. Audrina knew her parents could not love her as they loved her sister. Her sister was perfect, much loved -- and dead. But how did she die? Who was Audrina and who did she have to become? What was the secret that everyone knew? Everyone except sweet Audrina! The haunting story of love and deceit, innocence and betrayal, and terrible family secrets.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Virginia Andrews: 'Beautifully written, macabre and thoroughly nasty! it is evocative of the nasty fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and The Babes in the Wood, with a bit of Victorian Gothic thrown in. ! What does shine through is her ability to see the world through a child's eyes' Daily Express 'Makes horror irresistible' Glasgow Sunday Mail 'A gruesome saga! the storyline is compelling, many millions have no wish to put this down' Ms London 'There is strength in her books -- the bizarre plots matched with the pathos of the entrapped' The Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Virginia Andrews lived in Norfolk, Virginia, studied art and worked as a fashion illustrator, commercial artist and portrait painter. Flowers in the Attic, based on a true story, was her first novel. It became an immediate bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic when it was first published in 1979. Virginia Andrews died in 1986, leaving a considerable amount of unpublished work. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket (October 2, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671606867
• ISBN-13: 978-0671606862
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,042,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

One of the most popular authors of all time, V.C. Andrews has been a bestselling phenomenon since the publication of her spellbinding classic Flowers in the Attic. That blockbuster novel began her renowned Dollanganger family saga, which includes Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. Since then, readers have been captivated by more than fifty novels in V.C. Andrews' bestselling series. The thrilling new series featuring the March family continues with Scattered Leaves, forthcoming from Pocket Books. V.C. Andrews' novels have sold more than one hundred million copies and have been translated into sixteen foreign languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've always loved this amazing novel!, February 4, 2002

By 

FloozyFlapper1926 (Somewhere in the 20's) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Sweet Audrina

Its hard to review this book because I don't want to give away any of its twisted plot that never ceases to amaze me each time I read this. My mother bought this when I was about ten years old and I snuck it to my room to read late at night. Now its not suitable reading for a kid but I found this to be amazingly frightening in a way that a family could be this strange Its a Gothic novel. Twisted characters... and its quite bizarre. Its also a heart-felt romance as well.

When you start reading this, you must understand that nothing is what it seems. This is what made the VC Andrews books before she died so incredibly amazing and this is one of her very best. I read this once about every five years and I still enjoy it every bit as much as that first time as a kid. Simply put, amazing!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best V.C. Andrews Book of them All!, May 20, 2005

By 

Justice - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Sweet Audrina

I love this book! It's just so creepy, so engrossing, so much fun. It also has an odd and compelling beauty and powerfully evokes the passing of time, the dynamics of a deeply dysfunctional family, and the fractured character of a young woman who must come to terms with the bizarre reality of her life-if she can find out what that is. Audrina is a strong, sympathetic, interesting character, and all the characters in the book are well drawn and very intriguing. Audrina is one of the most admirable characters Andrews ever created-she is compassionate, courageous, and a true survivor. I think she's also the nicest of the Andrews' characters. I really like her.

I first read this book at 13,and I didn't guess the ending, and was utterly shocked, but I've reread it since and I think adults would. Actually I know adults would-I lent it to some, and they figured it out, but still enjoyed the story. I won't give it away here though.

This book tells the story of Audrina, who is a beautiful child born to a ruined Southern aristocratic family (they never explain how it was ruined), living in a run down mansion with her older cousin Vera, her father Damian, her mother Lucietta and her aunt Ellsbeth. These are the characters in the beginning, although more come into the story over the course of 400 pages. As usual, most of the characters are in possession of movie-star looks, except aunt Ellsbeth, who is somewhat frumpy, but mostly by choice.

My favorite character is Vera, which may surprise readers. Hey, I'm not excusing her actions, and I would not want to know her in real life, but I love her! She is the most perverse, bizarre, cruel, violent, unrealistic character in all of Andrews' books. For that matter, in a lot of books. There cannot possibly be anyone like this in real life. Come on. It was a little silly.

But the fact that she's not credible doesn't take away our interest in her. How can there be anyone like this? You enjoy watching her obsession with sex, (she definitely gives us some of the weirdest sex-scenes to grace an Andrews book), her inexcusable torturing of Audrina, her gory miscarriage scene, her vicious acts against just about everyone she meets, but also, somehow, Andrews' also makes us feel bad for her. That's a real accomplishment. And, Vera's kind of funny. In a disgusting way.

She had been completely neglected and abused from her earliest days and made to feel inferior to Audrina in every imaginable way, so as Audrina says, her father "made her what she is." We don't blame her for resenting Audrina, although as I said, most of what she does as a result is just too dramatic for me to buy. But, I still feel sorry for both her and Audrina. No one is paying proper attention to these girls and they are living in a mad house!!!

After Vera, I most enjoy the character of the bitter yet sensible and ultimately kind-hearted aunt, Ellsbeth. She, like Vera, also has a weird gallows humor, but we admire the way she stands up for Audrina. At first she appears to be only self-interested and scheming, but then can't help but admire the persevering Audrina's attempts to disengage from her father's pathological and smothering control. I don't think we've ever seen anyone like her in Andrews', and it's hard not to sympathize with her getting the short end of the stick in life while her sister, the greatest beauty on the East Coast, gets all the attention. (this symbolically duplicates the Audrina/Vera relationship-although Vera is described as very pretty and sexy, Audrina has the "unearthly" beauty that all Andrews' heroines do, plus, she's acknowledged by the family, while Vera is constantly told she's unwanted.)

Lucietta, another likeable character, fights with Ellsbeth a great deal, though she too has been cheated out of what she wanted most-in her case, a music career. Her "Tuesday Tea Times" are some of the funniest episodes Andrews' ever created. During these times, Audrina's mother and Aunt get dressed up, channel their dead sister, and "invite" her photo to tea while they insult each other and get drunk. Pretty fun, eh?

Then there's Arden, Audrina's long suffering suitor. A lot of people don't like Arden, but I do. He makes a lot of mistakes, but they are all human and understandable under the circumstances. He truly loves Audrina, but isn't sure how to help her. Although, we all have to wonder why everyone doesn't just tell her what's up and get her some real therapy. However, since no one will do that, Arden does what he can.

Arden's handicapped mother, Billie, is also an extremely lovable character and one of the warmest in the story. She's a nurturer and we're glad someone is treating Audrina to some real attention.

Sylvia, Audrina's developmentally disabled younger sister, is another likable character. Although her problems seem so drastic that they doubt she will be able to ever take care of her own most rudimentary needs, she turns out to be a fiercely loyal and willful character.

Damian, Audrina's father, is also a very well-drawn, very well-developed character. He's also the only character I really despise. A controlling narcissist, he is a womanizer who neglects his responsibilities, feels the need to completely control the women in his life, stifles their hopes and aspirations, beats Lucietta, and may be responsible for Sylvia's disabilities. Physically, he is a handsome, tall, commanding man; he is also charming and seductive. Ironically, he is the most "crippled" of the family, although his problems don't manifest themselves overtly like Billie's, (she lost her legs), Sylvia's, Vera's (one leg is shorter than the other due to repeated fractures), etc.

I enjoyed Damian's character, though, even though I was pretty disgusted with him. A lot of women like jerks,(I'm not one of them), so his control over the women around him seemed plausible. But after awhile, everyone's obsession with getting Damian's approval gets tiring-Ellsbeth wants him to praise her cooking, Arden wants him to admire his business skills, Vera wants him to praise her, Billie wants the same, blah blah blah.

That's why Audrina is the true heroine of the book, because ultimately she doesn't care about pleasing her father, just about healing herself. Whether or not she physically separates from him is irrelevant-emotionally, she has fought for real knowlege of herself, and won it, and she has learned to stand on her own two feet. It's the most complex character study Andrews' has ever done.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars-- nearly flawless, August 22, 2006

By 

Jason G. - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Sweet Audrina

Never having read any of V.C. Andrew's work I was both skeptical and curious when her name kept appearing during searches for "gothic horror" type literature. What I found in My Sweet Audrina was something terrifying, engrossing, and very psychologically complex; to the point of having teh story stay with me long after I finished the last page.

Audrina Whitefern is a young girl who doesn't go to school, has no friends, and is constantly under the watchful eye of her overprotective father. Secondly, Audrina is not the first young girl in the Whitefern family by such a pretty name--but the second, after her older sister, the much reverred "First Audrina" was killed in the woods near their home.

Everyone in the family knows the secret surrounding the First Audrina' death. In addition to the second Audrina and her father, they are also joined by her mother, aunt, and cousin Vera. Each of them also knows the secret, something so horrifying and unbelievable you won't want to be spoiled until you discover it for yourself.

And as the second Audrina begins to question her past, her life, and the strange happenings around their gloomy victorian mansion, the secret is unveiled, and nothing will ever be the same. This tale of stifling parental love, rape and abuse, and lies and deceit all comes together in the end, leaving the reader with a haunting conclusion that ensures the legacy of Whitefern will continue.