If There Be Thorns - Review

                                                       If There Be Thorns
                                                           V.C. Andrews




     In the 3rd installment of V.C. Andrews' Dollanganger Series, the central plot focuses around Cathy's life now that she is an adult with children. Although Cathy is still a main character, Andrews never tell the story from her point of view. Andrews writes from the perspective of J

Jory, a fourteen-year-old boy who whishes to follow in his mother's and late father's footsteps and become a well known dancer, and Bart, a ten-year-old boy with an active imagination who seems to be blamed for everything.

      Although telling the story from the children's point of view is an unique way of seeing how certain events affect someone other than Cathy, it caused some areas of the book to seem slow. Some parts of the book focused on Bart imagining that he was hunting in his backyard or pretending to be a dog. These events seem strange at first, but after a while, seem repetitive and quickly lose your interest. Other areas include Jory and Cathy dancing or practicing in there home.

If There Be Thorns book cover
Amazon Summary

     Another area in which the book could have been improved was how little recap they gave you from the last novel. In some stories, no recap is necessary. But in If There Be Thorns, you must remember a large amount of events from Petals on the Wind. For example you must remember that Cathy has been married four times; to Julian Marquet, Bartholomew Winslow, and Dr. Paul Sheffield, and Chris Dollanganger. Something else to keep in mind is that Julian, Bartholomew, and Paul have all died in various ways, Julian by car accident, Bartholomew by a house fire, and Paul by a heart attack. But what makes it more confusing is the situation with the children. Jory was the son of Julian and Bart was the son of Bartholomew but believed he was the son of Paul. Overall, I would not suggest reading this book before reading the first two due to the lack of information given of the other two.

      Other than some confusing areas and some slow areas, I would highly suggest this series and this book. Although some areas in the plot did not have a lot of action, I felt they were important to the reader's comprehension and to the plot nonetheless. If you enjoy horror and suspense, you may enjoy the Dollanganger Series.

      The channel Lifetime will also be creating a television show based off of this book later this year.

                                                Lifetime Cast List 

If There Be Thorns

                                                      If There Be Thorns by V.C. Andrews


Although the name sounds like a cheesy pirate romance novel, I can guarantee you that it is not. So far, this book is very dark. In the third book in the Flowers in the Attic series , we are introduced to Cathy's two children, Jory and Bart. Jory aspires to be a famous ballet dancer and become as great as his late father was. Bart on the other hand, doesn't know what he wants to do. He is only a child with an active imagination. Cowboys, dragons, and adventure fill his thoughts. It sounds normal, right? Well... not exactly. Bart has a condition where his nerve endings don't reach his skin, so he can't feel pain. The boy squishes bugs, hates tears and weak people, and wants one thing- to feel normal. Bart seems to have a lack of empathy towards other living creatures, which leads to a question. Can the lack of pain be one cause of sociopathy? A sociopath is determined by multiple things, some that Bart shows throughout the story so far. One characteristic of a sociopath is if the person lies or makes outlandish untruthful statements. More than once, someone has found a dead cat or animal buried in the yard by Bart who only says, "Last night, a tiger attacked me". This can lead the readers to think that he is making up the story about the tiger, and didn't want to be blamed about the cat's death. Another sign of a sociopath is the inability to feel guilt. Bart does some horrible things to those around him, but he never once apologizes or feels guilty from when we are reading from his point to view. Does his lack of pain cause him to feel less empathy for others?  Although he wishes to feel "normal", would he be able to because of his outlandish lies and his manipulating others? Although, the book has not connected Bart's medical condition to his behavior so far, it may be something to look into or expect in the novel later.