Okay. Fine. I’ll talk about V.C. Andrews

April Walsh
5 min readAug 8, 2019

I mean, someone has to!

So it looks like Lifetime is committing to this V.C. Andrews thing. Having adapted Flowers in the Attic and the rest of The Dollanganger Saga, then My Sweet Audrina, they’re now in the middle of making The Casteel Saga into a heavily-pimped summer movie event and it feels like no one is here for it. Except me.

I am here for every kitschy, soapy second of it. I know what we’re in for, having watched the previously mentioned adaptations. Granted, it’s been a good decade or so since I read The Casteel Saga, but I have a basic idea of what’s coming and, boy oh boy, is this gonna be some quality trash!

When I was a young thing, there was a certain cathartic thrill to reading V.C. Andrews novels. There was something about the Southern Gothic tragedy of it all. Every time our suffering protagonist seems to be on the cusp of contentment, something ruins it.

I could look up from a days-long reading binge and suddenly my family looked much more functional and my blue collar, latchkey life with a single father was a blessedly peaceful existence. Being rich and slender and beautiful would be nice, sure, but you know what happens then? Do you?Every man you meet becomes immediately obsessed with you (even blood relations), every female is out to destroy you, and your not-like-other-girls…

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April Walsh

Professional singer. Amateur writer. Accomplished nerd.