V. C. Andrews

Chris and Cathy made such a loving home for fourteen-year-old Jory — so handsome, so gentle. And for Bart,who had such a dazzling imagination for a nine year old.
Then the lights came on in the house next door. Soon the Old Lady in Black was there, watching them, guarded by her strange old butler. Soon she had Bart over for cookies and ice cream and asked him to call her "Grandmother".

And soon Bart's transformation began...

Fed by the hint of terrible things about his mother and father...leading him into shocking acts of violence.

Now while this little boy trembles on the edge of madness, his anguished parents await the climax to a horror that flowered in an attic long ago, a horror whose thorns are still wet with blood, still tipped with fire.
--back cover

If There Be Thorns

V.C. Andrews

Now a major Lifetime movie event—Book Three of the Dollanganger series that began with Flowers in the Attic—the novel of forbidden love that captured the world’s imagination and earned V.C. Andrews a fiercely devoted fanbase. They hide the shocking truth to protect their children. But someone who knows their dark secret is watching. Christopher and Cathy have made a loving home for their handsome and talented teenager Jory, their imaginative nine-year-old Bart, and a sweet baby daughter. Then an elderly woman and her strange butler move in next door. The Old Woman in Black watches from her window, lures lonely Bart inside with cookies and ice cream, and asks him to call her “grandmother.” Slowly Bart transforms, each visit pushing him closer to the edge of madness and violence, while his anguished parents can only watch. For Cathy and Chris, the horrors of the past have come home…and everything they love may soon be torn from them.

Ashley J Brown

It took me forever to get through this book. I read the first two in the series fairly fast within a week or two. The others moved smoothly this one crawled. I hated it until more then half way through. If I wasn't so invested in the series I may have never finished. If you like me have gotten into this series and are looking into this book keep reading. It's worth it.

Spoilers ahead.
Looking back at it as a whole it wasn't awful there were things I liked.
I kind of liked that the narrator was no longer Cathy. It was nice to see her and Chris through someone else's eyes. With that though I had a very hard time with Bart. In my opinion he was so repetitive. It made me dread his chapters and almost scrap the whole book.
I liked the events that happen just not always how long it took to getting them. The kids finding out that their parents (mom and step dad) are in fact siblings, Cindy coming into the family, Cathy no longer dancing,some peace being found within Corrine, and my favorite thing from the whole book Cathy writing what I imagine to be the first book.

Nikki Sojkowski

(view spoiler)[Soooooo Cathy and Chris become a couple and raise Cathy's 2 kids. Then their mother moves in next door and has the boys come and visit her. John Amos starts teaching the youngest son, Bart about his grandfather and really messes the kid up. To the point where Bart starts degrading women too and almost kills his mother and grandmother. The truth of Cathy and Chris's relationship is revealed to the disgust of their kids who eventually forgive them, annnnd nothing really changes. Their mother dies, Cathy finally forgives the mother even though she shouldn't, and the sister and brother go back to their relationship. Super creepy. (hide spoiler)]

Jessica 

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  “You can trust a few some of the time, and most none of the time. Feel lucky if you have even one to trust all of the time.”


Looking back, I'm pretty sure it was fate that I would dislike If There Be Thorns. It lacks the same haunting feeling that Flowers in the Attic and even Petals on the Wind possessed. There is not a lot to be enthralled by, really. And its pacing is dreadfully dull. If I thought that Petals on the Wind felt as if it were penned by another author entirely, If There Be Thorns feels even more as such.

If There Be Thorns is very much in the same Gothic horror vein. It holds a different feeling of terror than the previous two novels in the Dollanganger Saga. While Flowers in the Attic was purely a page turner, that had you gripped and internally yelling in unease, and Petals on the Wind held the similar pace and tone to a classic soap opera, If There Be Thorns develops so slowly I could barely stand it. 

Perhaps this is due entirely to the shift in narration from Cathy, over to her young sons, Bart and Jory. Yet, If There Be Thorns feels jilted by its own lack of a spark. It had a lot going on for it that should have felt as indulgent as it was creepy, but it never quite caught up with itself. In truth, it seemed to me that If There Be Thorns was meant to be something bigger than what it actually was, which leaves me feeling highly underwhelmed. 

The bad news is that I cared very little for Bart and Jory's childhood or any of the plotlines that were featured in If There Be Thorns. (Save the little glimmers of Corrine's attempt at redemption and John Amos general villainy.) 

Everything felt unnecessary and tiring. So much of me was unable to buy anything in If There Be Thorns. Bart felt almost comically the bad seed, whereas Jory lacked much personality beyond his golden boy archetypes. In the end, both fell incredibly flat. Cindy was too young to care about (I will say that I love Cindy in the final book of the series, though) and both Cathy and Chris felt like watered down versions of who they are. 

Ultimately, the story felt lacking.

This isn't to say there weren't good things to be found in If There Be Thorns. I thought the villain, the frame up they attempted, and the conclusion to the story, felt very true-to-the-series. If the story had been paced differently, and the character's been developed further, and it had been told from Cathy or Chris' point of view, I would have probably 'enjoyed' (again, I won't ever say I've enjoyed this series in the simplest of terms) If There Be Thorns. 

Alas, I didn't.

If There Be Thorns

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