If There be Thorns Author:V.C. Andrews 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 i... more »n 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.« less
Although it has been some time since I read this series, I remember I couldn't put it down. It keeps you going. My mother even got hooked - she has collected every book by V. C. Andrews, and is waiting for more!
I read this entire series as a young teenager. At the time I found them thrilling but disturbing. I've never read anything else V.C. Andrews has done -- I never felt the urge. But with this series, something about it captivated me and I ended up reading them all. I enjoyed them when I read them (which was a couple of times; a few years inbetween readings), I truly did. But now, they're a little too creepy for me (and I'm a gore and blood horror fan!). I suppose they're marketed for the pre-teen and teenage crowd, but I wouldn't consider them appropriate for a younger, more impressionable age group (incest aside, there are other equally disturbing issues in these books). But for older teens or adults who enjoy very strange and darker type stories, this whole series is for you.
I read this entire series as a young teenager. At the time I found them thrilling but disturbing. I've never read anything else V.C. Andrews has done -- I never felt the urge. But with this series, something about it captivated me and I ended up reading them all. I enjoyed them when I read them (which was a couple of times; a few years inbetween readings), I truly did. But now, they're a little too creepy for me (and I'm a gore and blood horror fan!). I suppose they're marketed for the pre-teen and teenage crowd, but I wouldn't consider them appropriate for a younger, more impressionable age group (incest aside, there are other equally disturbing issues in these books). But for older teens or adults who enjoy very strange and darker type stories, this whole series is for you.
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.