Review: The Woman Beyond the Attic by Andrew Neiderman

 

 Like so many other Gen Xers, I cut my Gothic horror-loving teeth on the novels of VC Andrews. They were wildly inappropriate due to my age, but I guess that was one of the perks of growing up in the 1980s: my parents were never around to monitor my reading habits. I read Flowers in the Attic so many times the original keyhole book cover fell off. I eagerly devoured each Dollanger series book, fell in love with the Casteel series when it came out, and don’t even get me started about My Sweet Audrina. I wanted to know more about Ms. Andrews and what inspired her to create these decadent, yet disturbing stories.

Told in chronological order, after a preface from Neiderman stating how he was chosen to continue the literary works of Andrews after her untimely death, the book starts from Andrews’ early childhood in Virginia leading up to the injury that would plague her for the rest of her life. Interviews with her surviving relatives and letters written by Andrews herself detail how her life became a series of hospitalizations following the accident, and how it led to her becoming totally dependent upon her mother for care. VC often had only her mother for companionship and needed the use of a wheelchair for the rest of her life, leading her to a life of isolation, all culminating in a highly successful writing career in the last years of her life.

That sounds like a thorough biography, right? That’s where you’d be wrong. This was not the work of someone who is a biographer or has spent much time writing non-fiction. Neiderman seemed to regurgitate the same information from the same two sources. Personally, his tendency to repeatedly bring up how innocent and virginal, and how beautiful VC was, really unsettled me.

I really wanted to like and enjoy The Woman Beyond the Attic, but unfortunately, my hopes exceeded the final product. This book could have been better if any other biographer had been given access to Andrews’ papers and to her family for interviews.

 

2/5 Stars

 Thanks to #NetGalley and #GalleryBooks for providing me a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.