Review: Petals on the Wind

I finally finished the second installment in the Dollanganger series, Petals on the Wind by V. C. Andrews. I actually finished it a week ago but I've been at such a loss of words about it. When I ended this book, I was left wondering, what did I just read?

For those that don't have a clue who the Dollanganger's are, please stop everything that you are doing immediately and go read Flowers in the Attic (I promise that you won't be disappointed). For those that have read Flowers, Petals is the next part - in which the surviving kids escape the attic and are en route to Florida by bus. Before they even get out of South Carolina, however, they are forced to get off the bus and seek out a doctor, because Carrie is terribly sick from arsenic poisoning. They find their doctor, Dr. Paul, who nurses Carrie back to health and ultimately takes all three of the kids as his wards. This is where the story takes a turn for the interesting...

At this point, Carrie is of reasonable health, and struggles with her image. Cathy and Chris struggle with their feelings towards each other. Cathy is seeking revenge on her mother and grandmother. Chris would rather move on with their lives, start fresh and become a doctor. Relationships (many of which were completely inappropriate, in my opinion) pursue amongst each other, there are engagements, marriages, several more deaths, and plenty of heartache. This was the ultimate soap opera of soap operas! If you could think of the absolute impossible, then V. C. Andrews went 100 steps beyond that and wrote about it.

Overall, this book was just a mental mind screw. For all the psychologists/psychiatrists out there, you will have a field day with this book - some themes of this book were incest, the influence of money, the importance of health, and how one's childhood significantly affects their adulthood. I already purchased the next book in the series, If There Be Thorns, but I need a break - this book was wayyyyy too heavy for me.

Until we read again...