It was somewhat uncomfortable and somewhat superficial to read a biography of a woman written by a man who was completely unknown to her. The excerpts from communications and interviews with her family and loved ones were wonderful insights into who she was as a person. I especially loved her note about how Alfred Hitchcock should spend in his grave for the movie psycho.
The insight into Andrews' disability and its impact on her relationships, especially that between her and her mother was unexpected and very interesting to read. I wasn't sure what her life story is going to be, knowing that many of her books center around incest and taboo desires. To learn that she was most likely a virgin and used her writing as a means of escape made sense and confuses at the same time. Her vocabulary and some of the scenarios discussed are childlike in the way she gives code names to things like foreplay and seduction, and has lust start to be expressed at pubescent bodies. The exploration of the adolescent psyche makes sense in some of her novels, but some like the excerpt at the end of the biography with her unfinished manuscript for what would have been a novel titled The Obsessed center a father's infatuation with his daughter's physical development and her devotion to himself. Her writing is enrapturing, but the content reads like it's meant to thrill by just being; like it's the authors only way to express and process some sort of sexuality. That very well may have been the case. Her ability to write such uncomfortable topics whilst maintaining a close relationship with her family made me want more of their insight into her writing and their opinions on what she wrote. Just under a third of this book was not written by Andrew Neiderman. It was the first eight chapters of an unfinished book Andrews had been writing at the time of her death, followed by some shorter works. It feels like Neiderman fell somewhat short in writing this biography. Certain points were reiterated repeatedly where other parts of her life were brushed aside. Prior to reading this I had not read anything written by VC Andrews. I'm now very tempted to read her science fiction novel.