It was as if V. C. Andrews sold the "Flowers in the Attic" rights to Disney Channel. Yeah, that bad.

Fans don't get too high of hopes. This isn't from Christopher's POV, not really. You relive the first half of Flowers In The Attic via his journal entries, and you don't really learn anything new. The main character is the girl who finds his journal in the rubble of Foxworth Hall.

To see my whole review on this novel, please go here: http://www.memyshelfandi.com/2014/10/book-review-christopher-diary-secrets.html

I liked Kristen, her dad, and Kane. But I didn’t learn a single thing about the Dollanganger family that I didn’t already know from the first books. I thought Christopher’s diary would reveal some bigger secret or something. I’m going on to the next one because I’m interested in seeing what happens with Kristen and Kane... but that’s the only reason.

Moving forward in the Flowers in the Attic series, the 6th book, written by Andrew's ghostwriter from her ideas, is amazing. Kristin had no idea what she had when she found Christopher's diary. To know it from Chris's side is amazing and has sucked me in completely!

I am pleased that I got a glimpse of how Christopher saw things.

Raking back over Flowers in the Attic wasn't my favorite thing. I was hoping for something fresh. Getting Christopher's POV on it was interesting, but Kristin's sudden obsession with it and how she was secluding herself just wasn't believable for me. She acted like the diary was about to be ripped out of her hands and it was a life line. I just couldn't get into this. About the only thing that kept me going was Christopher.

Full Review:
https://beentherereadthat.blog/2018/08/23/the-past-never-stays-buried-christophers-diary-secrets-of-foxworth-a-book-review/

I have a bit of an emotional connection to the Dollanganger / Flowers in the Attic series. My sweet little old white haired church going perfect everyone in town loved her grandmother had loaned me her copies of the books when I was in the sixth grade. It was the first adult book series I’d read. Looking back, I’m not sure she’d ever gotten around to reading them herself or she might not have loaned them to me. I mean it’s possible she just found me so mature that she trusted me with them but they would have been pretty risqué for such a sweet old lady to give a kid. My grandma got sick not long after that and so her sharing those shocking books with me was one of my last non doctor and then non hospital related memories. I ended up keeping those books for decades before they finally just got worn out. Loaned out. Lost. Etc. I continued to read VC Andrews and her ghost writer until I just got too bored with the stories and finally too busy for books. Fast forward to now. I have time again. This series is making a come back thanks to the Lifetime movies and I saw pre-orders for this part of the series - I immediately ordered the two books that were available and was more than a little excited about their release. Oops. That will teach me to get all nostalgic. Sometimes we should just let a good thing be.

Awkward awkward awkward dialog! Example: a teen girl has just canceled plans with her friend, so this phone chat ensues:
"Oh. Well, what about Kane and Stanley? We were supposed to hang out with them, me with Stanley and you with Kane. He's expecting you.”
"I never said for sure, and he was quite offhanded about it.”
"Well you never said no, and I know you liked him before when we were out. Emily Grace told me her brother told her Kane said he thinks you've grown into a pretty girl."

Teen girl phone chats in my day didn’t sound so stiff in my day and I don’t think they do today.

The actual Christopher diary part is pretty awkward too. One part mentions not writing for awhile because they were put in an attic then immediately goes on to say he's been writing by the moonlight so as not to bother his sisters and brother.

There seems to be little proofreading. "He said he was glad you father died." You father? This is a professional book, not an indie so I expect better.

I got to 10% remaining when I was ready for bed. This usually is a time for “Oh what the heck, who needs sleep, let’s see what happens”. I didn’t care. I put the book down and told myself maybe I’d read it tomorrow night before bed. I just wasn’t eager to find out where we were going and it wasn’t because I had an idea of how Christopher’s diary would end — it was because I didn’t care about the entire story (which is that of a “distant relative” teenage girl who has found and is reading Christopher’s diary). Multiple points of view could be interesting if done well. Future generations learning of the stories and turning them into legends could be interesting if done well. This was simply not done well. I have canceled my pre-order of the second book in the Christopher’s Diary series. There is simply nothing here worth recommending. If you haven’t read the original series, go read that. If you have, don’t bother with this, it really just feels like an attempt to milk the fans of more money.

Two stars just because right at the very end it started to pretend there might be a story going forward, but not enough to make me care.

Christopher's perspective is proper boring. I found myself speed reading through most of the book, especially the diary parts. I was somewhat intrigued by the ending and would like to read the next book as this one ended on a bit of a cliff hanger...or at least, just as it was starting to get interesting. It's an average book with none of the original VC Andrews sparkle.

At least it wasn't as horribly boring as the other one I read...