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A review by hisghoulfriday
Christopher's Diary: Secrets of Foxworth by V.C. Andrews
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Secrets of Foxworth takes us on the not so exciting journey of Kristin, a distant relative of the Foxworths. She goes to the construction site of Foxworth Hall, which has caught fire again, there she finds Chris' diary.
I spoke too soon about the writing being good. It's a case of male author trying to write a 2014 teenage girlie, and being a teenage girlie in 2014 the writing comes of as super cringey and out of touch. We have teens with cellphones that actually call people instead of text (I didn't even have a cellphone in high school, so I used my iPod to text my friends since they didn't have cell minutes), the internet non-existant, other than one mention of Facebook, and this could've been really well executed, I was hoping Kristin would stumble upon a Foxworth conspiracy theory tumblr blog. Random words like "bluetooth" were thrown around in an attempt to seem hip.
The plot is boring. Chris' diary entries don't really add anything new to the series, and we also got Kristin's analysis of the diary entries, which were already things we knew. The subplot follows Kristin's teenage life and it's so dull (and that's coming from me, a former lame teenager). She even lands a rich boyfriend and even he is lame. They host a party together while his parents are away, and instead of throwing an epic rager, they instead had a middle school dance kinda party (these teens are 16). A few of the teens leave understandably early, and at the end of the party Kristin and her boyfriend tell each other that it was a success (👀 sure Jan). By the end of the book Kristin is supposed to be unhinged but it she just comes off as even more lame.
The book does have more of a YA feel to it than the other books in the series, however it's moved away from the gothic horror aspect again. It's turned into a family friendly version of FITA. We've got teens following the rules, the WTF moments in Flowers in the Attic have been scrubbed or given Kristin's useless explanation.
In the next book Kristin starts doing Cathy and Chris reenactments with her rich boyfriend. I'm hoping they'll go viral on Vine or something since this is supposed to be modern day 2015.
I spoke too soon about the writing being good. It's a case of male author trying to write a 2014 teenage girlie, and being a teenage girlie in 2014 the writing comes of as super cringey and out of touch. We have teens with cellphones that actually call people instead of text (I didn't even have a cellphone in high school, so I used my iPod to text my friends since they didn't have cell minutes), the internet non-existant, other than one mention of Facebook, and this could've been really well executed, I was hoping Kristin would stumble upon a Foxworth conspiracy theory tumblr blog. Random words like "bluetooth" were thrown around in an attempt to seem hip.
The plot is boring. Chris' diary entries don't really add anything new to the series, and we also got Kristin's analysis of the diary entries, which were already things we knew. The subplot follows Kristin's teenage life and it's so dull (and that's coming from me, a former lame teenager). She even lands a rich boyfriend and even he is lame. They host a party together while his parents are away, and instead of throwing an epic rager, they instead had a middle school dance kinda party (these teens are 16). A few of the teens leave understandably early, and at the end of the party Kristin and her boyfriend tell each other that it was a success (👀 sure Jan). By the end of the book Kristin is supposed to be unhinged but it she just comes off as even more lame.
The book does have more of a YA feel to it than the other books in the series, however it's moved away from the gothic horror aspect again. It's turned into a family friendly version of FITA. We've got teens following the rules, the WTF moments in Flowers in the Attic have been scrubbed or given Kristin's useless explanation.
In the next book Kristin starts doing Cathy and Chris reenactments with her rich boyfriend. I'm hoping they'll go viral on Vine or something since this is supposed to be modern day 2015.