freshlybakedbread's reviews
259 reviews

anticlimactic 

pretty insane that vc andrews wrote about the psychology and making of an incel even back in the 1970s/80s; the grooming and manipulation of a vulnerable and insecure child into radicalism was pretty brutal to read. Even more brutal is Bart's narrative voice as it is ridiculously annoying. I missed Cathy's voice sooo bad

The other reviews for this book are annoying and complain about Cathy's bad decisions, ignore them 

This is an essential sequel in the sense that it truly fleshes out and demonstrates the themes that were introduced in Flowers in the Attic, namely the cyclical nature of familial trauma, which the gothic genre is especially attuned to.

I do have to admit the first and particularly the second section are a bit of a slog to get through. Cathy's teenage and young 20s voice is obviously annoying and misguided. These first two acts are more heavy on the soap drama elements and I was pining for the dark gothic aspects I loved from the first book. 

Thankfully the third act kicks it up a notch and the narrative returns to the gothic fairytale structure that was absolutely batshit and worth the slog through the silly second act. We witness Cathy's transformation fuelled by her quest for revenge and unwillingness to free herself from the past. The doll/doppelganger motif (evident in their fashioned 'Dollanganger' surnames) grows to light. 

Virginia Andrews has a very episodic method of writing which keeps you reading onto the next chapter in the similar vein to a television show, and Cathy becoming absolutely unhinged is delicious and horrifying to read through. Rotten entertainment I love it

Had to return to the library; it was an interesting subject but a lot of scientific terms that I struggled to comprehend, would've really appreciated diagrams to assist the descriptions and the information more broke up so that it could be processed a little easier 

Awful. The voice of this novel is nothing more than a wanker, the type of pretentious wanker who thinks they're so above and cooler than everyone around them, the type of wanker I would definitely avoid at a party. I came in expecting an encapsulation or at least a reflection on the 90s rave and drug scene. The heightened emotions, meeting both the most horrible and the most beautiful people, dancing until your feet bleed, high highs and low lows. The psychological and political reasons why someone would be fuelled towards this euphoric self annihilation. Feeling the sun on your face walking home in the morning passing commuters on their way to work. I found nothing remotely relatable to my own party experiences. The only description this guy can seem to pull out of his ass on anything is either 'cool' or 'dope'. The random analyses of writing culture or whatever were painfully boring and irrelevant, misogyny was rife, and the disjointed narrative and prose was just annoying. No semblance of lucidity and coherence until the last 50 pages. Fuck this guy. 

Carrington's short fairytales and stories in this collection complement her artworks with her usual blend of Surrealist elements such as lush natural landscapes invoked with rich senses, pagan symbolism, dream logic, and peeking behind the artificial curtain of human society to see the dark, carnal chaos behind. Carrington pays ode to her fascination with Mexican culture as well. 

Unfortunately, like many texts trying to evoke the illogical and elusive pattern of dreams, this also falls into the more confusing and ill-reading camp. Even if I tried to let go of my need for structured narrative and following the flow of the writing , it was still more like a string of images messily tied together. 

I'm going to assume most people interested in this book are already familiar with Carrington's paintings, and the vivid singular images found in these stories do go hand in hand with her art. However I would say image-based are Carrington's strengths rather than word-based.

Don't go into this expecting the surrealist fantasies of Dali's paintings or even a significant plot; this follows the Surrealist ideals from the idea of surrealism as a way of changing your perspective on the world and daily existence. Breton grapples with the age-old creative struggle of portraying a fully realised portrait of a person, so instead goes for snapshots of their interactions and walks around Paris where Nadja's personality and passions occasionally burst through to him. The noted quotes and collected drawings of her's are glimpses of her own creative inspirations; this book just made me wish she could've had a chance to be an artist such as Breton and the company they kept.