"Seeds of Yesterday" is the final saga of Cathy and Chris from the "Flowers in the Attic" series and the characters have come full circle in this novel. It is now many years after the end of "If There Be Thorns". Cathy is fifty-two and Chris is fifty-four. Jory has grown up to marry his childhood sweetheart, Melodie, and both have become successful dancers.
Corinne, Cathy and Chris' mother, has left Bart the rebuilt Foxworth Hall, which Bart plans to reopen and make the grandest home in Virginia. Cathy and Chris have arrived, to live once again, forty years later, in Foxworth Hall. You would think they would immediately realize that this may not be the best idea, if for no other reason that their mental health, but no, they come for a fairly long visit. Jory and Melodie come for a visit, along with Cindy (Chris and Cathy's adopted daughter from "Thorns") and their long presumed dead Uncle Joel Foxworth shows up - - much as John Amos Jackson did in "Thorns".
Joel's only purpose seems to be to spout off Malcolm-like pseudo-religious vitrol - - why no one tells him to pack his bags and get the hell out is beyond me. Although this story is told again from the perspective of Cathy, and feels much more comfortable than the narrative of "Thorns", Bart again seems depraved and warped. It's hard to have sympathy for a character that seems so unredeemable. Chris and Cathy's love story continues and is as bittersweet and tender as ever.
His eventual anguish over being paralyzed, losing his career and eventually his wife are the only parts of this story that ring true. The rest of the story feels forced and the characters very one dimensional. Can Joel be any more like the Grandmother? Can Cindy be any more like a young Corinne or Cathy?
Even Jory and Melodie have blond twins, a boy and a girl - - giving us visions of Cory and Carrie. Reading the story you wonder how much grief and anguish one family can take. And why everyone seems to be stepping around Bart and making excuses for him.
You get to the point where you wish Chris or Cathy would just knock his lights out. This book is worthy to read as a conclusion to the Dollanganger saga - - although the ending is a bit rushed and Chris and Cathy's demises are tragically sad. Definitely does not compare to "Flowers" or "Petals" but as good as, if not slightly better than, "Thorns".
The story begins fifteen years after the events in If There Be Thorns. Cathy and Chris arrive at the home of their son, Bart, which is oddly an exact replica of Foxworth Hall to celebrate Bart's twenty-fifth birthday. They meet a man named Joel, who is their uncle, Corrine's brother, who was long thought killed in an avalanche. Joel explains that he was taken to a monastery to recover. He contacted Bart after learning of Corrine's death and now works as the head butler at Bart's request. Joel gives Bart bad information about God and punishment.
Bart looks at Joel as a father figure; a fact that troubles Cathy greatly. Bart is still bitter towards his mother and uncle for their incestuous relationship, so their stay is not pleasant. He has grown into a handsome young man, but is extremely jealous, power hungry and bitter that Chris is the guardian of his money until his twenty-fifth birthday. The one I just read and this one just feel a little bit connected. Jory is in a horrible accident when he's dancing at his brother's birthday party. They take him to the hospital and learn that he can never walk again.
He will be paralyzed from the waist down for his whole life. And everything around him seems to be crashing down. It's extremely difficult but without dancing he thinks there's no purpose for him in the world. She is extremely upset that her husband can no longer use his legs for dancing. She thinks that if he's handicapped what kind of husband would he be? She didn't think he woukd be able to raise a baby.
If something ever happened to the boy I loved I would stay by his side the entire time. I wouldn't care if he could no longer walk. And while he's in the hospital and trying to get through his pain from his loss, she sleeps with his brother. She is then convinced that she's madly in love with him.
So yeah she's just horrible but she doesn't end up staying with Bart the whole time. Long story short when Melodie has her baby it's twins. She leaves Jory completely and goes off to start her career of dancing again. As V.C. Andrews brings this highly controversial series to a close, she does so with a bang for her fans.
While the series remains part of the 'young adult horror' genre, the plots have held my attention and not been too corny. Bart plays a central role in this piece, if only because he is tapping into the religious and moralistic code left by his great-grandfather and Foxworth patriarch, Malcolm. This young man speaks of a world of sin and duplicity, then rushes off to act in such a way that the reader is left to scratch their head. With no one safe from his 'fire and brimstone' sentiments, characters must dodge his comments on most anything while living under the roof of his exceptional mansion. Jory is determined to make something of himself and be the father he has dreamed he could be, even if everyone is discounting him. Chris and Cathy, long the central characters in the series, have grown closer throughout, learning the pitfalls of their romantic decision as well as seeing the children they raised make choices of their own.
With many struggles found in more traditional family units, V.C. Andrews tosses struggle and joy at this two, as she has done throughout the series. With plots and tangential storylines throughout, Andrews thickens the plot until the very end, leaving the reader to wonder what is around the corner for them in this unpredictable series. With many of the plot lines tied off—some in quite drastic ways—it would seem there is little else to know. However, Andrews is not quite done with this series, as she leaves the dedicated reader to wonder how things got started all those years ago.
One final novel, a prequel, takes the story back to the beginning, long before there were children—or flowers—in any attic. I think we'll head there to see what it is all about. Bart is still bitter towards his mother and father for their incestuous relationship, so their stay is not pleasant. He has grown into a handsome young man, but is extremely jealous, power hungry and bitter that Chris is the guardian of his money until his thirty-fifth birthday.
Several hours pass before the police arrive to inform the family of Chris' accident and death. This causes Bart to realize his wrongdoings and how he has pushed people away. He realizes his love for Cindy and confesses to her when she comes home for Chris' funeral. Bart remorsefully gives a moving eulogy at Chris' funeral and is thankful to Chris for raising him when he did not need to. In the end, Cathy reveals that her children led successful lives away from Foxworth Hall.
Jory thrives in his recovery, has married Toni, and they are raising the twins and expecting a child together. Bart becomes a televangelist and marries Cindy. However, Cathy chooses to remain at Foxworth Hall as she continues to mourn the loss of her beloved Chris. One day, she goes up to the attic, sits by a window and, as she envisions yellow paper flowers, there is an implication that she had died of a broken heart. Bart's brother Jory visits and eventually moves in with his wife. Jory, who is almost thirty, has been married to Melodie, his childhood sweetheart and ballet partner, for nine years.
Soon after their arrival, they announce that Melodie is pregnant. Bart is jealous of Jory and shows an unhealthy interest in Melodie. Bart and Jory's sister Cindy, who is now sixteen, arrives and it becomes clear that Bart does not like her either. Cathy tries to make the best out of the situation, but any happiness ends when Jory is in an accident, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and unable to dance.
Melodie does not deal well with Jory's disability and withdraws from him. Cathy tries to help Melodie reconnect with Jory, but discovers later that Melodie has turned to Bart for comfort and passion – the two have been having an affair. Cathy is enraged, but when she confronts Bart he says he loves Melodie, and Cathy is unsure what to do. Bart believes Melodie loves him too, but soon realizes it is an empty relationship and he is just a replacement for Jory. Jory finds out about the affair, and although hurt, tries to reconcile with Melodie, but she rejects him.
Melodie goes into labor on Christmas Day, and gives birth to twins, Darren and Deirdre, whom Cathy says resemble her deceased twin brother and sister. Melodie has little interest in the babies, and Cathy cares for them, hoping Melodie has postpartum "blues" and will come around. But Melodie, not wanting to deal with two children and a disabled husband, abandons Jory and the children and moves to New York. This fourth book in the series was predictable and hard to get through. Somehow, the whole family winds up living together again—in a newly renovated Foxworth Hall complete with an attic—and a creepy old guy named Joel who claims to be Cathy's long, lost uncle.
The unstable and ridiculously rude Bart has rebuilt his mother's childhood home because—I don't really know why. I guess because he's just crazy and enjoys torturing his family. Jory and his pregnant wife, Melody, who are now famous dancers, Chris and Cathy, and Cindy all come home.
The entire time they do nothing but fight and insult each other. As you can guess, nothing good comes of it. The end is bittersweet; however, when Jory finally finds true love with someone new, and Cathy dies in the very attic, she fought so hard to escape from when she was a child. Bart and Jory's sister Cindy, who is now sixteen, arrive and it becomes clear that Bart does not like her either.
The saga of the tormented Dollangangers comes to an end in this Lifetime Original Movie based on the novels of V.C. Andrews, in which the family continues to coexist miserably. Born on June 6, 1924 in Portsmouth, Va., Virginia Cleo ("V. C.") Andrews was one of three children of William Henry and Lillian Lilnora. Andrews worked as a commercial fashion and portrait artist for a time.
However, after her father's death in the late 1960s and the family's subsequent move to Manchester, Mo, she began what she described as "closet" writing. It was her publisher's decision to use the initials V. C. This was done for the purpose of neutralizing her gender so as to sell to adult male audiences; the common belief was that men did not like to read books by women writers. Andrews eventually became a full-time writer.
Her first novel was a science fiction fantasy entitled The Gods of the Green Mountains, published in 1972. In 1980, she published the bestseller Flowers in the Attic, followed by Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows; all of which comprise the Dollanganger Series. Andrews died of breast cancer on December 19, 1986, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. After her death, her family hired a ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman, to finish the manuscripts she had started.
He would complete the next two novels, Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts, and they were published soon after. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V. C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by Andrews herself. She left a legacy of books that have been sold worldwide and translated into 13 foreign languages. The saga of the tormented Dollanganger family comes to an end in SEEDS OF YESTERDAY, based on the fourth and final book in the V.C. Cindy returns for another visit and tells Cathy that she ran into Melodie in New York. Melodie had remarried immediately after her divorce from Jory was final and resumed her dancing career.
Bart builds a chapel, in which he commands the family to attend Sunday sermons, presided over by Joel. Cathy and Chris eventually become disgusted by the "fire and brimstone" sermons and tell Bart that they will no longer attend. Bart secretly starts bringing the twins to the chapel, which Cathy overhears. She confronts Bart, and tells him to leave the twins alone, also telling Toni never to let them out of her sight, unless she knows they are with Jory.
After again catching Bart bringing the twins to the chapel, Cathy decides it is time to leave, after two years in Bart's home. Chris agrees it is time to leave and to take Jory, Cindy, and the twins with them. Cathy tells Bart of her plans, and that while she loves him, she cannot be around the kind of person he has become. We soon find out that Melodie is pregnant, but the happiness soon dies when Jory gets into an accident leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Melodie withdraws from Jory and finds solace in Bart and the two begin an affair, which Bart soon realizes is an empty relationship and he is just a replacement for Jory. Melodie goes into labor on Christmas Day, although she tells no one and ends up having twins Deirdre and Darren who are said by Cathy to resemble her twin brother and sister. The saga of the tormented Dollanganger family comes to an end in the film Seeds of Yesterday.
The family continues to coexist miserably as we follow Cathy's two adult sons, half-brothers with little in common. Their lives are fueled by deeply troubled relationships, dark secrets and misfortune that come to a head in a way that will haunt the family and its progeny forever. As with the other movies in this series and the books themselves, the whole thing is a trashy hoot. Granted, the film's just giving its audience what it wants; without the creepy-yet-titillating incest angle, Flowers in the Attic would be just another gothic horror novel.
The younger, "refill" characters in Seeds are clearly following the family pattern, with Cindy exclaiming. "When did Bart get so effing hot?" the moment she lays eyes on her adopted brother, and he returns the favor by spying on her while she swims in her bikini. The saga of the tormented Dollangangers comes to an end in "Seeds of Yesterday," in which the family continues to coexist miserably.
