Good fucking lord! Finishing this almost killed me.

Um...I almost gave this five stars because I love V.C. and her trashy, soap opera books (but, you know, it's not beautifully written or anything so I restrained myself). I must say: I am horrified by the amount of people that I've proudly told I'm reading V.C. again, only to receive a confused or blank look in return. Is V.C. Andrews not required reading for teenagers? And let me tell you, it still holds up for us adults.

It's been a looong time since I last read Heaven, and I was expecting all of these things in this book: (1) at least one dead parent, (2) a wealthy grandparent, (3) a boarding school, (4) a witch (why are you laughing? look at this cover--that lady is crazy-looking), (5) an incestuous relationship with an uncle who doesn't know he's the girl's uncle until it's too late!, (6) somebody to sculpt or paint or be in a cranberry bog (I think those are in other series, maybe?), (7) an adoption, (8) and a bastard child.

So not all of that happened, but it was still pretty darn exciting. And, actually, the writing isn't THAT horrible.

DO NOT start reading the later series from V.C. because those really are horribly written--I think the ghostwriters weren't selected as well, and I think they stopped using V.C.'s actual plots and notes and just started slapping together books using all of the 8 elements I listed above (and probably more). Start out as you should with Flowers in the Attic and go through the series as they were published. I am adding this very helpful link for you sad people that have yet to experience the awesome trashiness that is V.C. Andrews: http://www.completevca.com/index.shtml

Go forth, enjoy, and you're welcome.

Ebbene si, di nuovo la Andrews. Devo confessare che ho un vero e proprio debole per i suoi romanzi, non saprei nemmeno dire il perché. Forse mi piacciono le atmosfere che riesce ad evocare, i suoi personaggi sempre in bilico tra il bene e il male, non so. Il fatto è che ogni tanto adoro  rileggere qualcosa di suo ed ogni volta scopro qualcosa che mi era precedentemente sfuggito.

Il Seme dell' odio, narra le vicende di Heaven, una ragazzina che vive in povertà in una fredda casupola sulle montagne della Virginia, assieme alla sua numerosa famiglia. Alla vigilia del suo decimo compleanno, sua nonna Annie le rivela le sue vere origini: quella che lei chiama mamma, di fatto non è altri che la seconda moglie di suo padre Luke. La sua vera madre si chiamava Angel, di origini nobili e  successivamente defunta dopo averla partorita. La vita di Heaven è molto difficile: il padre non le riserva né attenzione, né affetto, non riesce neppure a guardarla negli occhi in quanto gli ricorda la defunta e adorata prima moglie. Egli suole spendere il poco denaro in suo possesso ubriacandosi, giocando d'azzardo e perdendo tempo con le "ragazze della casa di Shirley". Gli eventi precipitano quando la matrigna esasperata, decide di abbandonare la sua famiglia . E' allora che Heaven si trova a dover fronteggiare una situazione veramente drammatica...

Sulla trama non dirò altro per non rovinare la lettura di quanti si vorranno cimentare. Dirò soltanto che è stata da me sintetizzata al massimo e che riserva molteplici colpi di scena che tengono il lettore incollato al libro fino alla parola fine.


Ricordo gli inverni, quando i rami spogli degli alberi scricchiolavano sinistramente, sferzati dal vento gelido e raschiavano contro la nostra misera capanna abbarbicata sul ripido pendio dei colli del West Virginia
Questa è una storia dura, colpisce per la crudezza con cui l'autrice descrive la vita di questa sfortunata famiglia che sprofonda sempre più nel baratro della miseria. La protagonista cerca di rimanere a galla con la dignità che la contraddistingue anche quando la situazione è veramente disperata. Ciò che più la fa soffrire però, non è il morso della fame o i brividi di freddo ma l'avversione che suo padre sembra nutrire nei suoi confronti. I suoi occhi non si posano mai su di lei e le riserva sempre parole cattive. Heaven cresce con un senso di inadeguatezza nei confronti degli uomini, non pensa di essere all'altezza di nessuno, ne' tantomeno di meritarne l'amore. Si crea nella sua anima un vuoto affettivo che cerca di colmare dando amore alle persone sbagliate e ricevendo da loro in cambio sentimenti contrastanti e distruttivi. In tutto il romanzo aleggia un atmosfera lugubre: il vento, ulula, sferza, scalfisce con la sua forza distruttiva. La Andrews è esperta nel rappresentare con la forza della sua scrittura, i paesaggi, gli stati d'animo e le situazioni,  tutto mixato in un' unica soluzione, che rende la narrazione efficace ed evocativa. Contribuiscono a rendere ancora più cupo il racconto i continui riferimenti religiosi. Dio viene visto non come salvifico ma come punitivo e severo. Heaven subisce il suo giudizio attraverso le parole del sacerdote Wise e vive la sua fede con un misto di senso di colpa e speranza. Ciascun personaggio della storia viene descritto con aspetti ambivalenti; infatti ho riscontrato che nessuno di essi si presenta in maniera monolitica come buono o cattivo. La stessa Heaven è una persona buona, cerca di fare sempre la cosa giusta, ma talvolta è anche capace di un sentimento  di odio accecante che talvolta le limita le capacità di giudizio. Suo padre Luke, invece, rappresenta il cattivo di turno ma è anche toccato da momenti di redenzione, soprattutto alla fine del libro. Rispetto ad altre opere della Andrews, dove man mano che le pagine scorrono, la speranza sembra soccombere sotto i colpi dell'amara sorte, ne Il Seme dell'Odio l'autrice ha cercato di creare un finale dove ciascun personaggio si evolve in maniera positiva.   Un libro scritto in maniera superba da un' autrice maestra nel suo genere. Un romanzo per chi ama le atmosfere cupe, un mystery gotico che spiazza e tormenta, anche quando è terminato.

Buona Lettura

Lettrice Assorta www.ilviziodileggereblog.wordpress.com

I wanted to reread Heaven because the screen adaptation was scheduled to air last Saturday on Lifetime. So, I reread it and I want to tell you why this book is a MUST READ!

V.C. Andrews was one of my all time favorite authors until she died in 1986 and her family hired a ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman, to finish some her WIPs. Decades later, in my opinion no one has written such genre-bending [Gothic/contemporary/suspense/thriller/mystery/horror], complex and dark, generational sagas filled with dysfunctional families, ugly secrets and forbidden love like V.C. Andrews.

Especially, I haven’t found anyone else that has written extreme poverty, adversities and hardships like her. The physical and emotional imagery is superb. You cannot only actually "see" the two-room shack in the hills of West Virginia too small for the family of nine, or hear and feel the howling wind filtering through the wood’s cracks, you can smell the shack, the dirty cloths and the fumes from the latrine because there is no running water or bathrooms, or smell the rotting food that you’ll have to eat if you don’t want to starve…. You can also really feel the pang of starvation in you stomach, the embarrassment of being “Of all the folks in the mountain shacks, the lowest, the scum of the hills”, the desperation of seeing your younger siblings starve to death, and the despair and fear of being hated, abused, neglected and ultimately abandoned by your parents.

If you want to connect with characters at unexpected levels and desperately root for them, even for the evilest of them, because of everything they have been put through… If you want to wince, gasp, hold your breath, cry… all the feels… you gotta read the Dollanganger and Casteel series!

Heaven is the first book of the Casteel series and even though I enjoyed the Dollanganger series overall more than the Casteel series, Heaven is may favorite of all V.C. Andrews’ books! I liked it even more than Flowers in the Attic, which I never thought possible!

Rereading Heaven was an even more amazing than reading it the first time because years later I had read more books and had more books to compare it with! And still… There are no books like V.C. Andrews’! Her books have been translated to nineteen languages and made into twelve film adaptations!

I PROMISE THIS IS GOOD STUFF PEOPLE! GOOD STUFF! YOU GOTTA READ THEM!

C’est uniquement parce que ça se lit bien que je l’ai terminé parce que WTF.

Au moins dans la série La famille Landry Ruby est attachante. Ici Heaven est complètement incompréhensible. Instable. Difficile à aimer, à comprendre.

Les dialogues sonnent archi faux.

Les événements sont une série de loop interminables et sont ultra difficiles et horribles à un point tel que c’est juste trop.

Heaven a des alliés qu’elle repousse les uns après les autres pour finir par se plaindre d’être seule.

Is it a four star read compared to other four star literary reads? Absolutely not! But sometimes you need a brain break. On its own, it has great character development and a YA-esque soap opera plot that keeps you engaged.

i would like a psychologist to analyze these characters for me

I originally read this back in middle school and for whatever reason I remember enjoying it in an ironic way. VC Andrew's writing has been called campy and melodramatic enough that it might have tainted my original point of view. Having read it almost fifteen years later, I am struck by how disturbing and haunting the story of Heaven's survival really is. There was actually one night that Kitty's antics left me so angry I had trouble sleeping.

This wasn't a "fun" read but it was page turning. It wasn't a hopeful or uplifting story, but it did make me care so much for a couple of the Casteels that they felt like real people. Love is only an illusion, lies rule the day, and maybe you really can never go home again - was Andrews a nihilist?? I'm compelled to read the rest of the series but I'm also kind of afraid. I need to go find Jesus now haha

This is probably Andrews' best written book, it is heartbreakingly raw and real many times and not as over-the-top crazy as some of her other books. That said, it was also the toughest and least enjoyable to read. It was just too sad, too tragic, and too horrible. My heart was already beat into a pulp when Kitty and Cal happened and completely shattered me. I almost stopped reading after the hamster incident and maybe I should've because it got so much worse from there. Why are the men in Andrews' novels just the worst? The women aren't winners either though, but there is not a single male character (possible exception Tom in this book) who doesn't exclusively exist to satisfy his sexual needs, that is their whole purpose, being and meaning, and they're so needy about it too, it's suffocating. Her view on relationships is really dark.

So yes, probably her best, but definitely the one I won't re-visit, the plot is just too relentlessly cruel. Can't even rate this one.

I think VC Andrews put drugs in her books SO GOOD couldn’t put it down

The only reason I put this on my "Best Books" shelf is for the sentimental value that this book has. This is the very first V.C. Andrews book I ever read, which was a gift from my mother who gave it to me after I got home from school one afternoon. She only said one thing about the book before handing it over; "That poor girl." Which, of course, piqued my curiosity at once. I remember getting in trouble for staying up past my bedtime to continue reading in secret when my mother went back out to the livingroom. "Heaven" was the first in a long series of V.C. Andrews books I couldn't wait to get my hands on and once in my hot little hands devoured like Pringles chips; fully aware that I couldn't read just one book! V.C. Andrews was one of the very rare authors who could fully pull a reader into the story. When I read "Heaven" for the very first time I remember looking up from several chapters to realize that I was so engrossed in the story that three hours had gone by like three seconds and I didn't even notice. That's the thing I always loved about V.C. Andrews' books; while the main character was telling the story, it almost felt like it was actually you in the story and I don't mean it the way first-person narratives try to make you feel in some of today's books. In a V.C. Andrews book it was different. "Heaven" was the book, like many preteens, that opened me up to the joys and wonders of reading. Though, it is embarrassing to admit that I actually cried very hard during the children-for-sale scene. Upon re-reading that scene, and in fact the entire book, I realize how cheesy it was was. But, for all it's cheese it still holds sentimental value for me.

There's too much sadness in this book. The characters feel sad and their story get sadder. If you want to be sad or pretend to be sad, read this book. It makes you cry. Guaranteed.