ARC Review: The Woman Beyond the Attic – The V.C. Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman

I received this book for free from a giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman
Published by Gallery Books on February 1, 2022
Genres: Nonfiction
Pages: 288
Source: a giveaway
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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Blurb:

This celebration of the woman who took us to the heights of a secluded attic and the depths of our own dark psyches reveals an intimate portrait of the famously private V.C. Andrews—featuring family photos, personal letters, a partial manuscript for an unpublished novel, and more.

Best known for her internationally, multi-million-copy bestselling novel Flowers in the Attic, Cleo Virginia Andrews lived a fascinating life. Born to modest means, she came of age in the American South during the Great Depression and faced a series of increasingly challenging health issues. Yet, once she rose to international literary fame, she prided herself on her intense privacy.

Now, The Woman Beyond the Attic aims to connect her personal life with the public novels for which she was famous. Based on Virginia’s own letters, and interviews with her dearest family members, her long-term ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman tells Virginia’s full story for the first time.

The Woman Beyond the Attic is perfect for V.C. Andrews fans who pick up every new novel or for fans hoping to return to the favorite novelist of their adolescence. Eye-opening and intimate, The Woman Beyond the Attic is for anyone hoping to learn more about the enigmatic woman behind one of the most important novels of the 20th century.

My Review:

I was the biggest fan of V.C. Andrews books when I was in middle school and high school. In fact I reread so many of her books over and over. So I was definitely interested in learning more about this author.

This book had a lot of things I didn’t know and I was very interested in learning more about her life. One thing that was mentioned a lot was how she was a private person, basically because of a combination between her mother who was a little ashamed/embarrassed by her conditions as well as a bad review one time that made her not trust the press in future interviews or opportunities to talk with her. It was neat to learn about her family and actually just how successful she was right off the bat. Something you don’t hear a lot about those kind of success stories. You usually hear how much people get rejected before they get picked up.

I also liked hearing things about her writing process and thoughts. I always enjoy hearing about how authors I’ve read and enjoyed work their own writing process. Another thing that was neat was the never before published partial manuscript at the end, as well as a couple poems and song lyrics.

My only complaint is that the author of this book writes in a way that felt he was saying the same things over and over. And not really telling anything as he did that. So it took me a little longer to read this than I’d wished.

Overall I am glad to have received a copy of this to read early though. Would love if there had been any photos of her or pictures of her paintings included.