Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger
Author: V. C. Andrews
Published: 2015
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
The discovery of Christopher Dollanganger’s diary in the ashes of Foxworth Hall, where and his siblings were kept prisoner decades ago, now captivates one young girl’s imagination—and sparks a dangerously forbidden passion.
Kristin Masterwood is hiding a great secret. She possesses the diary of Christopher Dollanganger, the only thing to contain the truth about what really happened while the Dollanganger children were up in the attic of Foxworth Hall. Now dating Kane, she feels like she can trust him with anything. After showing him the diary, he insists on reading it along with her and experiencing the tragedy of the Dollanganger children.
As they get closer to the end of the diary they’re sucked into the past, extremely fascinated. So much so that they go to great lengths to recreate it. Even become Christopher and Cathy Dollanganger.
Okay. OKAY. This was mother-effing disturbing. While Flowers in the Attic created an incest relationship, this book recreated it with a scary obsessiveness. I was fucking creeped out to the nth power.
Kane was brought in as a main character in this book, which makes sense since he’s Kristin’s main squeeze. That boy is not right in the head. He became more obsessed about Chris’s diary than Kristin did and it was terrifying. He went as far as to have them act out scenes while hiding up in her attic! There were wigs involved. He’s psychologically INSANE. I got so scared for Kristin, wondering why the hell she was with him.
I was feeling so sketchy about how distant the two of them came. They were becoming their own messed up Flowers. Both became so distant from their families and friends and it was unnerving. Unnerving, and sadly, unbelievable. While trying to deny anything was different about them, they were keeping up poor disguises. Even their excuses were totally lame. I just couldn’t get behind this one aspect. It’s obvious that if you are trying to keep a secret, you do whatever it takes to keep up appearances, and these two sucked at it.
The writing was rather plain as well. It made for speedy reading, and not because I was super into it. It was repetitive and not all that engaging when transitioning. The lack of chapters made this seem never-ending though I wished it would end. I was just slightly disappointed by how dragging it was in a lot of places. Even the scenery is lacking. Keeping to only a couple of places can be really engaging, but here it wasn’t. In fact, it was like watching a terrible remake of a movie. Very sad.
Overall
This won on a creepy level, but kind of failed on the entertainment level. I was pretty glad when I was done reading this. Kane is the type of guy I can’t stand. He literally scares the hell out of me with how possessive he is over the diary and Kristin. It’s part of the reason I didn’t like this. That and the style. Just no thank you. However, the fact that this book is utterly mental is cool.
Quotables:
“Nothing makes anything more desirable than declaring it forbidden.” (Kristin, p. 7)
“All parents must fool themselves for a while into believing their children would remain young and innocent longer. Perhaps out of fear of what really lay in wait for their children, parents surely cling to the belief that the children’s world was somehow safer.” (Kristin, p. 169)
“Every place and every thing has a history. You judge it by what it is, not by who owned it. That’s just good business.” (Kristin’s dad, p. 182)
More to come soon…
-K.
P.S. Song today? Absence of Fear by Jewel.
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