Once Upon a Twilight!: Book Review: Christopher's Diary: The Secrets of Foxworth by V. C. Andrews + Giveaway

Christopher's Diary: The Secrets of Foxworth
Dollanganger #6
Author: V. C. Andrews
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Gothic
Released: October 28 2014
Review Source: Pocket Books

Jealousy, tragedy, survival, and revenge—the discovery of Christopher's diary in the ruins of Foxworth Hall brings new secrets of the Dollanganger family to light and obsesses a new generation. With Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind both now major Lifetime TV events, this first new addition to the Dollanganger story in nearly thirty years is a timely look at the events in the attic—from teenage Christopher's point of view.

And don't forget to preorder the follow-up, Christopher's Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger!

Christopher Dollanganger was fourteen when he and his younger siblings Cathy and the twins, Cory and Carrie, were locked away in the attic of Foxworth Hall, prisoners of their mother's greedy inheritance scheme. For three long years he kept hope alive for the sake of the others. But the shocking truth about how their ordeal affected him was always kept hidden, until now.

Seventeen-year-old Kristin Masterwood is thrilled when her father’s construction company is hired to inspect the Foxworth property for a prospective buyer. The once grand Southern mansion still sparks legends and half-truths about the four innocent Dollanganger children, even all these decades later. Foxworth holds a special fascination for Kristin, who was too young when her mother died to learn much about her distant blood tie to the notorious family.

Accompanying her dad to the forbidden territory, they find a leather-bound book, its yellowed pages filled with the neat script of Christopher Dollanganger himself. Her father grows increasingly uneasy about her reading it, but as she devours the teens story page by page, his shattering account of temptation, heartache, courage, and betrayal overtakes Kristin's every thought. And soon her obsession with the doomed boy crosses a dangerous line.

Kristin has always been harassed because it is known fact that she is a relative of the Foxworth's and there's rumors going around about what the Foxworth's did to a couple children over 50 years. Everyone tells her that she will grow into her Foxworth madness, but she isn't really sure what that madness is. Kristin's father gets a job that requires he demolish what is left of the Foxworth mansion and she tags along with him to look at what his job will require. There they find a metal box with a diary inside. Hoping this diary will have the answers to her questions Kristin becomes obsessed with reading the words of Christopher Dollanganger, one of the four children that was supposedly locked away in the attic of Foxworth.

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be. I wanted more of Christopher's story, more of his feelings, than I got. It was more so about how his story helped Kristin deal with certain situations in her life. This isn't to say the book wasn't good, it did make me want to reread Flowers In The Attic but it wasn't exactly what I had hoped. While reading this book I must say Kristin reacted to Christopher's diary the exact same way I reacted to Flowers In The Attic. With the sense of this is so wrong and not something that I should be reading or enjoying, but I can't put it down. So it was nice to see that Kristin was reacting the same way, of course she was reacting as a relative of the children rather than a by-stander like I am. I found myself always wanting to learn more about Kristin as the story went on, whenever she would read and take me away from her story I would become aggravated because she was growing as a character before my eyes but she wanted to know what Christopher had done next. Since I already knew what had happened in the attic I wanted to know what would happen in the present day with her. But it was also nice to see that she connected with the Dollanganger children, that she used their stories to help better her life in the best way that she could. She felt for the children losing their childhood by being locked in the attic, so she went out and lived her life but always came back to the diary. Now that I know what to expect of the Christopher's Diary books I am really looking forward to the next one.