The Woman Beyond the Attic

December 1, 2021
A biography of author Cleo Virginia Andrews (1923-1986), written by her longtime ghostwriter. Andrews is best known for her controversial (and frequently banned) gothic novel Flowers in the Attic, which was first published in 1979 and adapted into films in 1987 and 2014. Following the author's death from breast cancer in 1986, Neiderman, who is best known for his novel The Devil's Advocate, was commissioned by Andrews' family to carry on her literary legacy under her pen name, V.C. Andrews. (Neiderman has written more than 70 novels under the name.) Through a study of Andrews' personal letters and interviews with family members, Neiderman provides insight into her life in an attempt to answer some of the questions that have been posed by fans over the years. He also attempts to clarify misconceptions that have arisen regarding her medical condition. Analyzing her work, primarily Flowers in the Attic, Neiderman speculates about the inspiration for her stories and their characters, with a particular focus on similarities to Andrews' strained relationship with her mother, Lillian, who became her caregiver. Neiderman also discusses Andrews' other artistic talents and speaks to the physical and mental struggles that she endured throughout her life--many caused by the early death of her father, frequent moves, an accident she suffered on a staircase as a teenager, and numerous unsuccessful medical treatments and surgeries. The author also discusses Andrews' views on religion, reincarnation, and the media, including her disdain for interviews. Though repetitive at times, Neiderman does an admirable job weaving in the available information about Andrews, offering a coherent view into the life and thoughts of this reticent writer. At the request of her family, he also includes "the only unfinished, authentic Virginia Andrews manuscript in the possession of the Andrews family," which they wanted to be published in unedited form. Andrews' fans will appreciate this insightful glimpse into her mysterious life.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2022
Folks like to imagine that V. C. Andrews' life was as gothic and tragic as the books she wrote. Thriller writer Neiderman, who is also the long-term ghostwriter for Andrews since her death in 1986, uses letters and family interviews to set the record straight. In this brief biography, he reveals a wheelchair-bound Andrews who never lost her sense of glamour as he focuses on her youth in Portsmouth, Virginia, during the Great Depression and her complicated relationship with her mother, who was also her caregiver until the author's death from cancer. Neiderman tries to draw connections between aspects of Andrews' life that might have inspired her most famous creation, her 1979 blockbuster debut, Flowers in the Attic, such as how Cathy Dollanganger loved art, and how Andrews was a gifted artist in her youth. Using flowery, dramatic language that is the hallmark of Andrews' novels, Neiderman presents a woman who never let her disability get her down. The second half of the book is the text of an unfinished novel, which will be a thrill for Andrews' fans.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 31, 2022
Combining a novelist’s eye for detail with personal knowledge gleaned from his years as V.C. Andrews’s ghostwriter, Neiderman (The Devil’s Advocate) unpacks the famed gothic writer’s notoriously private life. Despite being banned as pornographic in some areas due to its inclusion of incest, Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic became a bestseller after its 1979 publication when the author was 56 years old. While Andrews’s relatively idyllic childhood was far from dysfunctional, Neiderman notes how her ability to write about “the secret abuse of children” prompted speculation regarding how much of the book was based on real life. Drawing from letters provided by Andrews’s family, he scrupulously unravels this and other mysteries still swirling around the novelist’s life today—most notably regarding her complex relationship with her mother, Lillian, who “constantly hover” over Andrews yet never saw the manuscript for Flowers in the Attic; the pseudonym Andrews used to write “more salacious material” (including her undiscovered story “I Slept with My Uncle on My Wedding Night”); and the arthritic illness and surgeries that left her using a wheelchair. Neiderman also offers insight into Andrews’s carefully guarded privacy, which he believes was largely inflamed by an unflattering 1980 People interview that “capitalized on her disability and portrayed her as an eccentric recluse.” Fans will be transfixed.