Episode 9 - If There Be Thorns

Happy NEW YEAR! And welcome back to The Forgotten Library; as always, I’m Nikki Gee. Today, we’re continuing with my most popular theme – more VC Andrews! (Seriously, out of the 8 full episodes I have done so far, the listeners EXPLODE on my cute little bar charts on these particular shows). Because these books are STILL popular, thanks to those Lifetime movies leading to reissues of the novels, I had to wait for the third installment of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns.

I covered a bit about V.C. Andrews’ life and other works in the previous episodes, so be sure to check out numbers 2 and 6 of this show. I haven’t uncovered anything new since then, nor is there any scholarly research referring to this installment, so boo to that.

Missed the last book or short on time? Allow me to provide you with a quick recap.

Cathy, Chris, and Carrie escape Foxworth Hall and board a bus to go to Sarasota. Carrie gets sick on the way and they are rescued by a mute woman named Henny, who takes them to her employer, Paul, who is a doctor. They end up spilling their whole sordid tale, he cures Carrie, and he makes the three of them his wards. Cathy gets an audition with a ballet company; she meets Julian there, who keeps trying to flirt with her, but she is busy seducing Paul and trying to avoid the intimate advances of her brother, as well.

Carrie is sent away to an all-girls’ school, where she is tormented and falls through the roof, breaking her leg. Cathy asks Paul to visit Virginia to find Cory’s grave, where they discover no record of a boy his age dying in any of the local hospitals at that time.

Cathy gets leads in the company shows, graduates from high school, then goes with Julian to New York and joins a company there, even performing on television. She gets engaged to Paul, which angers Chris. So, she runs off and marries Julian instead. Julian is controlling and abusive. He’s inappropriate with Carrie when she comes to visit. He doesn’t want Cathy to go see Chris graduate from medical school, so she drugs him and leaves him in Spain. Cathy is pregnant with Julian’s baby. Julian is reckless and gets himself into a car accident, and when he hears the doctors say he will never dance again, he cuts his IV so he’ll die. Cathy moves back in with Paul and then begins blackmailing her mother, first by sending letters, then by seducing Bart Winslow.

In the meantime, Carrie gets ill; her boyfriend asked her to marry him, but he wants to be a minister, and she is still fucked-up from the Grandmother talking about how evil they all were, so she doesn’t think she’s worthy. She bought arsenic and poisoned her own doughnuts so she could be with Cory and Daddy. She also tells Cathy before she dies that she had sex with Julian.

Cathy gets pregnant by Bart. She gets a dress made just like the one her mother wore that fateful Christmas party in Foxworth Hall, and she enters and reveals herself to all the guests. This all leads to a showdown in the library, where Bart learns the truth about his wife. Corinne appears to lose her mind and sets Foxworth Hall ablaze. Bart dies going back in to save the Grandmother, who at this point, is wheelchair bound and unable to speak; she also dies. They take Corinne to an asylum. While this is going on, Paul has had a heart attack. Cathy goes back to him and marries him. She nurses him for three years and then he tells her she should be with her brother. Paul dies, and Chris, Cathy, and the boys move to California where no one knows their story.

With that, let’s get to this trainwreck!

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Once again, the new covers of these books are awful – we have the same girl from the previous installments; heavy-lidded gaze due to overuse of eyeshadow, and lots of purple to contrast the grey tones. They have made these so very stereotypically YA these days. I bemoan the loss, once again, of the old die-cut, or stepback, covers.

This is one of the last in the series to be completely penned by Andrews herself prior to her death. For the Cathy-haters among you, cheer up, as she is NOT our narrator for this one. Instead, the tale is told in alternating chapters by her two sons, Jory and Bart. However, she does have a prologue, where she talks about getting older, and the past haunting her, you know, same old Cathy.

So, Cathy, Chris, and the boys live in Fairfax, California, near San Francisco. Jory narrates about their life right now as he rides his bike home from school. It’s foggy and sometimes spooky. He has memories sometimes of a southern garden and a dark-haired man calling him “son” and making him feel safe. He gets a letter from his grandmother, Madame Marisha (Julian’s mom), and they visit her every summer. They have a housekeeper named Emma, and aren’t they afraid that she might discover the true nature of Chris and Cathy’s relationship? I hope they pay her VERY well. And Bart is supremely clumsy.

Jory gets home and Emma says that Bart is probably sitting outside on the wall (where they spy on the abandoned mansion next door and also sometimes secretly play over there) and that Cathy said she was going up to the attic to look at old pictures. Chris comes home around this time and both of them hear the faint strains of ballet music from up in the attic. Jory wonders if Mom is up there “dancing again,” which means she has done this before. And indeed, Cathy has told him NOT to tell his father about it. But now he intends to sneak up there after Chris to see what sort of excuses she gives him – a total kid thing to do.

By the way, at this point in the saga, Jory is fourteen and Bart is nine. Cathy is dancing with a mop, miming Cinderella, and Jory watches Chris’ face as he looks at Cathy. He notes that their love seems to be so different from the love between his friends’ parents. Anyway, she still dances very well at her age, and then Chris takes the needle from the record player and grabs her, pointing to the twin beds in the corner of the attic. She’s all, “Oh, you’re home,” but Chris wants to know how she put those beds together by herself. And also, where did this picnic hamper come from? Jory, hiding in the shadows, doesn’t understand why Chris is so upset by all of these things. Instead of answering, she flips her hair and smiles and does all the types of charm attacks Corrine used to do. Which leads one to wonder – is Cathy planning something deliberately sinister or does she have fugue states because of all the trauma in her life? It’s hard to tell. She claims to not remember putting the beds together OR even coming up here.

Jory is hearing all sorts of secrets being dredged up, floating him in a veritable sea of confusion – what grandmother? Foxworth Hall? Are these the same strong parents I’ve grown up loving? What does it MEAN? Chris and Cathy dance to a different tune, and Chris says he loved her when she was only fourteen, which adds another bucket to Jory’s body of water. They didn’t know each other when Mom was fourteen . . .

The version of the story they gave Jory was – Cathy and Carrie’s parents were killed in an auto accident, and they ran away from home shortly thereafter, heading south. They met Henny on the bus who took them to Paul; she met Julian in ballet class and after he died, she married Paul; Paul is Bart’s father. Chris is Paul’s younger brother. Jory immediately realizes that something in here has to be a lie. Encyclopedia Brown is on the case!

Chris makes Cathy promise never to hide the kids in the attic if something were to happen to him. Um, this isn’t a mansion, it’s a regular two-story house, so I don’t know how that could even be a feasible plan . . .

Chris throws the picnic basket out the window and says she planned this unconsciously because their secret is in jeopardy every day of being exposed. He knows that she still has nightmares, etc. Okay, so how about some, I don’t know, counseling? The timeline for this book is estimated to be 1980s, so it’s not like mental health counseling was a new phenomenon or anything. Anyway, she says he shouldn’t see his mother this summer. Jory doesn’t understand why he’s suddenly so afraid.

Bart narrates this next section and they’re planting pansies for Carrie and Cory. Bart muses that “people died easy” in this family. Jory talks about fig leaves and Adam and Eve for some reason. What we get from this next exchange is that Bart wishes he could be graceful and dance and be charming like Jory. He thinks about a baby chick he got when he was four and he squeezed it so hard that it died. Apparently, he can’t feel pain like anyone else, because his nerve endings don’t go all the way to the surface of his skin. (This is a real condition, albeit relatively rare; it’s actually also serious because one might not know that they’re hurt and could lead to dangerous situations, such as children not realizing they’ve bitten off the tip of their tongue). Some have posited that Bart might also be on the autism spectrum, which would mean that he’s not incapable of feeling pain, but might not have the appropriate response to it.

The house next door is a mansion with odd rooms and cobwebs and occasional treasures, and the boys like to go over there and play around in it. Bart says he can hear the ghosts talking to him and Jory warns him not to tell adults that or they’ll think he’s crazy. And they already have one crazy grandma that they visit once a year. Momma never goes in to see her. Bart is tired of ole graves and ole grandmas, dead and crazy people.

Workmen drive up and start going about the mansion. The boys are upset because now they won’t be able to play there anymore. They also don’t tell their parents that their privacy is going to be disturbed very soon. They find out from a very chatty workman that a “rich dame” has bought the place and is bringing servants with her.

Summer comes and the workmen are still swarming all over the house next door; by now, Chris and Cathy are aware and they are not happy about it. Jory tries to explain it because they’re still so much in luv and the bloom hasn’t worn off. Whatever you need to tell yourself, kiddo.

Cathy is more concerned about one of her ballerinas, who was seriously injured in a car accident and has a two-year-old daughter. Chris is trying to stay out of it, but it’s evident that Cathy wants to adopt this little girl, whose name is Cindy, if her mother dies. Jory is half-listening, but mainly still haunted by the conversation in the attic, wondering how they could have known each other when Mom was only fourteen? Bart is sloppy and rude, as usual. But he perks up at dinner when he finds out that his birthday gift is a trip to Disneyland. He doesn’t like that he still has to go to South Carolina afterward, though. Cathy says that he has such disrespect for the dead. I think y’all are a bit obsessed with it and no wonder the kid is so morbid. But anyway, now Bart has a very important question – how come the picture of your daddy looks like the daddy we have now? Yeah, MOMMA, how d’ya explain that one? Jory, ever the hero, stands up for his mom and interjects so she doesn’t have to answer.

Finally, the day arrives when the “rich dame” comes to the house; she arrives in a limo and is robed in all black, with a veil over her head and face. Jory wonders if she’s a Muslim. An old feeble guy they presume to be the butler is with her in the car. The lady in black stares at their house for a very long time as the maids arrive and begin to move things inside. Jory is fascinated by all of this possible intrigue, but Bart is more concerned with making threats towards a caterpillar who is dangerously close to his shoe. He smashes it and Jory wonders why Bart feels the need to kill all the insects he sees. He pulled off a spider’s legs once before squashing it. Kid sounds a bit sadistic.

The next day they sneak onto the old lady’s grounds, noting the topiaries in animal shapes. In the window, they see her sitting in a hard wooden rocker, instead of any one of the fancy soft couches that Jory saw moved in. She removes her veil to eat and Jory sees the scars on the sides of her face. But what really scares Jory is the fact that the woman looks like how his mother might look “thirty years from now, if she lived long enough to be ravaged by time.” What is with this morbid family?

In the early morning, Bart comes in and lays next to his older brother, talking about dead things. This worries Jory. Bart says that no one likes him and Jory tells him that sometimes you need to put on a false face but Bart doesn’t quite understand.

Bart is invited next door by the old lady. His way there is peppered with his lively imagination – stalking a tiger through the jungle, marching like a soldier; the old lady opens the door for him and invites him inside. The veiled woman admits that she overhears his conversations with his brother, as she sometimes looks over the wall with her stepladder. She wants him to know that her house is open to him AND his brother. She offers him ice cream and cake.

Despite his young age, Bart doesn’t understand why she likes him, and so quickly, too. She tells him that she wants him to take the place of the third son she couldn’t have. She’s rich, and she can give him anything he wants. She seems so sad and Bart feels sorry for her; he promises to come back and visit often.

At home, Cathy is still on about Cindy. Jory is busy. Bart has no friends; they have a dog named Clover, but he likes Jory better. So it makes perfect sense that he would keep seeing the Lady in Veils because she pays him attention and listens to him. It’s been a week and already he has a room of his own in the house to hold all the things she’s given him already – electric trains, toy cars, games.

One day, he runs into John Amos, the butler, who tells Bart to see him when he wants the truth about who she is as well as his own self. Bart wants a pony, and apparently, she has not delivered on this promise yet. She says that he will go home smelling horsy and then the secret will be out. She tries to compromise with a St. Bernard – as he’s big enough to ride like a pony and won’t smell like a stall. Bart doesn’t believe her, but she draws him back and tells him he can call her Grandmother.

John Amos gives him a little red book and tells him that the lady really IS his grandmother. The book is the journal of his great-grandfather, Malcom Foxworth. He imparts a few pearls of shitty wisdom right now, that women are not to be trusted, especially if they are pretty.

Bart begins to read the journal. Malcolm begins with a whiny moment – his mother abandoned him for another man when he was five years old. He was so innocent then, but now, as an adult, he knows that women are full of betrayal. Bart has worried that his mother would up and run away, too! John Amos pops up again and tells him to read the book every day and soon he will learn how to control people.

Jory hears his parents arguing one night and he decides that he needs to hear what’s going on, for his and Bart’s sake. Cathy is still on about adopting Cindy, but Chris isn’t having it; the adoption agency would investigate, and then what? Cathy says that Cindy’s mother, Nicole, can sign whatever papers while she’s still alive, thus no need for the adoption agency to come around, but Chris still says no. Then Cathy basically says that she already brought papers to Nicole in the hospital and she had an attorney, so it’s all legal and shit, so THERE. We also discover from her continuing diatribe that she signed papers after Bart was born to have her tubes tied. And then she lays down on the floor and cries. Chris tries to console her, but she hits him away from her and throws his smugness about being right in his face: about her marrying Julian, about Bart dying at Foxworth Hall, even about marrying a much older man like Paul.

It goes on and on, and she slaps Chris’ face, and he just says nothing, and poor Jory is stuck between leaving and yet needing to know what is happening to his family. She says that she never would have gone to Bart if Chris hadn’t still been hanging around and reminding her of what Momma had done to them. That was the only way she could think to truly punish her for her failings as a mother. And now a little girl will be an orphan, and Cathy has fixed it so that there won’t be anything to investigate, and yet, Chris doesn’t want anyone else in the way. Well, maybe, Cathy, he doesn’t want anyone else entangled in this fucked-up snare of lies and half-truths, like her biological children are, hmm?

Chris gets up and says that he will pack and leave if that’s what she wants, and of course, she instantly runs to him and says that she’s sorry and she didn’t mean anything she said at all, at all! And she destroys everything she touches, so he’s perfectly right to deny her Cindy. She tries to get him to cave with kisses and caresses, tries to get him to slap her face and then slaps her own when he continues to be unmoved. Which riles her again and this chapter is mostly Cathy and her histrionics, so I am very sorry. She’s like their mother, isn’t she? She knows it. So why doesn’t he punish her for it?

Jory is still in hiding, trying to piece together this narrative. Why does Foxworth Hall sound so familiar??

Chris kneels down to where Cathy is once again on the floor and she says that she doesn’t understand why he loves her when she’s so ugly. He kisses her and then the passion between them rises again. I’m just wondering why, as a doctor, he doesn’t see the very obvious need for his sister-wife to get some psychiatric attention. Instead, they start macking and Jory crawls away before he sees too much; he heads out to the garden and cries, realizing that his parents are not perfect and their image has been completely shattered. Wow, it took you until the age of fourteen to realize that?

He climbs the wall and looks over at the mansion, where he can hear someone crying and asking for forgiveness – is it the old woman? He hears the name Christopher and wonders if she means his dad or someone else. Something sinister is creeping in, he can feel it; not to mention that Bart is acting stranger than usual, too.

One day, he hurries home a little earlier to see what Bart is doing with his time. Sure enough, he finds him next door, sitting on the old woman’s lap. He eavesdrops on their conversation, and hears the veiled woman tell Bart that she will always love him and next time he comes over he’ll have his heart’s desire. Jory is confused that Bart is calling her Grandmother, and after Bart leaves he goes to the front door to confront her. She is happy to see him and invites him inside. Jory tells her not to confuse his brother with this grandmother nonsense. He wants to say more, but he feels sorry for her, so he just says that she should try to dissuade Bart from coming over as often.

The next day, 2-year-old Cindy becomes a part of their household – another blonde, blue-eyed child with a C name. Jory thinks she’s cute, but Bart takes an instant aversion to her and yells that she should be put in the grave with her mother. Such a charming boy. And then he tries to hit her. After sending Bart to his room, Chris is all, See? This was a bad idea, and Cathy says, Well, she reminds me of Carrie and they both don’t do their usual goodbyes to each other so obviously everyone’s life is ruined.

Jory is soon quite taken with his little adopted sister. We learn from his conversation with Cathy that Bart is having nightmares about being abandoned by her. Why didn’t he tell her sooner? Of course, he can’t say the real reason – that she’s been too preoccupied with Cindy to pay attention to anything else. Bart has nightmares again that night, and Jory is starting to remember some things from when he was very, very young – a dark haired man named Bart Winslow.

Bart is extremely upset that his pony has not arrived. The Lady in Veils keeps promising tomorrow, but there’s no pony. John Amos shows up for more unsolicited man advice – don’t fall in love with a stupid woman. And all women are stupid. Always let them know who’s boss – you. Keep reading Malcolm’s journal, and learn to be clever.

More from Malcom’s journal – he was caught smoking a pipe, so his father whipped him and then put him in the attic at Foxworth Hall. Up there, he sees old photographs of his mother, which makes him hate her all the more, as well as the corsets he sees that show how women deceive men into believing they have more cleavage than was naturally given unto them. This makes him realize that no woman could ever be trusted – especially the beautiful ones.

Bart thinks on this – if his mother ran away, what would he do? Would Grandmother take him in? Of course she would, for he’s the son of her second husband, Bart. Also, stay away from John Amos. Jory comes barging in and Bart hides, but Jory finds him easily and says that she shouldn’t let him come over again. He admonishes his brother in the backyard and tells him that’s not his grandmother.

Of course, Bart goes back, and still no pony. Veils asks if he’s told his parents about her, but they’re busy anyway, so what would be the point? She again warns him away from John Amos, saying he is evil, but he says the same things about HER, so who can Bart trust? Grandmother has a gift for Bart in the barn. He thinks it’s his pony, so he runs out there, only to discover it’s a big dog. She explains again that she would love to give him a pony, but then he’ll smell like horse and his family will be suspicious and bar him from coming over anymore. Bart doesn’t care; she lied to him. She says he can ride the St. Bernard like a pony; he’s just a puppy and he will get even bigger. So Bart tries to tell the dog that he is a pony and use “magic” to make him over into equine, such as giving the dog an apple. He also calls the dog Apple and says that he is not to eat or drink anything not brought to him by Bart. He realizes John Amos is wrong about women, and HE’s the one who is devious, not Grandmother.

Bart asks about her sons and she says that one went to heaven and the other ran South. He tells her he hates going South to visit ole graves and crazy grandmothers. And she is not to take care of Apple while he’s gone. But this child is not thinking as he will be away two whole weeks, so how will the dog eat? John Amos’ lesson today is about sin. Sin is what women use to make a man weak. They take off their clothes and sap a man’s strength by desire. Just watch your own parents.

Bart is bored. But he’s also at the age where kids soak up a bunch of weird shit that they will repeat, even if they don’t fully understand it. He sees Cathy sitting in a halter top, showing bare skin, and quotes about the Lord seeing when he does not, and the Lord will punish, which if you recall, was what THEIR grandmother used to say to the kids when they were locked in the attic. This makes Cathy pale and when she asks him why he said that, he just says, Sleepy, Momma and walks away. Later, he lays on his bed and thinks about the power he will wield when he is older.

Cathy has finally noticed that Bart is weirder than normal, and asks Jory about it. Jory, in an effort to protect Bart, tries to reassure her and reflect her attention back to little Cindy. After ballet practice, Jory finds Bart with his puppy-pony in the barn next door. He asks Jory not to tell Mom and Dad about the gifts, and Jory rationalizes that it’s not doing any harm – Bart obviously feels a bit left out at home, so what if a strange woman suddenly breezed into their lives and took a shine to weird little Bart and gave him expensive gifts?

Bart is rude to everyone upon arriving home, nothing new there. He has some intense hatred smoldering for Cindy especially. Jory is scared and feels like he needs to protect everyone – but from what?

Bart asks Grandmother why he can’t tell his parents about her, but she says that’s because they hate her; yes, she knew them a long time ago, and made a terrible mistake for which she prays for forgiveness nightly. She tells him never to run away from his parents, as her children did to her. Yeah, after you kept them locked up for years – that’s kind of important to the story, ya know? John Amos walks in and tells her to stop coddling the child, but she tells him to know his place and he leaves, which makes Bart smile. He does wonder why the old lady keeps him around, though, if she doesn’t like him. John Amos is still teaching him the ways of Malcom Foxworth.

Bart ponders how he can keep Apple loyal while he’s gone for three weeks. Uh, how about feeding and watering, bub? He is upset that nothing grows on his side of the garden. What would Malcom do? Probably take Jory’s lovely flowers and put them in his empty garden, so that’s just what he does. He berates the family dog and says HIS dog is better; he’s even teaching him to eat hay. But right now, he hasn’t even fed him, so Grandmother is on her ladder looking down at him and telling him he needs to be a good master. But then she sees something Bart just dug up, looking like the bones of a kitten she had been caring for. He denies killing it, then pretends to be old man Malcolm, walking slow and stumbling.

Jory sits him down to ask what’s troubling him, and he recites something John Amos told him about his father dying in the fire. Jory tries to tell him that’s not how Paul died, but Bart says that wasn’t his REAL father – his real daddy was a lawyer and didn’t have a bad heart! Jory threatens to tell their parents, and Bart picks up a baseball bat and threatens to kill Jory while he sleeps. Jory is determined, then, to go talk to the lady next door about the bullshit she’s filling his brother’s head with; they have a physical fight, but as Jory walks to the house, Bart keeps saying he’s going to make him sorry and he’ll cry more than ever before.

As Jory walks, memories come in about that dark-haired man again, who had given him their little dog, and some other stuff, and asked him if he wanted to be his son. Was his name Bart Winslow? Was his brother REALLY that guy’s son, and not Paul’s? Why is he named for a man not Momma’s husband? He tries to push all of this down so he can keep his respect and love for his family intact. Yeah, I think that ship has sailed, child.

Jory marvels at how dark and cold the house is; the drapes are always drawn, and it’s just so quiet, nothing like the bustle of activity at his own home. When he finally gets to the old woman, sitting in a hard rocking chair, familiar blue eyes staring at him, he asks her why she doesn’t open the shutters, and she says that too much light hurts her eyes, because for a long time she was locked away in a small room. She doesn’t like mirrors either, but she keeps them to remind her constantly of the horrible things she has done; this is also why she keeps most of her face covered because she does not want to see it anymore.

She starts obliquely confessing to Jory about her children. How she resisted their pleas, thinking she was right and they were in the wrong; she never protected them when she should have, as she was all they had. She was so very selfish. And she couldn’t tell the man she loved about them. Jory isn’t sure why she’s telling him all this; why is this weird stranger unburdening herself to him? When he can get a word in, he tells her to stop encouraging Bart’s visits because it makes him act strange and disoriented. She asks him a hypothetical question – if his parents ever disappointed or failed him somehow, even a major one, would he be able to forgive them? He says yes, and she presses, “What about murder?” He just wants to get out of there, but then, as fate would have it, a delivery arrives and she asks Jory to stay, to see what’s inside the crate. It’s an oil painting, and Jory sees his mother in it, but it’s not, it’s Corrine in the painting, commissioned after she married Bart, at 37. But Jory is confused because it looks SO MUCH like his mother does, right now, today.

She tells him about Bart and how Cathy took him away. She remembers the post office incident when Jory stroked her fur coat and told her that she was pretty. Jory steels his memories against her and says that he’s never seen her before and all blondes look somewhat alike. She backs down and says she shouldn’t have played a trick on him; she’s sorry. As he leaves, though, he keeps pondering what she said, and despite himself, it is bringing way too many buried memories to the surface.

Clover, the dog, is not where he usually is, but Emma, the housekeeper, says she saw him go in the backyard. Jory is on a different mission, however, and asks her about when Mom and Dr. Paul got married. Emma is a bit evasive in her recollections, which Jory calls her out on, and she just says, Just be happy you have two wonderful, loving parents.

Jory’s search for Clover is fruitless, and he goes to his parents’ room later that night to tell them, but they’re asleep. They’re sleep-talking like they’re still in the attic and Jory thinks they sound like mere children. Jory runs back to his room, wondering why everyone is lying to them. Is their secret THAT terrible? And why does he have such an increasing sense of foreboding about Bart?

Of course, Bart is still going over to see the grandmother, who coddles him and rocks him like a baby, but also plays his imaginary games with him, which makes him happy. On his way back, he eavesdrops on Chris and Cathy in the garden; Cathy doesn’t want to visit “her” this summer, presumably, Corrine. Chris says she needs to forgive and forget, as they’re the only family she has left. “I’m a doctor sworn to do what I can for those in distress.” Um, your sister-wife has fugue states and probably post-traumatic stress disorder (although I don’t think there was a term for it then), but obviously still relives her trauma all the time, and you don’t seem to notice HER mental issues need help.

Bart crawls away, wondering if the grandmother and John Amos are telling him the truth, and if so, which version of the truth IS the truth? He notices blood on his knee, a puncture he must have gotten from a nail in a board on the grass; Chris had told him that a puncture should bleed freely so he puts his finger in it to make it bleed. (Neglected to mention that he had squished some dog turds in his hands during this interlude). His knee is really hurting, but he covers it all up and has dinner with the family. Next day, he’s in a lot of pain, so he lays about in the garden while everyone is packing for Disneyland; he feels something in the hollow tree which might be Clover, and he’s afraid they’ll think he did it. He hides from everyone looking for him. He starts thinking morbid thoughts about his leg being amputated and dying.

Jory eventually finds him and he’s barely conscious, so they take him to the hospital, his leg very swollen. He’s allergic to the penicillin, so MORE complications follow, and he doesn’t seem to be responding well to other treatments. Jory realizes he might be missing Apple so he tells Chris to tell him that he’ll be taken care of, hoping this will make Bart reverse course. Jory finds Apple chained in the middle of the barn with a dish of food just beyond his reach. Jory wonders if Bart had done this.

Bart does begin to recover, and a mean part of Jory realizes that Bart got what he wanted – a way to avoid “ole graves and ole grandmothers.” When Bart is home, he thinks everyone around him is faking their happiness that he is home and didn’t die. Even though they made all his favorite foods, he picks and is a cranky old bastard, enjoying leaning on his cane like Malcom might have done. Days later he escapes next door, thinking Apple will be dead and it will scar him for life, but he’s just fine, playing and with plenty of food in his dish. This makes Bart irate because the dog doesn’t care enough. So he says the dog needs to suffer and takes away his food, water, and toys.

He starts acting like Malcolm again around his family, asking for old-people food like dry toast with his coffee. John Amos keeps instilling Malcolm’s values and making Bart promise to wreak vengeance on others. First, with Corrine – pretend you still love her the same, but she’s the one who gave your dog food and water, so you see? Women cannot be trusted. Bart tries to be gruff and mean but he just can’t do it for long. She slips and says Christopher’s name and leaves Bart to wonder how she knows it. She starts crying, which Bart feels is weakness and he leaves.

Jory finally works up the nerve to talk to his parents about Bart’s strange behavior. He tells them about the woman next door, and also, that he found Clover in the tree with a wire twisted around his neck. No one says it out loud, but it’s presumed that Bart is the one who did it.

Jory tells Bart that he should talk to their parents about what’s bothering him; he goes inside and tells Cathy about Malcolm being put in the attic, and his stepmother; of course, this is freaking Cathy out, for how does he know all this stuff? She talks about it to Chris later, as Jory eavesdrops on them. Once again, Cathy wonders aloud if he’s figured out their secret. Jory goes to his bedroom and once again, wonders what awful thing is wrong with his family.

Next day, Bart attacks little Cindy while she’s sitting in her swimming pool; to all appearances, it looks like he was trying to drown her, but he claims he was teaching her a lesson because she’s sinful. Jory rescues her from his clutches, and then Bart pretty much has an altercation with everyone: he kicks Jory in the nuts, he hits Emma, and Cathy finally has to pin him down to get him to stop. She makes him go to the attic and says she’s going to spank him. He tells her he hates her and she locks him up there. Chris spanks him when he gets home and tells him they are taking him to a psychiatrist. Good going, man! Maybe you can get a group rate for the rest of the family!

Later, Bart overhears Chris and Cathy arguing; Chris can’t believe, after all they suffered, Cathy would leave him in the attic. She did what she had to do. Oh, do you realize who you sound like? She knows.

At the psychiatrist’s office, he refuses to answer any questions; she tells him that if he doesn’t cooperate, they will put him in the hospital. So he starts talking, eavesdropping later when she talks to Chris and Cathy about what his issues are – self-loathing, and making the evil side of him a separate part of his personality named Malcolm. However, she has no doubt that he loves them, Cathy especially.

Bart continues to act out, especially towards Cathy. She gets super upset and asks Jory why Bart hates her so much. Jory wonders if Bart senses her guilt when she looks at him.

Cathy and Jory talk about the performance of Coppelia at the ballet school. Chris overhears that Cathy will be on stage, and gets angry, because her knee is bad, and if she falls, she could be permanently disabled. She claims that she’s only going to be the mechanical doll and won’t be dancing. Bart thinks that if she DOES fall and becomes disabled, she can be home all the time. They argue, and she finally convinces him, using all of her feminine wiles, of course. She says that she’s nothing without dancing, though, and Chris suggests that book she said she was always going to write. Now would be a good time to do that.

Emma threatens to spank the living daylights out of Bart, and Bart threatens her life, so she backs down. Later, he encounters little Cindy in her sandbox and cuts her hair with a pocketknife. Apparently he got the idea from Malcolm’s journal.

Performance time, and we discover that, of course, Cathy lied about her role. She’s doing two parts, one of which is more intensive and is actively causing her pain. Chris and Bart are not in the audience at this point, however. And of course, one of her ribbons on her shoes comes undone and she falls. After surgery, Chris tells her that her knee is in such bad shape, she’s going to need a wheelchair until she heals. Oh, and she can never dance again.

So, she begins writing, going through all of her old journals and retelling the tale of their lives. Bart is a shit when she comes home. Jory and Chris go to visit the woman next door. She doesn’t say anything, pretending that she doesn’t speak English, but apparently indicates she can understand it. Corinne keeps trying to hide her hands, but her telltale twisting of her necklaces betrays her. Chris jumps up and berates her, and Jory wonders how he knows her. Are all the stories Bart told him the truth?

Corinne was released the summer before from the mental hospital and apparently helped them behind the scenes to purchase the land on which their house now rests. She gets super dramatic and begs for his forgiveness, as she always does. She is just so sorry, can’t she be forgiven? Would you take away the only family she has left? Chris is unmoved. Jory is confused, of course. Corinne removes her veil to show how she has damaged her face so that she would no longer look like Cathy, and explains about the hard chairs, the mirrors, all to punish herself. Jory begs his father to forgive her; oh, honey, you don’t even know the half of it.

They leave, but Jory thinks that Bart was there, hiding and listening to the whole exchange, so he goes back to get him. Chris makes him promise not to tell his mother about their visit; he’ll take care of the woman next door. Jory wants to know what Corinne could have done to make him hate her so, and he promises that he needs to find the right words and he will tell them the full story. He sees Bart with John Amos and Bart seems hypnotized, repeating that death will redeem sinners, etc. Bart goes home and Jory wonders about Apple; he finds him in the barn, starved to death but also stabbed with a pitchfork. Jory gets Chris to help him bury the dog, and Chris isn’t sure that Bart would have done it, but who knows with that kid?

Bart follows Chris next door when he visits Corinne again, as she hasn’t even started packing to leave. We know she has no intention of doing so, Chris. You really think she has changed? Bart hears them speak about his real father, and he realizes that John Amos was telling him the truth. Things get heated and Corinne swears she was always doing the best she could, to which Chris scoffs. She asks for Chris to give her Bart for her own son; she’ll leave and keep their secret. Corinne uses Charm attack; it’s mildly effective. She keeps going; she pulls out the “I don’t have much longer to live” card and says that Bart needs her. She has nothing left. Except John Amos, and the land that her house and theirs is built upon, as well as lots of other land. And her other money. And jewelry. She just wants to be their mother again.

Chris says she needs to get rid of John Amos, but he has blackmailed her. He probably knows everything, but she says she could pay him off. She also wants to know if Chris loves Cathy, you know, like husband and wife. Bart told her they share a bedroom. Chris snaps that there’s only one bed, okay, now back off!

Bart goes home and his mother tries to engage with him, but he’s mired in evil, dark thoughts about pushing her down and breaking her bones. Unfaithful woman to all her husbands. Which is actually true! He won’t talk to her, then finally says that he hates her and hopes she dies; oh and that the house burns down with her and Cindy in it. He runs away to the barn and reads Malcolm’s journal. John Amos tells him that he shouldn’t be afraid to step on people who get in his way, and by the way, you know your parents are going to lock you in an institution, right?

He goes home, apologizes to his mother, and then when she softens a bit, tells her that she doesn’t deserve any children. Later, he sneaks away a box of her writing while she’s distracted, to read and share with John Amos. Madame Marisha, Jory’s grandmother, is apparently going to come and replace Cathy at the ballet school, which does NOT made Cathy happy at all.

Chris is concerned that Cathy is so deep into her book, reliving all of the horrors to the detriment of other things and people in her life. But she can’t give up writing right now; the words need to get out. John Amos tells Bart to keep reading his mother’s book, that he’ll find the answers to his problems inside of it. Bart also reads more of Malcolm’s journal.

Madame Marisha swoops in, making Cathy nervous within minutes of her arrival. She asks about Paul, and if her brother still lives with her, making Jory confused, because the only brother he knows about is Cory, long deceased. Cathy tries to deflect, but Marisha keeps asking probing questions – so Chris never married? Your husband must be fairly old by now. Cathy offers to heat up spaghetti, but Madame balks at all the starches. Thankfully, she will not stay with them.

She breezes into the dance studio and starts erasing all of Cathy’s work. She also says Cathy was a fool to dance with a bad knee, but Jory defends her; Marisha gets all small and frail, another dramatic grandma. But she’s here to get to know her grandson before she dies, and more importantly, to make him more famous than his father was, because Cathy ruined all of his dreams! Once again, Marisha brings up Paul, how he must be pretty old. Jory can’t say anything, but she catches a weird look, and probes further. He answers carefully, his mind reeling with all of the lies; he tries to escape, but then Marisha decides to go home with him and have a chat with old Cathy.

On the way, she needles Jory a bit; how much does he know about his family? Is Paul still alive? Why is Chris ALWAYS there? Jory remains staunchly loyal to Cathy. Gotta hand it to Marisha; she goes right in, Cathy clacking away the typewriter, and is all, Why didn’t you tell me Paul was dead? Cathy tries Evasion; it’s not effective! She makes Jory leave, and he tries to eavesdrop from the other side of the door. Marisha says she doesn’t care that Chris and Cathy live together; lots of worse things happen all the time. However, she should not be exposing her children to that. She says she should take Jory with her, away from this toxic environment, and she will help him with his career, and shield him from this messed-up house. She’s also pissed that Cathy could never really love Julian, because she always loved Chris more. Cathy tries to defend herself by saying that Julian was a VERY hard man to live with, which was true. Marisha admits they made mistakes with Julian, and she can make up for that now, with his only son. Cathy says no, she can’t give up her child, even at the risk of his future career. Marisha says then she will bring down the house and get custody of Jory; she doesn’t want to do it this way, but Cathy is leaving her no choice. Cathy screams at her to get out, there is more to life than ballet, and hurls a vase of flowers at Marisha’s head. Marisha pities her. Bart tries to stab her as she strides out of the house, while Jory is sick and miserable with the truth.

Bart knows the whole truth now, too, as he read Cathy’s book. Everyone is cagey. Bart hates everyone, but that’s nothing new. John Amos says that Cathy is to blame for everything. Bart seems to be getting confused in his mind from pretending to be Malcolm so much. He confronts Cathy and threatens her, says he can do anything he wants and the law can’t touch him because he’s a minor. He tries to stab her, but she’s quicker and kicks the knife away, then locks him in his room. He yells that he knows all about her because the people next door told him. She tells him to stay put and takes Cindy with her as she goes next door. He follows shortly thereafter, however, hoping that John Amos doesn’t see her.

Cathy is admitted inside the house and meets with Corinne, who is veiled, hands behind her back this time. She says nothing as Cathy talks on about Bart coming over and returning with all sorts of tales. Cindy, as young ones do, wanders all over the place and heads out of the room and Cathy follows her. Instantly, Corinne is on her feet and yells not to go in there. Of course, Cathy is going to recognize her own mother’s voice, and once again, Corinne’s hands betray her. They have an altercation and then John Amos comes in and says she should not take advantage of his wife.

Cathy takes the veil away from her mother’s face, and then wildly dances about while she slaps at her and talks about how she ruined her life. John Amos manhandles Cathy and Bart wonders if he should intervene; but isn’t this God’s way to punish her? Cathy breaks his false teeth with a fierce headbutt. She tackles Corinne and wrestles her to the floor, yanking off all of her jewelry and throwing it into the fire. John Amos cracks her over the head with a fireplace poker. Then, when Corinne goes to check on her, he cracks HER over the head, as well.

Bart says that wasn’t in the plan, but John Amos says that now he’ll have two souvenirs. Creepay. He claims he won’t hurt them, just hide them, but Bart is not to tell anyone or they’ll lock him away. Bart takes Cindy home and threatens to cut out her tongue if she says anything.

Meanwhile, Jory has it out with Madame Marisha but then they come to an understanding. Chris wants to know if Jory understands how it was with him and Cathy, but he doesn’t. Chris tries to explain that she was always the only one for him. Again, you could have tried harder; you could have perhaps gone for counseling. . . you just let it all pull you under, man.

Jory is also disturbed because he has read portions of the manuscript, and knows about how Chris attacked Cathy in the attic. He thinks there is no excuse for that, and he is right. He doesn’t say any of this to Chris, though. They get home, and of course, Cathy isn’t there. They question Bart, but he doesn’t tell them anything. Cindy mentions that she was outside, so Bart says that Cindy had run outside and Cathy went to get her. They search the whole house and then Bart disappears, as well. Jory knows if he finds him, he’ll find his mother.

Next door, John Amos is having the maids pack up some stuff to send after Madame on her trip. He has hidden Corinne and Cathy in the basement, in a recessed wine cellar, damp and dark. Bart gives them bread and water. Cathy is feverish and back in the past, causing her mother great distress.

Jory and Chris go next door, and in the driving rain, Jory says that he can’t hate either one of them, despite what they did. John Amos says that his wife has already begun her travel to Hawaii and he is buy packing up the house. Chris says he’s going to search the house, and of course, they don’t find either woman. They resolve next day to only pretend to go about their regular schedule, so that they can see where Bart goes, as he probably knows their whereabouts.

True to form, Bart goes next door next day, and he overhears John Amos telling the maids lies about him – that he’s crazy and killed the dog, and he keeps harassing Madame, so they’re leaving. Bart creeps down to the basement and hears Corinne talking to Cathy, who is barely focusing. Corinne does not think that Bart killed Apple, or Clover, or even the little kitten; she thinks it’s John, hoping that Bart would be blamed when the two of them went missing. John is dangerous, she says, and apparently, he used to creep on her when she was ten years old. She knew no one would believe her, so she never said anything. If she had never gone back to Foxworth Hall, he would have inherited everything, because he was Malcolm’s right-hand man. So obviously this is why he hates her. Bart is conflicted, hearing all this. Especially when his mother has a moment of lucidity and realizes who is in the cell with her.

Jory tries to follow Bart, but loses sight of him. Later he goes to the cellar with John Amos, who announces that this is their last supper. He spits in the teapot and gives them dirty sandwiches. He gloats that he will finally get the money he rightfully deserves. Corinne begs him to at least let Cathy out, as she’s very ill and needs to be in the hospital; he just ignores her. She begs Bart to tell his father, but he’s all foggy and just wanders away.

Jory and Chris go once more to the house and Chris realizes that John is exacting some sort of revenge. They come back and hear Bart sitting in the corner, muttering to himself about hell and fire and eternity. Later, after he thinks everyone has gone to bed, he goes to the kitchen to make up a last meal for the women. He eavesdrops on their conversation and realizes that both of them love him. Cathy will NOT forgive her mother, as she begs, and she knocks over the little candle onto the hay that Bart had shoved in for them. Bart runs into John Amos upstairs as he’s leaving the house with his things and reminds him to light the string at minute. Bart threw the string away, though, which angers John, but here comes Jory and Chris to save the day. John of course, says that Bart started a fire, and he’s the one who killed the dog, and no wonder Corinne panicked and left. Bart gives Chris the key to the wine cellar and says that Malcolm wanted it this way.

Chris rescues Cathy and Corinne; Cathy is barely conscious. John Amos knocks Chris out with a shovel. Jory kicks the shovel away, and Corinne tells him to get everyone out of the garage and keep them away from the house in case it blows from the gasoline; she will find Bart. John Amos tries to choke Corinne among the flames. Bart is trying to salvage a painting. Cathy comes to the door and says they all need to leave the house. Jory calls the fire department, while Cathy tries to reason with her confused younger son. There’s some confusion, everyone leaves the house except the two women, but then Cathy is shoved out of one of the patio doors. Corinne comes out after her, but her clothes have caught fire, and she dies.

Jory and Bart give us an epilogue. Bart returned to normal – well, what was normal for him, anyway. Their parents got him a pony AND a St. Bernard dog. No one talks about Corinne, or the dogs, or John Amos, trying to keep Bart’s fragile psyche intact. John Amos died, as well, so he got what he deserved. Corinne’s will left everything to Jory and Bart, and even a small portion to Cindy; all held in trust until they are 25.

Jory worries that Bart will be like his great-grandfather when he’s older, ruthless, constantly striving for greatness, stepping on anyone who gets in his way.

For Jory, love is everything. Even when Bart has all of his billions, Jory will be content with family and happy memories. He will carry on the family tradition.

Bart says that God sent Corinne and John and the spirit of Malcolm to him to save his parents from the everlasting fires of hell. Sometimes he sneaks into their bedroom at night to see if they are doing something wicked. But they are just sleeping and Cathy’s eyes no longer rove around behind their lids anymore, so he feels that he has saved them. He believes in Malcolm’s words – there has to be darkness if there is to be light.

Cathy has to have the last words, because that’s how she is. She forgave her mother when they were putting Corinne in the ground. She knows that Bart sneaks in at night, and she worries about history repeating itself. She gets an offer on her book and accepts, despite Madame Marisha and even Bart thinking all of this should be kept to themselves.

Cathy looks up and sees Bart reading a red journal. But Malcolm’s journal burned in the fire. This book is faux-leather and has blank pages. Not that it mattered, she says.

[break]

There’s not much to really say about If There Be Thorns. It is unusual for the VC Andrews canon in that it is narrated by male voices, and I’m not really sure how well she pulls it off. Bart and his dropping of ‘g’s at the end of sentences made him sound like an old prospector. It’s rather weird. For the most part, you can tell which chapter is Jory’s or Bart’s, but toward the end, you might read a few sentences before you pick up on whose voice it’s supposed to be.

The other thing of note to mention is what some have termed disability horror. It’s a lot more prominent in other books – not just in this series, but standalones like My Sweet Audrina – where some of the horror stems from being trapped – in an attic, or one’s own body. Here, it’s less pronounced, but Cathy does end up in a wheelchair, at least for a short period of time. Andrews herself was confined to a wheelchair or bed or crutches for the majority of her adult life, so it’s obvious that her own lived experience contributed to her writing.

Well, that’s the show. Please like, subscribe, and comment. The Forgotten Library is available on most podcast aggregators. Transcripts and source materials are in the show notes. And suggestions for future shows are always welcome.

Until next time, I’m Nikki Gee, your intrepid library haunter.