Crazy for Young Adult Books discussion

Whitney, Alberto and I are starting the Dollanganger series.

Please feel free to join us!

I'm looking forward to reading this! My edition has the first and second books of the series... I hope we read all of it! :)

Thanks for making this, Trisha!

I'll join. :)

yay! Welcome Ang and Chelsea!!

I can't wait to start this one (and I hope we read the whole series too, Alberto!)

well....I don't know about you guys, but my copy doesn't have chapter numbers...

so I read about 100 pages in my copy

Last chapter I finished/read: The Wrath of God
I stopped at chapter called: Momma's story

Grandmother(view spoiler)[ what an awful woman. (hide spoiler)]

Grandfather(view spoiler)[ can he turn his feelings to love again for a daughter he finds so awful. he definitely could never love her kids (hide spoiler)]

Cory and Carrie(view spoiler)[ yikes, hard awful lesson they learned. at least Grandma only slapped them. I'm glad she didn't pull out her whip yet (hide spoiler)]

Mother(view spoiler)[ I'm with Cathy. Why on earth did they come here (hide spoiler)]

Christopher(view spoiler)[ he seems very advance, very smart for his age. interesting that they used to struggle to get a long but are finding a way to now. glad, because they are definitely in small quarters (hide spoiler)]

and Yuck! I've never seen a "book bug" or bookworm! Have you guys??

I'm a bit late on starting, but I've been busy the last couple days. Starting today and hoping to at least get about 50 pages read. Hope you all are enjoying so far. ♥

no worries Chelsea :) start whenever

I read through: To Make a Garden Grow
and stopped at: Holidays

plants(view spoiler)[ awful that they have plants and even they are dying. They need the sun and so do the kids (hide spoiler)]

momma(view spoiler)[ ugh. you know she's going to get sucked in to her family's wealth again. she loves money and she loves the easy way. I'm not even sure she's taking typing anymore.....and she's spending an awful lot of money on the kids - she likes the shopping (hide spoiler)]

Sunning(view spoiler)[ Yikes. I don't know if I'd sun naked. maybe just in the under things (hide spoiler)]

it's been(view spoiler)[ a long time now.... (hide spoiler)]

My book arrived today so I'll probably start tomorrow, but I have to finish a book that is due back on Tuesday so I might have to hold off.

I'm through Part 1 (stopped at Part II)

Party(view spoiler)[ her mom really is living it up. I'm sad for what Chris had to witness. awful that the mom slapped him and told them they would NEVER get out and that she would whip them!? Yikes (hide spoiler)]

Chris(view spoiler)[ Sounds like he's still following the Mother but he has his doubts too (hide spoiler)]

Calendar(view spoiler)[ I can't even begin to imagine a whole year locked in an attic/one bedroom space with one bathroom. Especially with 2 younger kids to keep quiet (hide spoiler)]

I'm done too - took it with me to the park while my husband and kids played Pokemon Go

Chris(view spoiler)[ I remembered this part from reading it when I was really young. I was really mad too - he raped her. there really isn't a pretty way to say it.
but before that, I liked him okay - although his optimism was exhausting too. and his blind faith in their mom (I thought the mom kissing him all the time and petting him was odd too). (hide spoiler)]

Cathy(view spoiler)[ OMG I agree. she was just....exhausting. her POV was repetitive and sooooo long.
but I did understand her justifying Chris raping her. wrong though it is, it was easier for her to say she wanted it too than to put words to what he did - which was attack her. PLUS they had been playing house for so long, I think she thought she provoked him (and she's the one who found the book). I think she did blame herself. (hide spoiler)]

Mother and Grandmother(view spoiler)[ I agree with Chris's assessment that the mother did it. Grandmother didn't benefit from killing them and she did always try to talk them out of sweets. I think she knew what her daughter was doing - and she didn't agree, necessarily, but she had agreed to not interfere and to let God's will decide. Awful, because they lost Cory (hide spoiler)]

so...this one was about as good as I remember....Meh, 3 stars for me. interesting, kept me reading but Ugh, Cathy was hard to keep reading.....

I'm going to try to finish this ASAP. I've been reading all of my university texts in preparation for school starting next week, so I got kind of caught up in that. Hopefully will be finished with this by the weekend.

oh no worries :)
I hope your classes are good ones!

I finished this one!

Cathy - (view spoiler)[ Okay, so I just to say that some parts of her were clearly annoying, but she was a good character overall. I hated her stupidity though, even when Chris (not Christopher because of their dad, like, really?) kept saying that she was smart. She wasn't really smart or sneaky. I mean... the whole stepdad thing... really? She could at least be more careful, and she certainly shouldn't have let Corrine know that they were onto her. I can't wait to see how she plans to reenact her revenge? (hide spoiler)]

Chris - (view spoiler)[ Okay, so I have a lot of opinions about him. (hide spoiler)] As you said Trisha, (view spoiler)[ he was pretty smart for his age, and was able to keep his impulses for a while. (hide spoiler)] However, (view spoiler)[ one thing I did absolutely hate about him was the way that he was always quick to forgive Corrine, no matter what she did, although I guess that his pent up sexual desires played a big role on that. He was really quick and clever when it came to everything, although he must've been really skilled to do everything he did up there in the attic and protect his brothers. (hide spoiler)]

About the act - (view spoiler)[ I do agree that the rape was rape no matter what they said... although it makes me think that Cathy really wanted him so badly that she just let him do it. I hope she doesn't turn up pregnant. However, it kept me thinking about something. The act itself cannot be longer than 2 paragraphs, but the repercussions that the act itself conveys are talked for the rest of the book. I guess that it gives the message that the act wasn't the most important part, but the consequences they would face for what actions they took. (hide spoiler)]

Carrie & Cory - (view spoiler)[ I loved these two, even if they were spoiled brats. It made me really sad when Cory died, for he was my favourite character of all the Dresden Dolls. Poor them, malnourished and mishandled, and even worse after his death and Carrie still thinking that the garden wouldn't be liked if they weren't together... broke my heart to see such negligence. (hide spoiler)]

Corrine - (view spoiler)[ *lots of expletives deleted for the sake of everyone.* I hated her sudden mood changes and wanting to blame everything on Cathy... She knew what would happen if she married her half-uncle, but so things go. Sometimes I wonder who was worse, the grandmother, or her... To neglect your kid like takes balls and a black heart, and to neglect them for MONEY? Well, let's just say that some people will do about anything for it, even if they are rotten. Hated when she married again. After reading the Grandfather's codicil, I know why she wanted to poison her children. (hide spoiler)]

Olivia (the Grandmother) - (view spoiler)[ What a vile, religious zealot woman! I still have no idea why she kept the children locked away in the Northern wing... I mean, if she hated Corrine for what she did, why didn't she rat them out? I guess she would've gotten her husband's money. I also wonder why she always wore the same diamond brooch... Will it mean anything else in the following books? (hide spoiler)]

Malcolm (the dying Grandfather) - (view spoiler)[ It really was a shock that he had been dead for almost 9 months before the escape... However, I'm so glad that he decided to punish Corrine one way or another, even if it meant destroying his family line. (hide spoiler)]

Bart Winslow - (view spoiler)[ Hm, did he actually feel attraction for Cathy? Can't tell. Either way, he should be able to reason with his wife and not let her be a spoiled brat all the time. (hide spoiler)]

I agree with you Ang, (view spoiler)[ Lots of loose ends... I guess it was Corrine who poisoned them, because what use would the Grandmother have with them dead? She'd have to drag their bodies and oh my if that isn't suspicious. Plus she was bald. Was she sick? (hide spoiler)]

5 stars for me! I started reading this because it was one of my mum's favourite books (and her favourite author!) when she was younger! I'm definitely looking forward to continuing this series :)

My favourite quote for the book was:

“There is no hate such as that born out of love betrayed- and my brain screamed out for revenge.”

The first part, honestly, felt really true.

I'm so so glad you liked it Alberto!

I love your comments on Cathy!! lol

And you are too right! The act(view spoiler)[ really does reverberate through the rest of the story.....it really does start to define them - probably because their parents had their whole lives changed because of something close to it and because the Grandma just knew they would do this

Yikes, I didn't even think about pregnancy (hide spoiler)]

Corrine - lol I love that you deleted all those expletives for us!

oh and loose ends(view spoiler)[ Yes! The grandma - was she bald because she was sick? being poisoned? was she being punished?
was that why she hated Cathy's hair so much?! I know, all those loose ends! (hide spoiler)]

Does that mean we want to try for Book 2 in September?? :D

Yes, Trisha!!

I'd love continuing the series and finishing it before September is over :) (Petals on the Wind, at least)

Yes! that sounds great!
How's early to mid September to start??

As soon as you're free! I own the book :)

the library is in the process of sending it to me...but I'd like to try to finish out some books for August....

how about first week of September?

Trisha wrote: "the library is in the process of sending it to me...but I'd like to try to finish out some books for August....

how about first week of September?"

That'd be perfect :) The first complete one? Say like the 6th?

sounds great!!
I'll make the thread later tonight!!

yay! I finally made our thread!

It's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

As soon as you're free! I own the book :)