The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story

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[ed]” 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. (Feb.)