My Sweet Audrina
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| My Sweet Audrina | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | V. C. Andrews |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | only book written as a solo |
| Genre(s) | Gothic horror |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
| Publication date | 1982 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 403 p. |
| ISBN | ISBN 9780671682866 |
'My Sweet Audrina' is a novel by V. C. Andrews. It was the only standalone novel published during Andrews' lifetime.
[edit] Plot summary
The novel begins when Audrina Adare is a young girl, living in a Victorian house called Whitefern. She lives with her father, mother, Aunt Ellsbeth, and cousin Vera. She has what she calls "a Swiss-cheese memory" - full of holes.
Unlike Vera, who is a few years older than her, Audrina is kept isolated from outsiders and does not go to school. Her family often visits the grave of Audrina's dead older sister (also named Audrina), who was raped and killed one day in the woods. Though she never actually met this sister, her father tells her stories about his "first and best Audrina", and how one day she too will be as gifted and special.
After she grows older and is no longer under her family's exclusive influence, Audrina develops a relationship with a local boy, Arden Lowe, who her father only sometimes lets her visit. She also begins taking piano lessons.
Audrina's strange life becomes worse when her mother dies giving birth to a mentally challenged daughter, Sylvia. Audrina cares for Sylvia like a mother and comes to love her dearly.
Vera becomes pregnant, probably by Audrina's piano teacher. She miscarries the baby and runs away with the teacher.
Soon after, Audrina sees her father having sex with her aunt Ellsbeth, and discovers that Vera is her half-sister as well as her cousin.
Audrina marries Arden hoping to escape her controlling father and aunt, but her life does not improve. Vera returns and mocks her. Arden's mother, to whom Audrina has become close, and Ellsbeth die mysteriously by falling down stairs. Audrina is also pushed by an unseen assailant, but survives in a coma, during which she can hear others speak but cannot speak or move herself.
She overhears Vera trying to convince Arden to help kill her so they can marry. With Sylvia's help, Audrina awakens and her father tells her the truth about herself and the first Audrina: that there never was a first Audrina; she was the one who was attacked as a child.
While coming home from school on her ninth birthday, Audrina took a shortcut through the woods where she was ambushed and gang-raped by a group of local boys. Arden witnessed the attack, but did not participate, could not stop it and was afraid to report it. Because of her severe shock, her family decided to purge her memory of the event by making her a new person, causing her memory to become strange and unreliable.
Luckily the revelation does not destroy Audrina's identity and instead confirms her sense of self. She decides to start her life over with Arden and the surviving members of her family at Whitefern.
