Ruby by V.C. Andrews - BOOK REVIEW

The only family Ruby Landry has ever known are her loving grandparents. Although her mother is dead and she has never met her mysterious father, Ruby is grateful for all she has, especially when her attraction for handsome Paul Tate blossoms into a wonderful love.

But Paul's wealthy parents forbid him to associate with a poor Landry, and when Ruby's grandmother dies, she is forced to seek out the father she has never known in his vast New Orleans mansion. There, in a house of lies, madness and cruel torment, a shameful deception comes to light, and Ruby must cling to her memories of Paul: for only their love can save her now.

This was Andrew Neiderman's second V.C. Andrews penned series. With the contrast of the Louisiana bayou and to the heart of New Orleans, this gothic horror captures the rages to riches themes seen in Flowers and Heaven - and like them, this depicts the dark side of money and privilege.

Our heroine in this series is Ruby, an aspiring artist who spent her whole life raised by her grandmother and learns that her family secrets run deeper than she thought. As well as finding out the boy she's been crushing on is her half-brother - Paul is just as pushy as the OG brother/lover Christopher and also lacks any personality or life outside pursuing his sister. On top of this revelation, she learns that her drunk of a grandfather sold Paul and later her twin on her mother's deathbed for whisky money to the rich baby daddies. Naturally Grandmere Catherine knocks him out to prevent baby Ruby from being ripped from her mother's arms and Jack is banished into the swamp. In this book, Catherine was a legend - her massive flaw though was not having the common sense to give Ruby and Paul the heads-up before they formed a romantic entanglement. After Catherine dies - because of course she does - and crazy Jack sets Ruby up to be raped and married to the definition of stranger-danger, she flies to New Orleans to meet her biological family. Which goes as bad as you can expect in the V.C. Andrews universe.

One fault I found with Ruby was her naivety, specifically how passive she seemed at times to be within her own story. There were two scenes in particular where Ruby lacked agency in scenes of a sexual nature - not only did Ruby's protests fall on deaf ears with her suitors, she suddenly changes her mind when it's about to happen. This lack of agency was uncomfortable to read, especially when the scene suddenly becomes consensual which was jarring when everything leading up to that moment said otherwise. Agency aside, Ruby was also unable to read a room and know when to keep her mouth shut or speak up for herself. Sadly, she wasn't my favourite V.C. Andrews lead.

For a time, I found the pacing of this book a bit slow - and we had voodoo queens, incest, evil twin sisters, bitter stepmothers, emotionally unavailable fathers. boyfriend swapping and escapes from mental institutions. A lot happened, but I found by the time things were happening in New Orleans I was 60% through my e-book.

Now I've hinted at this, but Ruby's sister Gisselle was a trip. Seriously. She didn't have the emotional complexity of Fanny from Casteel and she wasn't totally demented like Vera, she kind of wondered round the middle. Gisselle made it her life's mission to make Ruby's life a living hell - for no other reason than superficial jealousy. Her pranks quickly escalate to insane lengths and even when she's "cursed" and ends up in a wheelchair from a car crash, she's pretty much the same as she was in her first scene.

Oddly enough, the resolution to this book felt too rushed. After everything these characters had put Ruby through, I was more than taken aback by her willingness to forgive her entire messed-up family. It's rare I say this, but I actually preferred the film in this case. Don't get me wrong, Neiderman had great moments in this book, but I feel Richard Blaney and Gregory Small's screenplay for the 2021 film adaptation captured the character moments as everyone was changed and shaped by the insanity that occurs.

Although I struggled to get through this book early on, once the melodrama kicked in I gave it a three-star rating on Goodreads. By a happy coincident, I was able to catch the film adaptation of Ruby the day after I finished the book - watch this space for that review.