Eekind’s Reviews > Heaven > Status Update

Not Germaine to my current % but I was obsessed with Heaven going to school in Atlanta and reading Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and a biography of the Brontë Sisters and being like “This me”…having not read either but knowing the general story arch does make me giggle about VC putting her characters in horrible conditions under the thumb of rich ppl only to be like “ don’t be pissed, this has precedent”

Well now they’re both abusing Heaven…they’re both physical forms of abuse and she needs to figure out how to get out of this situation because it’s only becoming more dangerous.

I have mixed feelings about Kitty playing into the Crazy=Dangerous trope but I also feel like it’s been well established she was physically abused as a child. Also Cal is doing sexual abuse to Heaven like Kitty did to him.

I get that Heaven is 17 but why is she having an emotional affair with her 27 year old Foster Dad. I get that VC is trying to show how Kitty is screwing herself over by allowing the two younger people she is abusing to collude behind her back even though they both want to love her…but this is in the pantheon of her most cringe tropes because why is Heaven going on movie dates with her Foster Dad without commentary

Kitty and Cal are giving babies having babies vibes even tho they’re like 37 and adopting a 15 yo.

I was pleased that when VC introduces all of the crazy clay animal pottery she immediately notes theyre Kittys designs and not just brique a brac she bought. Even tho she’s a flawed character I like that she gets to be neurotic and have hobbies and standards. It helps differentiate her from other abusive VC parents

So I am just picturing a red head Dolly Parton for Kitty. I assume Cal is like a soft spoken Montgomery Cliff or Anthony Perkins.

Also I am just assuming this is supposed to take place in the Mid 60’s. So it makes sense that in a colder Mtn climate adults are still wearing flannel and wool suits while still being a good 5 years off trend. IDK what Kitty is wearing that’s a pink suit jacket with pants in ‘65

VC Andrews the queen that you are…the second I say I am struggling to empathize with Heaven wanting her siblings to stay in poverty, she’s all alone with Luke and Toby and says “I’ve never been more alone…Tom took all the joy, laughter & light out of our home when he left…no one will ever call me Heaven Leigh again”. She has me all misty just thinking about it, VC knows exactly how to pull at ur emotion

Luke Casteel coming home on Christmas Eve only to to sell his two youngest children to a rich lawyer and his wife on Christmas Day. Heaven coming apart at the seams knowing he’ll never be able to compensate the lawyer even if she can get Our Jane and Keith back and having flashback to all of Keith and James formative moments because she felt like a second mother to them :(

As frustrated and I get with Heaven in these sections where she’s literally letting her Grandpa and younger siblings freeze and starve on the side of the mountain because she’s too proud to ask from help from Logan or Ms. Deale, I do find the writing very effective. Because as much as Heaven is self aware of her Pride, it’s still a character flaw that she can’t surmount and it’s presented in a realized way

The most annoying thing about the writing style here vs My Sweet Audrina is how unmoored from place many scenes can be. It feels like VC is in such a rush to get us to the horrible father plot that all these scenes setting up the family dynamic don’t get time to breath. We go from having conversations about Heaven and Tom’s schoolwork at school to the cabin and then on the road to school, which feels unpolished

TW: Child Death
The Baby Casteel and Granny Annie Brandywine Casteel death scenes did feel like Dickensian level mortality plays for Luke and Sara. Obviously Syphilis can do that to a baby and we’ve already established that this family barely has enough money for food much less antibiotics, birth control pills or prenatal vitamins. This book is about it how being poor compounds issues so this is the intended effect