Had potential, but the story started too late.

The new ghostwritten prequel of the Dollanganger saga focuses on the mother of Malcolm Foxworth and the tragic backstory of the first Corrine.
However this book was missing something - the language and dialogue broke the consistency of 18th century Virginia and this stood out as I read further into this novel. Corrine was a character that was supposed to be written out of place and time, but her obnoxious, overtly sexual and naive persona made her difficult to sympathise or like. There were also slight inconsistencies from the original series. The relationship with Corrine and Garland previously written as a loving and compassionate relationship, now is a creepy and inappropriate relationship. Their relationship goes into abusive and non consensual territory, making their relationship much more problematic and yet, it didn’t delve into the psychological and emotional consequences of said abuse throughout most of the plot.
Towards the end, this book seemed to find a narrative flow. The seeds of the conflict started to be planted, but everything before that just felt like filler - even plot points that would’ve caused real conflicts weren’t delved into. Corrine and Garland’s relationship could’ve been interesting if it wasn’t portrayed as romantic through the protagonist’s perspective throughout most of the novel - if Corrine saw it for what it was, the complexity of this flawed engagement would be interesting. Only when Corrine was in Foxworth Hall did the story actually give the storyline that dark edge, but it was nearly the end when that finally happened.

As I listened to the audiobook, Dara Rosenberg gave a strong dramatic reading and really gave the story emotion and character.

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