100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #31
31. Heaven Leigh Casteel, as seen in the novels Heaven, Dark Angel, Fallen Hearts, and Gates of Paradise by VC Andrews
Look, I unapologetically love VC Andrews. It's not even a guilty pleasure because I feel no guilt about it. Writers like VC Andrews (and her ghostwriter) get a lot of shit, but the women in my family (who do not read) read her books because there's something universally recognizable in the (admittedly overdramatic, not entirely well-written) sagas of the families she writes.
For those of you who don't know who VC Andrews is (and, even if you don't, you've likely heard of her most famous book "Flowers in the Attic",) she/her ghostwriter used to write 5 book sagas about different families: the Dollengangers, the Casteels, the Cutlers, the Landrys, the Hudsons, the deBeers. Her estate still puts out series and single books which are far less interesting than the original sagas, but there are definitely recognizable tropes in her books: female protagonists, some sort of forbidden (usually incestuous) love, an "evil" person who tries to keep the protagonist down (usually a mother figure,) and a love interest who loves the protagonist no matter what. And while "Flowers in the Attic" is the most well-known series, the Casteel saga is the best written.
Heaven's story begins in a very poor shack in West Virginia; she is the oldest of five children and the only child to come from Pa's first marriage to 13-year-old Leigh, who died giving birth to Heaven. When her stepmother leaves, Pa literally sells his children to families. It is not until the end of the first book Heaven discovers her mother is actually from a very wealthy family in Boston, and her step-grandfather comes to claim her and take her away. It is very much wish fulfillment; though Heaven has experienced terrible things at that point (hunger, molestation by her foster father, rejection from Logan Stonewall, the boy she lived,) she now thinks life is going to get better.
As it does in all VC Andrews's stories, it doesn't. Heaven doesn't fit into Boston society, her grandmother is obsessed with youth and doesn't want to mother her, her grandfather is controlling, and the only relief Heaven has is Troy, her grandfather Tony's little brother who she obviously falls passionately in love with and becomes engaged to only to find out Tony is actually her father, making Troy her uncle. Troy "kills himself," Heaven returns to West Virginia, and marries Logan. Except, of course, Troy isn't really dead and they end up having one final night of passion which results in Heaven's pregnancy with her daughter Annie. (Hey, I said these books were overdramatic and ridiculous.)
But what makes Heaven a great character (and she really is, I swear) is she's resilient, she's powerfully devoted to her family (even her terrible sister Fanny, who sleeps with her husband, gets pregnant with his baby, and fights her for custody of their little brother Drake,) and she absolutely betters herself; rather than settle into the depression and complacency with her place in West Virginia society, Heaven strives to become a teacher and better the lives of the children in her hometown the way her teachers bettered hers.
People often spit on "popular fiction," but here's what people forget: most people don't read the classics, don't know who Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy are, don't even possess the reading skills to read and understand those books. The women I grew up around do not read, but every one of them has VC Andrews (and Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts) books on their shelves, and these are the literary representations of themselves they see. Heaven is not the greatest female character ever written, but she's a character millions of women who don't often see themselves represented can look at and say, "Hey, I understand that."
And that's pretty kick-ass.
Look, I unapologetically love VC Andrews. It's not even a guilty pleasure because I feel no guilt about it. Writers like VC Andrews (and her ghostwriter) get a lot of shit, but the women in my family (who do not read) read her books because there's something universally recognizable in the (admittedly overdramatic, not entirely well-written) sagas of the families she writes.
For those of you who don't know who VC Andrews is (and, even if you don't, you've likely heard of her most famous book "Flowers in the Attic",) she/her ghostwriter used to write 5 book sagas about different families: the Dollengangers, the Casteels, the Cutlers, the Landrys, the Hudsons, the deBeers. Her estate still puts out series and single books which are far less interesting than the original sagas, but there are definitely recognizable tropes in her books: female protagonists, some sort of forbidden (usually incestuous) love, an "evil" person who tries to keep the protagonist down (usually a mother figure,) and a love interest who loves the protagonist no matter what. And while "Flowers in the Attic" is the most well-known series, the Casteel saga is the best written.
Heaven's story begins in a very poor shack in West Virginia; she is the oldest of five children and the only child to come from Pa's first marriage to 13-year-old Leigh, who died giving birth to Heaven. When her stepmother leaves, Pa literally sells his children to families. It is not until the end of the first book Heaven discovers her mother is actually from a very wealthy family in Boston, and her step-grandfather comes to claim her and take her away. It is very much wish fulfillment; though Heaven has experienced terrible things at that point (hunger, molestation by her foster father, rejection from Logan Stonewall, the boy she lived,) she now thinks life is going to get better.
As it does in all VC Andrews's stories, it doesn't. Heaven doesn't fit into Boston society, her grandmother is obsessed with youth and doesn't want to mother her, her grandfather is controlling, and the only relief Heaven has is Troy, her grandfather Tony's little brother who she obviously falls passionately in love with and becomes engaged to only to find out Tony is actually her father, making Troy her uncle. Troy "kills himself," Heaven returns to West Virginia, and marries Logan. Except, of course, Troy isn't really dead and they end up having one final night of passion which results in Heaven's pregnancy with her daughter Annie. (Hey, I said these books were overdramatic and ridiculous.)
But what makes Heaven a great character (and she really is, I swear) is she's resilient, she's powerfully devoted to her family (even her terrible sister Fanny, who sleeps with her husband, gets pregnant with his baby, and fights her for custody of their little brother Drake,) and she absolutely betters herself; rather than settle into the depression and complacency with her place in West Virginia society, Heaven strives to become a teacher and better the lives of the children in her hometown the way her teachers bettered hers.
People often spit on "popular fiction," but here's what people forget: most people don't read the classics, don't know who Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy are, don't even possess the reading skills to read and understand those books. The women I grew up around do not read, but every one of them has VC Andrews (and Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts) books on their shelves, and these are the literary representations of themselves they see. Heaven is not the greatest female character ever written, but she's a character millions of women who don't often see themselves represented can look at and say, "Hey, I understand that."
And that's pretty kick-ass.