![]() | This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary . It should be expanded to provide more balanced coverage that includes real-world context. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
![]() Original cover | |
Author | V. C. Andrews |
---|---|
Cover artist | Richard Newton |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | The Casteel Series |
Genre | Gothic horror/family saga |
Publisher | Pocket Books |
Publication date | February 1990 |
Pages | 426 |
ISBN | 0-671-67066-2 |
OCLC | 24246239 |
Preceded by | Gates of Paradise |
Web of Dreams was written in 1990 by V. C. Andrews ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman. It is the fifth and final novel in The Casteel Series and is as a prequel to Heaven . Told primarily from the viewpoint of Heaven Casteel's mother, Leigh VanVoreen, the novel explains her secrets and circumstances as a 13-year-old girl who was forced to flee her wealthy Boston home, resulting in her dying in childbirth and leaving behind her daughter, Heaven, to be raised in the hills of West Virginia.
The novel opens with Annie Casteel Stonewall returning to Farthinggale Manor ("Farthy") for the funeral of her father, Troy Tatterton. Annie, hoping to finally put the past to rest alongside her mother Heaven, feels drawn to the suite that used to be occupied by her great-grandmother, Jillian. Annie soon discovers a forgotten diary hidden away in a back drawer in Jillian's suite. The diary was written by Leigh Van Voreen, Annie's grandmother and Heaven's mother. Surprised by the discovery, Annie begins to read the tragic story of Leigh.
In 1950, a 12-year-old Leigh VanVoreen was the beloved daughter of cruise-ship magnate Cleave VanVoreen and his beautiful Boston socialite wife, Jillian. Leigh's life was happy until her mother left her father for Tony Tatterton, the handsome and wealthy owner of Tatterton Toys, who was about 20 years younger than Jillian. When Jillian married Tony, she and Leigh moved into Tony's estate, Farthinggale Manor. Leigh's only friend on the estate was Troy Tatterton, Tony's 4-year-old brother, and they spent a lot of time together. Eventually, Leigh was placed in Winterhaven, an exclusive boarding school for girls.
During her summer vacation, Leigh served as the model for a new line of toy for Tatterton called a portrait doll. During the portrait-doll modeling sessions, Tony had Leigh pose nude and started making advances towards her. Jillian had refused to have a sexual relationship with him, claiming it would detract from her youthful face and figure. Leigh went to Cleave to ask for help, but he had remarried and was too busy with his new wife and work to listen to her problems. Leigh told Jillian what was happening, but Jillian accused her of exaggerating and blew her off.
When the doll was finished, it was presented to Leigh on her birthday. Tony raped Leigh one night while Jillian was away. Leigh tried to call her close friend and tell her about the sexual assault but was too ashamed. The next morning, Tony acted like nothing had happened. Leigh didn't want to stay in her room where the attack had happened, so she hid in Jillian's room with the door locked. Tony had had a key made in the past when Jillian rejected his advances. He unlocked the door and attacked Leigh again. When Leigh tried to stop him, saying she'd tell her mother what he had done, he laughingly told her that him seducing Leigh was Jillian's idea. Upon Jillian's return to Farthy, Leigh tried to tell her that Tony raped her, but Jillian didn't believe her. She accused Leigh of lying, saying that Tony had told her Leigh was the one making sexual advances during the modeling sessions and that she had tried to get Tony to have sex with her. Leigh was shocked and saddened by her mother's decision to believe Tony over her own daughter.
After a few weeks, Leigh discovered she was pregnant by Tony and confronted her mother. Jillian, convinced that Leigh had seduced Tony on purpose, screamed at her that "nice girls don't go all the way." Leigh realized Tony was right about her mother. Disgusted, Leigh told her mother that she knew Jillian wasn't a virgin before she married, and that she had chosen her own daughter as a romantic distraction for Tony to avoid having sex with him. After the fight, Leigh took some money that Tony kept in a strongbox and fled Farthinggale Manor with a few possessions and her portrait doll.
Leigh decided to go live with her grandmother Jana in Texas. After leaving Boston, she purchased a train ticket in Atlanta but missed her connection and was stranded. A stranger named Luke Casteel cheered her up. After he inquired about Leigh's portrait doll, she admitted that it was modeled after her and that she had named it Angel. Luke told her that "Angel" was a better name for her than Leigh. He began to call Leigh "Angel," rather than "Leigh," after that. Leigh confided in him about the circumstances of her pregnancy and her tragic story, and he drove her to a motel so that she could rest. He returned with some food, and when Leigh asked him to stay because she was afraid to be alone, he agreed. When she woke up in the middle of the night, Luke was instantly at her side, reassuring her that he'd always protect her. He told her that he had fallen in love with her and wanted to be the father of her baby. Leigh thought she was dreaming, and when she later awoke in Luke's arms, she asked him about it. He passionately talked about his plans for the future for the two of them and the baby, and Leigh fell completely in love with him.
Although they had only known each other for one day, they got married and returned to Luke's West Virginia mountain home, where young women getting married was not so unusual. After meeting Luke's parents, Annie and Toby, Leigh worked hard around the shack, and she ignored the stares or rude remarks of local residents. Luke was deeply in love with Leigh and planned to build a house in town for them and the baby. Whenever Luke drank alcohol, Leigh feared for his health and talked to him sternly, which he appreciated, and he credited her with inspiring him to be a better person.
Leigh's diary ends after she started experiencing labor pains while out for a walk with Luke. She wrote about how they went up the mountain and how Luke talked about their plans for the future. He told her that she was the love of his life and that no man could ever love any woman more than he loved her. She kissed him and asked him to go back to the cabin with her to hold her. As they walked back, Leigh stopped and stared at the stars, telling Luke that when she went to sleep that night, she wanted to feel like she was going to sleep in heaven. These were the last words in her journal, and it is later revealed that Leigh died giving birth. Her death is the apparent reason that Luke later becomes the cruel man depicted in Heaven .
After reading Leigh's last diary entry, Annie finds a note from a private investigator Tony hired, stating that he discovered Leigh died in childbirth due to inadequate medical care. The note also states that the child survived and was a girl. The implication is that both Tony and Jillian knew about Heaven long before she came to Farthinggale, but decided to let her grow up in poverty rather than face what they had done to Leigh. Saddened by what she has read, Annie puts the journal back in the drawer as she hears Luke calling her name. She goes to him and they leave Farthinggale to its ghosts.
It is never explained how Leigh's diary was returned to Farthinggale. It is not mentioned in any of the other Casteel books, nor is it mentioned as being among the possessions Heaven inherited from Leigh. The diary is also written in past tense, rather than in present, thus implying that Leigh completed a long "entry" while she was in labor and/or shortly before her death. The presence of the note from the detective in the diary possibly negates the whole question of whether Tony knew he was Heaven Casteel's father - due to the timeline, he must have realized it was likely (although Heaven lied about the year of her birth, making herself one year younger). Additionally, in "Dark Angel", Heaven tells Tony and Jillian that her mother had only recently died, and they seem to take this as absolute fact. In that novel, Tony reacts with shock when he finally hears that Leigh died in childbirth at 14, and only then attempts to break off the romance between Heaven and Troy (as they are niece and uncle). "Web of Dreams" raises many questions about the consistency of the storytelling details and the timelines.
On August 24, 2019, Lifetime aired an adaption of Web of Dreams starring Jennifer Laporte, Tim Donadt, Lizzie Boys, and Keenan Tracey, while Jason Priestley and Kelly Rutherford serve as executive producers. [1]
Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zechariah, according to the Gospel of Luke. She was past normal child-bearing years when she gave birth to John.
Cleo Virginia Andrews, better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist. She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and died of breast cancer at the age of 63. Following her death, many subsequent novels have been written by Andrew Neiderman, using Andrews's pen name.
Hammer House of Horror is a British television series made in 1980. An anthology series created by Hammer Films in association with Cinema Arts International and ITC Entertainment, it consists of thirteen hour-long episodes, originally broadcast on ITV.
Mandy Richardson is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, played by Sarah Jayne Dunn. She first appeared on 7 October 1996 and has been involved in various storylines, including dealing with sexual abuse while she was a child by her father Dennis, the suicide of her brother Lewis, and an on-off relationship with Tony Hutchinson before the couple married. Mandy and Tony had a daughter together who they named Grace, only for her to die from sudden infant death syndrome. This led to the character and Dunn's exit from the serial in 2006. Dunn made a brief return in 2007 before making a return for six months in 2008. Dunn reprised her role as Mandy in 2010; in September 2011, Dunn announced her departure from the soap, and Mandy made her last appearance on 2 September 2011 before departing off-screen. Dunn later returned to her role in the sixth series of Hollyoaks Later in October 2013. In June 2017, it was announced that Dunn had reprised the role again and that Mandy would appear from July alongside Luke Morgan, played by Gary Lucy. Mandy returned on 26 July 2017.
"You Think You Know Somebody" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars. Written by Dayna Lynne North and directed by Nick Gomez, the episode premiered on UPN on October 26, 2004.
Teen Idol was written by Meg Cabot and published in July 2004 in hardcover edition and in August 2005 in paperback edition.
Heaven Leigh Casteel is the protagonist of the novels in the Casteel series (1985-1988) created by V. C. Andrews, and concluded by Andrew Neiderman after her death.
Troy Langdon Tatterton is a fictional character created by V. C. Andrews and continued by ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman in the bestselling novels in the Casteel series. Troy is the handsome and wealthy creator behind the inventions in the Tatterton Toy empire. He lives on the Farthingale estate in the cottage in the middle of the hedge maze.
Angel Diary is a manhwa written by Lee Yoon-hee and drawn by Kara. It is based around the errant Princess of Heaven who is hiding on Earth as a boy, and the four guardians of heaven who watch over her.
Elena Gilbert is a fictional character and protagonist from the television series The Vampire Diaries. In The Vampire Diaries, set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, she is portrayed by Nina Dobrev. In the books, Elena was blonde, popular, selfish and a "mean girl". However the show's producers, Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson, felt that it wasn't the direction they wanted to go with their heroine in The Vampire Diaries television series. Instead, she became a nicer, relatable and more of "the girl next door" type, until her life gets flipped upside down when she meets the Salvatore Brothers. In April 2015, Nina Dobrev announced that she would be departing the series after the sixth-season finale.
Barbara Jean "Bobbie" Spencer, RN is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera General Hospital, portrayed by Jacklyn Zeman. She debuted in December 1977, after playing Lana McClain on the sister-soap One Life to Live. Zeman went on to appear continually on GH until July 2010. The character is the sister of Luke Spencer and mother of Carly Corinthos. In February 2013, it was announced that Zeman would be returning to the role; she first appeared on March 22 and once again vacated the role on April 15. However, on October 22, it was confirmed that Zeman would be returning to the show, with her first airdate slated to be on November 27.
"Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" is the fifth episode of the third season of the U.S. television series Community. It first aired on October 27, 2011 on NBC and is the series' 2011 Halloween episode.
Heaven is the first book in the Casteel series by author V. C. Andrews. It is also the first name of the main character.
Dark Angel is a book written by V. C. Andrews in 1986. It is the second book in the Casteel Series.
Gates of Paradise is the fourth out of five books in V. C. Andrews's The Casteel series.
Fallen Hearts (1988) is the third out of five books in V.C. Andrews' Casteel Series. The book was finished by her ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman, though the book was published under Andrews's name.
"The Diary" is the thirtieth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. In the episode, Jake's son T.V. finds an old diary, which revives a decades-old mystery. It was written by Canadian illustrator Jillian Tamaki, her second episode on the show after "Astral Plane". The episode was broadcast on Cartoon Network on February 26, 2015. Writers of Wired and The A.V. Club praised Tamaki for the way she wrote the episode as well as the visuals overall.
Eagle House is a Grade II* listed building in Batheaston, Somerset, near Bath. Before World War I the house had extensive grounds.