How long does it take to read If There Be Thorns?
If There Be Thorns by V. C. Andrews takes about 6 hours 51 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Book 3 of Dollanganger
Previous: Petals on the Wind Next: Seeds of Yesterday
About 6 hours 51 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1981. 374 pages, about 102,850 words.
14 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 11 hours 26 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 51 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 17 minutes |
The page count is the median across 52 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
If There Be Thorns is a novel by Virginia Andrews which was published in 1981. It is the third book in the Dollanganger series. The story takes place in the year 1982. The book is narrated by two half-brothers, Jory and Bart Sheffield. Jory is a handsome, talented young man who wants to follow his mother Cathy in her career in the ballet, while Bart, who is unattractive and clumsy, feels he is outshone by Jory. By now, Cathy and Chris live together as common-law husband and wife. To hide their history, they tell the boys and other people they know that Chris was Paul's younger brother. Unable to have more children, Cathy secretly adopts Cindy, the daughter of one her former dance students, who was killed in an accident, because she longs to have a child that is hers and Chris's. Initially against it, Chris comes to accept the child. Lonely from all the attention Jory and Cindy are receiving, Bart befriends an elderly neighbor that moved in next door, who invites him over for cookies and ice cream and encourages him to call her "Grandmother." Jory also visits the old lady next door, and she reveals that she is actually his grandmother. Jory initially doesn't believe her, and avoids her at all costs. The old woman and Bart, on the other hand, soon develop an affectionate friendship, and the woman does her best to give Bart whatever he wants, provided that Bart promises to keep her gifts—-and their relationship-—a secret from his mother.
Subjects: Novel, half-brothers, ballet, Congenital insensitivity to pain, diaries, wheelchairs
