I think you're onto something there, MB. I think that the fact that it has the name Lara Parker attached to it has a lot to do with it. If it was written by another writer, who has not been established as a brand name, I doubt if it would have been as successful.

in the past i've been told i was "mean" for being critical of Parker's writing. but i treat her as fairly as any other author in the same position.


the 2012 Burton/Depp film was skewered but for many in the fandom anything associated with the original cast gets a pass. i don't care for the BF audiodramas. to me they are dreary and depressing. and Parker's Mary Sue fiction veers so far outside OS canon i cannot take them seriously. but because the OS stars are involved in these productions they are considered the "real deal" by many fans.

again it's Parker's story. and ifs she simply had gotten the basic structure of the series accurately she could have decided Vicki came from outer space. but you have to get the framework right to effectively launch the story.

when KLS goofs in the Pompress books it's one thing. it's really just a recollection...

she's not trying to craft a story out of this source material. that's why Parker's fiction is so frustrating.


here she has Vicki leaving Collinwood..on her own two feet..to move to Bangor in 1970. that simply IS NOT what happened to the character. she "disappeared in time" with Peter in 1968. ALL she had to do was get that simple, easily referenced detail right and this story could have launched effectively. she could have taken it anywhere. but getting basic framework like that so wrong makes the rest of the story impossible to follow.

all the assorted and sundry "Quentins" are essentially the same character. they all look and and act and talk exactly the same. i think the writers just wanted the viewer to equate one with the other and bothersome details about how they were all "related" were not considered important.

similar to the various "Trasks". they were supposed to "represent" the same thing to the audience.

i only consider the OS to be "canonical" but for many fans the RTC presentation and subsequent BF audio dramas have become "official" continuity. and Parker clearly doesn't try and mesh her work with what's happening with that timeline. this story goes completely outside the structure of the OS and all other subsequent attempts at continuity.

it's a self contained story. fine. but it really doesn't make any sense at all. 

there's also a misfired attempt to "modernize" Vicki by making her more progressive and sexualized.

granted a 1960s Gothic ingenue wouldn't "read" particularly well today. her preternatural naivete coming across as dated and dim. but this character doesn't "feel" like Vicki at all.

i turn each page with increasing mystification...

Vicki "seems to recall David mentioning his mother". forget that she knew Laura well and was intimately involved in her storyline.


she gets EVERYTHING wrong. 

the "present day" sequence takes place in 1972 of all years. was Barnabas still "cured' when he and Julia returned from 1840? was that even addressed? i forget.

apparently Julia is not even referenced once in the entire book.


and there's just sloppiness. when Vicki's rummaging through city records she finds "newspaper articles" about Jason McGuire's "disappearance" (which of course there was not) but she also knows what really happened to him (which of course she didn't. no one ever did).

and since Parker wasn't in the first year it's obvious her extremely limited knowledge of that period and the original story setup is based on skimming synopsis and maybe watching a few episodes just as a cursory reference point. i recall in TSB she described Liz in the black gown and jewels getup she wore only in the pilot episode as if that was how she dressed daily. and here she has Liz a "recluse" into the 1970s when, of course, that period ended in 1967.

she also knows Barnabas is a vampire, as does the entire Collins family, which is completely innaccurate in terms of the original story. the whole thing is bizzaro land.

given the title i'll assume the big "reveal' is going to end up being the fan favorite Liz-as-Vicki's-mother theory but with all the other major continuity gaffes i can't even consider that "resolution" or "closure" although many fans already consider that mystery to be "solved".