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Dollanganger #1
Flowers in the Attic
Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror! It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake—a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father. So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic. Just for a little while. But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work—children who—one by one—must be destroyed.... 'Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent struggling to stay alive....'
389 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
About the author
V.C. Andrews
379 books8,503 followersBooks published under the following names - Virginia Andrews, V. Andrews, Virginia C. Andrews & V.C. Endrius. Books since her death ghost written by Andrew Neiderman, but still attributed to the V.C. Andrews name
Virginia Cleo Andrews (born Cleo Virginia Andrews) was born June 6, 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia. The youngest child and the only daughter of William Henry Andrews, a career navy man who opened a tool-and-die business after retirement, and Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, a telephone operator. She spent her happy childhood years in Portsmouth, Virginia, living briefly in Rochester, New York. The Andrews family returned to Portsmouth while Virginia was in high school.
While a teenager, Virginia suffered a tragic accident, falling down the stairs at her school and incurred severe back injuries. Arthritis and a failed spinal surgical procedure forced her to spend most of her life on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Virginia excelled in school and, at fifteen, won a scholarship for writing a parody of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. She proudly earned her diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth. After graduation, she nurtured her artistic talent by completing a four-year correspondence art course while living at home with her family.
After William Andrews died in the late 1960s, Virginia helped to support herself and her mother through her extremely successful career as a commercial artist, portrait painter, and fashion illustrator.
Frustrated with the lack of creative satisfaction that her work provided, Virginia sought creative release through writing, which she did in secret. In 1972, she completed her first novel, The Gods of the Green Mountain [sic], a science-fantasy story. It was never published. Between 1972 and 1979, she wrote nine novels and twenty short stories, of which only one was published. "I Slept with My Uncle on My Wedding Night", a short fiction piece, was published in a pulp confession magazine.
Promise gleamed over the horizon for Virginia when she submitted a 290,000-word novel, The Obsessed, to a publishing company. She was told that the story had potential, but needed to be trimmed and spiced up a bit. She drafted a new outline in a single night and added "unspeakable things my mother didn't want me to write about." The ninety-eight-page revision was re-titled Flowers in the Attic and she was paid a $7,500 advance. Her new-generation Gothic novel reached the bestseller lists a mere two weeks after its 1979 paperback publication by Pocket Books.
Petals on the Wind, her sequel to Flowers, was published the next year, earning Virginia a $35,000 advance. The second book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for an unbelievable nineteen weeks (Flowers also returned to the list). These first two novels alone sold over seven million copies in only two years. The third novel of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns, was released in 1981, bringing Virginia a $75,000 advance. It reached No. 2 on many bestseller lists within its first two weeks.
Taking a break from the chronicles of Chris and Cathy Dollanganger, Virginia published her one, and only, stand-alone novel, My Sweet Audrina, in 1982. The book welcomed an immediate success, topping the sales figures of her previous novels. Two years later, a fourth Dollanganger novel was released, Seeds of Yesterday. According to the New York Times, Seeds was the best-selling fiction paperback novel of 1984. Also in 1984, V.C. Andrews was named "Professional Woman of the Year" by the city of Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon Andrews's death in 1986, two final novels—Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts—were published. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V.C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by
Virginia Cleo Andrews (born Cleo Virginia Andrews) was born June 6, 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia. The youngest child and the only daughter of William Henry Andrews, a career navy man who opened a tool-and-die business after retirement, and Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, a telephone operator. She spent her happy childhood years in Portsmouth, Virginia, living briefly in Rochester, New York. The Andrews family returned to Portsmouth while Virginia was in high school.
While a teenager, Virginia suffered a tragic accident, falling down the stairs at her school and incurred severe back injuries. Arthritis and a failed spinal surgical procedure forced her to spend most of her life on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Virginia excelled in school and, at fifteen, won a scholarship for writing a parody of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. She proudly earned her diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth. After graduation, she nurtured her artistic talent by completing a four-year correspondence art course while living at home with her family.
After William Andrews died in the late 1960s, Virginia helped to support herself and her mother through her extremely successful career as a commercial artist, portrait painter, and fashion illustrator.
Frustrated with the lack of creative satisfaction that her work provided, Virginia sought creative release through writing, which she did in secret. In 1972, she completed her first novel, The Gods of the Green Mountain [sic], a science-fantasy story. It was never published. Between 1972 and 1979, she wrote nine novels and twenty short stories, of which only one was published. "I Slept with My Uncle on My Wedding Night", a short fiction piece, was published in a pulp confession magazine.
Promise gleamed over the horizon for Virginia when she submitted a 290,000-word novel, The Obsessed, to a publishing company. She was told that the story had potential, but needed to be trimmed and spiced up a bit. She drafted a new outline in a single night and added "unspeakable things my mother didn't want me to write about." The ninety-eight-page revision was re-titled Flowers in the Attic and she was paid a $7,500 advance. Her new-generation Gothic novel reached the bestseller lists a mere two weeks after its 1979 paperback publication by Pocket Books.
Petals on the Wind, her sequel to Flowers, was published the next year, earning Virginia a $35,000 advance. The second book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for an unbelievable nineteen weeks (Flowers also returned to the list). These first two novels alone sold over seven million copies in only two years. The third novel of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns, was released in 1981, bringing Virginia a $75,000 advance. It reached No. 2 on many bestseller lists within its first two weeks.
Taking a break from the chronicles of Chris and Cathy Dollanganger, Virginia published her one, and only, stand-alone novel, My Sweet Audrina, in 1982. The book welcomed an immediate success, topping the sales figures of her previous novels. Two years later, a fourth Dollanganger novel was released, Seeds of Yesterday. According to the New York Times, Seeds was the best-selling fiction paperback novel of 1984. Also in 1984, V.C. Andrews was named "Professional Woman of the Year" by the city of Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon Andrews's death in 1986, two final novels—Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts—were published. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V.C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by
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April 15, 2016I met a friend for drinks last night. She came up and took one glance at the back cover to this book and her eyes widened. "No," she breathed. "Seriously?" Of course she recognized it from the back. She read it around seventh grade. I read it around seventh grade. You read it around seventh grade. An entire generation has this lurking in our collective adolescence.
So that's why I re-read it. (Okay, that and I thought it was hilarious just to hold it up on the subway.) I wanted to know just how creepy it is. To be honest, I couldn't really remember, nor could most other people I talked to. There's a vague sense of ickiness and illicitness, but that's about it.
Here's your answer: it is very, very creepy. Friends, there's like a whole page where VC Andrews describes a five-year-old's underwear in loving, lavish detail. Andrews is willing to eroticize anything. Here's a whipping:
Not that that's what we're here to discuss, though, is it? We're here to discuss brotherfucking. I'm not gonna do a spoiler alert, dude. If you didn't know Flowers in the Attic is about brotherfucking, you wouldn't be reading this. So let's get to it:
But we do, somehow, and some of you now have kids of your own. And you're worried about them being exposed to too much sex and creepiness on the internet. Listen, parents: your kids are lucky. They won't have to slink through library stacks looking for smut like this; they can just go check out bukkake videos on Youporn. There is nothing on the internet - nothing! - worse than this fuckin' book.
And they'll be spared the godawful writing, too.
I'm not gonna give this book stars. Flowers in the Attic transcends stars.
I hope you're happy, Jayme.
--------------------------
Just because I feel like someone ought to make this list, here are the books Cathy reads:
- Something about King Arthur - unclear which specific book
- Jude the Obscure
- Wuthering Heights
- Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
- Little Men
- Jane Eyre
--------------------------
UPDATE: I've just been alerted to the existence of VC Andrews' original pitch letter. Awesome.
--------------------------
UPDATE 2:
It's been pointed out by no less august a publication than the New Yorker that Flowers in the Attic is not so much about brotherfucking as it is about "the dangers of reading" (to induce brotherfucking). So basically it's Don Quixote. With brotherfucking. Thanks, alert reader El!
So that's why I re-read it. (Okay, that and I thought it was hilarious just to hold it up on the subway.) I wanted to know just how creepy it is. To be honest, I couldn't really remember, nor could most other people I talked to. There's a vague sense of ickiness and illicitness, but that's about it.
Here's your answer: it is very, very creepy. Friends, there's like a whole page where VC Andrews describes a five-year-old's underwear in loving, lavish detail. Andrews is willing to eroticize anything. Here's a whipping:
"My eyes bulged at the site of those pitiful welts on the creamy tender flesh that our father had handled with so much love and gentleness. I floundered in a maelstrom of uncertainty." (91)Floundered. In a maelstrom. Of uncertainty.
Not that that's what we're here to discuss, though, is it? We're here to discuss brotherfucking. I'm not gonna do a spoiler alert, dude. If you didn't know Flowers in the Attic is about brotherfucking, you wouldn't be reading this. So let's get to it:
"And that is where he took me, and forced in that swollen, rigid male sex part of him that had to be satisfied. It drove into my tight and resisting flesh which tore and bled.Ladies and gentlemen, this was your puberty. How our generation functions at all, with this in our pasts, is beyond me.
"Long strings of clouds blew across the face of the full moon, so it would duck and hide, then peek out again. And on the roof, on a night that was made for lovers, we cried in each other's arms.
"'Don't hate me, Cathy, please don't hate me. I didn't mean to rape you, I swear to God. There's been many a time when I've been tempted, and I was able to turn it off.'
"'I don't hate you, Chris...it was my fault, too.' Oh yes, my fault too...I shouldn't have worn skimpy little see-through garments around a brother who had all a man's strong physical needs.
"And all we could see in the murky-gray and cold, damp clouds was that single great eye of God - shining up there in the moon."
(357 - 359)
But we do, somehow, and some of you now have kids of your own. And you're worried about them being exposed to too much sex and creepiness on the internet. Listen, parents: your kids are lucky. They won't have to slink through library stacks looking for smut like this; they can just go check out bukkake videos on Youporn. There is nothing on the internet - nothing! - worse than this fuckin' book.
And they'll be spared the godawful writing, too.
I'm not gonna give this book stars. Flowers in the Attic transcends stars.
I hope you're happy, Jayme.
--------------------------
Just because I feel like someone ought to make this list, here are the books Cathy reads:
- Something about King Arthur - unclear which specific book
- Jude the Obscure
- Wuthering Heights
- Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
- Little Men
- Jane Eyre
--------------------------
UPDATE: I've just been alerted to the existence of VC Andrews' original pitch letter. Awesome.
--------------------------
UPDATE 2:
It's been pointed out by no less august a publication than the New Yorker that Flowers in the Attic is not so much about brotherfucking as it is about "the dangers of reading" (to induce brotherfucking). So basically it's Don Quixote. With brotherfucking. Thanks, alert reader El!
October 12, 2007
These days, I'm always hearing people opine, "Say what you want about Harry Potter, at least it's getting kids to read." Well, you could make a very good argument that Flowers in the Attic did the same thing for a generation of pre-teen girls. When I was 12, everybody was sneaking this novel under the covers or behind their math books. I remember a girl actually got in trouble for bringing it to free reading period in English class. Seemed a little hypocritical to me, since the whole idea of a free reading period was to instill reading for pleasure, but whatever. If I had a dime for every hypocrisy I witnessed in school, I'd be writing this review from my villa in France.
While the incest angle of this story held undeniable appeal for me, I have to say that it was really the premise that captured my attention. The whole notion of a mother who hides her children away in an attic was fascinating to me. I've always loved stories about people who are forced to survive in abnormal surroundings, whether it's Anne Frank or Patty Hearst or Pocahontas. The sick, twisted conditions that the Dollanganger kids endured made for great reading, especially as a preteen undergoing her own hellish circumstances. Contrary to what a lot of other readers have said here, it isn't just the sex that accounts for this book's popularity...the plot is also a strong point in its favor.
Although it's been many years since I've read this story, its characters remain vivid. This is definitely a sign that the author did something right. I particularly enjoyed the two villians: the glamorous, narcissitic mother and the pious, sadistic grandmother. Looking back, I still hate those bitches! They were sort of like Godzilla vs. Mothera. (Speaking of good stories...)
It may seem like a small point, but I remember enjoying the ballet angle of this book. I loved how Cathy used to practice her ballet moves in the attic with the elaborate costumes her mother bought her. I also remember how the bodice on one of them was too tight, because dear old mom hadn't recognized that her daughter had developed breasts. This scene may seem salacious to some, but I actually appreciated it on a whole different level. As a young girl venturing into adulthood, I could really identify with Cathy's desire to be acknowledged as a young woman, only to be treated like a little kid.
Believe me, I'm not saying this is a great work of genius...the writing is so bad it's good...even at 12 I laughed at expressions like "Great golly lolly!" Still, Flowers in the Attic is the literary equivalent of a Krispy Kreme doughnut. It's delicious on the way down, but its lingering effects are vaguely sickening. Still, that won't stop you from having another...and another...until the whole box is gone and you're left bloated and groaning on a smelly old mattress, only to be raped by your brother.
Sorry, I got my metaphors mixed there for a second. Anyway, taken in the right spirit, Flowers in the Attic is a decent read, especially when you're being force fed rubbish like My Brother Sam is Dead and Where the Red Fern Grows. Get thee behind me, sixth grade!
While the incest angle of this story held undeniable appeal for me, I have to say that it was really the premise that captured my attention. The whole notion of a mother who hides her children away in an attic was fascinating to me. I've always loved stories about people who are forced to survive in abnormal surroundings, whether it's Anne Frank or Patty Hearst or Pocahontas. The sick, twisted conditions that the Dollanganger kids endured made for great reading, especially as a preteen undergoing her own hellish circumstances. Contrary to what a lot of other readers have said here, it isn't just the sex that accounts for this book's popularity...the plot is also a strong point in its favor.
Although it's been many years since I've read this story, its characters remain vivid. This is definitely a sign that the author did something right. I particularly enjoyed the two villians: the glamorous, narcissitic mother and the pious, sadistic grandmother. Looking back, I still hate those bitches! They were sort of like Godzilla vs. Mothera. (Speaking of good stories...)
It may seem like a small point, but I remember enjoying the ballet angle of this book. I loved how Cathy used to practice her ballet moves in the attic with the elaborate costumes her mother bought her. I also remember how the bodice on one of them was too tight, because dear old mom hadn't recognized that her daughter had developed breasts. This scene may seem salacious to some, but I actually appreciated it on a whole different level. As a young girl venturing into adulthood, I could really identify with Cathy's desire to be acknowledged as a young woman, only to be treated like a little kid.
Believe me, I'm not saying this is a great work of genius...the writing is so bad it's good...even at 12 I laughed at expressions like "Great golly lolly!" Still, Flowers in the Attic is the literary equivalent of a Krispy Kreme doughnut. It's delicious on the way down, but its lingering effects are vaguely sickening. Still, that won't stop you from having another...and another...until the whole box is gone and you're left bloated and groaning on a smelly old mattress, only to be raped by your brother.
Sorry, I got my metaphors mixed there for a second. Anyway, taken in the right spirit, Flowers in the Attic is a decent read, especially when you're being force fed rubbish like My Brother Sam is Dead and Where the Red Fern Grows. Get thee behind me, sixth grade!
December 17, 2020
y'all who read this shit as kids... u okay?
March 3, 2021
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Read it because of the hype. Now I know.
Read it because of the hype. Now I know.
July 28, 2024
No sé qué pensar, sigo un poco en shock por todo lo que se revela al final (aunque varias cosas ya me las esperaba, CORRINE ES UNA MALDITA). Ughhh, lloré demasiado con este libro, pasaron cosas muy injustas y sobre todo muy trágicas. Al final yo estaba deseando venganza igual que Cathy, espero que esa mujer a la que llaman "momma" jamás sea feliz, pues no lo merece. Al inicio Corrine sólo me parecía débil y estúpida, pero su personaje fue cayendo más y más hasta que terminé odiándola con toda mi alma.
El libro me gustó muchísimo, desde la segunda parte hasta el final no pude soltarlo, estaba demasiado picada. Lo único malo es que los capítulos son larguísimos y creo que eso alentó mi ritmo de lectura. Había partes en las que sentía que por más que leía, no avanzaba.
EDIT EN 2024: Sigo recordando este libro como uno de mis favoritos, pero mi forma de pensar en muchas cuestiones ha cambiado a lo largo de (casi) 10 años desde que lo leí.
El libro me gustó muchísimo, desde la segunda parte hasta el final no pude soltarlo, estaba demasiado picada. Lo único malo es que los capítulos son larguísimos y creo que eso alentó mi ritmo de lectura. Había partes en las que sentía que por más que leía, no avanzaba.
EDIT EN 2024: Sigo recordando este libro como uno de mis favoritos, pero mi forma de pensar en muchas cuestiones ha cambiado a lo largo de (casi) 10 años desde que lo leí.
Read
June 28, 2020Well, I read this, I guess.
Strange how my entire life people have told me "it's that incest book'; imagine my surprise when I found out that, no, it's that rape book.
Strange how my entire life people have told me "it's that incest book'; imagine my surprise when I found out that, no, it's that rape book.
August 14, 2024
If loving the Flowers In The Attic series is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
November 10, 2024
I was 12 the first time I read Flowers in the Attic.
My girlfriend (the one with the cool mom) had this and I read it while I was at her house. You know those childhood books that you remember forever? Like, they were a part of what defined your experiences during that period of time?
Yeah, that.
Flowers in the Attic defined puberty for me. Maybe because puberty felt as awkward and semi-gross as reading about the Dollanganger siblings. But on the flip side, I could relate to Cathy’s angsty yearning for something that was just outside my reach (and thankfully my knowledge base) for at least a few more years.
This book is old as hell. There will be spoilers.
Alright. So what I remembered of the story in my young, fevered, hyper-hormonal brain was this incestuous romance that somehow didn’t make me feel as vile as it perhaps should have. Sure, I was squeamish about it. But I was raised Southern Baptist, and everything was a sin, so fucking your brother wasn’t any worse than smoking a cigarette or dancing to the devil’s music. Besides, I was an only child and had no real concept of what a sibling was.
I probably didn’t understand what the word titillating meant when I was originally reading this, but that’s what it was.
100%. Adult Anne knows why budding boobs Anne was shoveling this into her eyeballs.
I truly believe that V. C. Andrews may have put the guilty in guilty pleasure reads.
Bless.
What I didn’t remember was how well-written this was for incest smut.
And maybe smut is too harsh. The one sex scene (yes, yes, it was rape but we’ll get to that later) was seemingly written for a girl teetering on the verge of womanhood. It was as frustratingly non-descript as it could get while still getting the point across.
Now, as an adult, I read this with a whole new set of eyes. Well, actually Mena Suvari read it to me because I try to give my eyes a break when I can. But what I mean is that I saw what happened in a whole new light. When I was young, Chris and Cathy were this illicit love story, fueled by the backdrop of a cruel grandmother and a disingenuous, flighty mother.
Now I saw two children who were forced into the role of mother and father to their younger siblings at the most tumultuous points in their mental development. They used to be normal kids. They would have grown up to be normal adults.
Why?
Because before they got hit upside the head with the crazypants grandmother and her religious fervor, they had never even thought about each other as sexual objects.
Add that to being trapped in an attic for 3 years with no outside contact, and no outside context for any of the normal sexual urges that flood your system at that age, and you have a recipe for complete mental disaster.
This doesn’t even take into account the physical and mental abuse they were subjected to by their grandmother or the damage caused by their gaslighting mother.
They were set up to fail.
And maybe that’s why you never really think of them as nasty. Even the rapey sex was somewhat understandable in the moment. These kids have been beaten, starved, and poisoned - figuratively and literally! They aren’t adults and they don’t have adult coping mechanisms, so all of this felt like a somewhat inevitable dam that finally burst.
A dirty, tantalizing, incestuous dam.
Is this really a 5 star book?
I don’t know. You’ll have to ask someone who didn’t use this to grade every childhood crush she had for many years to come.
Don’t judge me.
Now that I have kids, Flowers in the Attic is still the benchmark I grade myself on.
Each night before I go to sleep, I ask myself if I’ve been a good parent.
Anne, have you locked your children in the attic recently?
No?
Well then. Good job, you!
Thank you, V.C. Andrews, for nudging me in the right direction and making me into the fabulous mother that I am today.
Recommended for every 12 year old girl out there.
My girlfriend (the one with the cool mom) had this and I read it while I was at her house. You know those childhood books that you remember forever? Like, they were a part of what defined your experiences during that period of time?
Yeah, that.
Flowers in the Attic defined puberty for me. Maybe because puberty felt as awkward and semi-gross as reading about the Dollanganger siblings. But on the flip side, I could relate to Cathy’s angsty yearning for something that was just outside my reach (and thankfully my knowledge base) for at least a few more years.
This book is old as hell. There will be spoilers.
Alright. So what I remembered of the story in my young, fevered, hyper-hormonal brain was this incestuous romance that somehow didn’t make me feel as vile as it perhaps should have. Sure, I was squeamish about it. But I was raised Southern Baptist, and everything was a sin, so fucking your brother wasn’t any worse than smoking a cigarette or dancing to the devil’s music. Besides, I was an only child and had no real concept of what a sibling was.
I probably didn’t understand what the word titillating meant when I was originally reading this, but that’s what it was.
100%. Adult Anne knows why budding boobs Anne was shoveling this into her eyeballs.
I truly believe that V. C. Andrews may have put the guilty in guilty pleasure reads.
Bless.
What I didn’t remember was how well-written this was for incest smut.
And maybe smut is too harsh. The one sex scene (yes, yes, it was rape but we’ll get to that later) was seemingly written for a girl teetering on the verge of womanhood. It was as frustratingly non-descript as it could get while still getting the point across.
Now, as an adult, I read this with a whole new set of eyes. Well, actually Mena Suvari read it to me because I try to give my eyes a break when I can. But what I mean is that I saw what happened in a whole new light. When I was young, Chris and Cathy were this illicit love story, fueled by the backdrop of a cruel grandmother and a disingenuous, flighty mother.
Now I saw two children who were forced into the role of mother and father to their younger siblings at the most tumultuous points in their mental development. They used to be normal kids. They would have grown up to be normal adults.
Why?
Because before they got hit upside the head with the crazypants grandmother and her religious fervor, they had never even thought about each other as sexual objects.
Add that to being trapped in an attic for 3 years with no outside contact, and no outside context for any of the normal sexual urges that flood your system at that age, and you have a recipe for complete mental disaster.
This doesn’t even take into account the physical and mental abuse they were subjected to by their grandmother or the damage caused by their gaslighting mother.
They were set up to fail.
And maybe that’s why you never really think of them as nasty. Even the rapey sex was somewhat understandable in the moment. These kids have been beaten, starved, and poisoned - figuratively and literally! They aren’t adults and they don’t have adult coping mechanisms, so all of this felt like a somewhat inevitable dam that finally burst.
A dirty, tantalizing, incestuous dam.
Is this really a 5 star book?
I don’t know. You’ll have to ask someone who didn’t use this to grade every childhood crush she had for many years to come.
Don’t judge me.
Now that I have kids, Flowers in the Attic is still the benchmark I grade myself on.
Each night before I go to sleep, I ask myself if I’ve been a good parent.
Anne, have you locked your children in the attic recently?
No?
Well then. Good job, you!
Thank you, V.C. Andrews, for nudging me in the right direction and making me into the fabulous mother that I am today.
Recommended for every 12 year old girl out there.
September 15, 2023
Reread with some Goodreads friends! 4.5 stars. This book will always be a favorite from my childhood
*****
Have loved this book since I was a little kid!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
*****
Have loved this book since I was a little kid!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
October 19, 2021
Good gosh golly GROSS!
First of all, kudos to my parents for somehow keeping me from reading this when I was a kid. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Wowza, I’m almost without words here. Is this 1-star trash? Or a 5-star masterpiece? I’m going with a 3 and splitting the difference.
1 star - This is the vilest, most stomach-turning book I’ve read in awhile. I can’t believe it was ever published.
5 stars - This is the vilest, most stomach-turning book I’ve read in awhile. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
Trigger warnings: ALL OF THEM!!! Incest (x2), rape, animal cruelty, child abuse, blood drinking, torture, need I go on???
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
First of all, kudos to my parents for somehow keeping me from reading this when I was a kid. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Wowza, I’m almost without words here. Is this 1-star trash? Or a 5-star masterpiece? I’m going with a 3 and splitting the difference.
1 star - This is the vilest, most stomach-turning book I’ve read in awhile. I can’t believe it was ever published.
5 stars - This is the vilest, most stomach-turning book I’ve read in awhile. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
Trigger warnings: ALL OF THEM!!! Incest (x2), rape, animal cruelty, child abuse, blood drinking, torture, need I go on???
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
July 1, 2007
I read this book in grade school (maybe middle school) and I don't remember much except being in total awe that someone would write down such naughty things. I seem to remember a scene where the grandma walks in while they're having sex and they can't stop because they are so enraptured with the experience and I remember thinking damn! Sex must be awesome if it makes you lose your mind and not be able to control your senses. Note to any young person that may be reading this: sex is actually not so great that you couldn't stop if you're grandma walked in on you mid-act: so really, theres no need to run out there and try it too soon and always, always, always use a condom and sex with a sibling may be a titilating topic (as evidenced in Middlesex) but in real life that's just f*#^@ed up!
December 31, 2019
No wonder this was so controversial. Time has not diminished in shock factor, I'll tell you that! It's more risque even than "The Thorn Birds"! Quintessential page-turner.
Cannot wait to continue reading about these freaks that are the Dollangangers!!
Cannot wait to continue reading about these freaks that are the Dollangangers!!
March 31, 2018
Scientists say that the reasoning part of an adolescent's brain is not fully formed until about the age of 25.
I get the impression that they have enough scientific evidence to prove this theory. But, just in case there are still any doubters out there, I would like to offer up V.C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic as the final piece of conclusive scientific evidence.
When I was 13-years-old, I got my hands on Flowers in the Attic, and I not only read it multiple times, I read the entire series, and I even went on to read Ms. Andrews's next series, The Casteel Family .
I loved these damn books.
Strangely enough, I was a precocious reader who had also discovered both Carson McCullers and Thomas Hardy by that time, and even those good books in my hands didn't cause me to toss the others aside.
I repeat. . . I loved these books; I read them like the pages were crafted from meth, and I have long wondered what returning to this beloved series would feel like.
So, I returned this week, to crack open the first book in The Dollanganger Family series and be with Cathy, Chris, Cory and Carrie (my dear friends!) all over again.
And, let me tell you what I felt like, re-reading them: Horrified.
I wondered at the reasoning part of my adolescent brain. Had mine been even less developed than those of my peers?
And, if you were a reader who loved these books as I did, you might be wondering. . . is it the incest, Julie?? Is your 40-something self just recoiling that so many young, impressionable minds were left pondering such blatant, three-generational examples of glorified incest??
And I can only respond with. . . the only thing worse than reading a book about incest is reading a book about incest that HAS DIALOGUE THIS ATROCIOUS!!!
This is a horror novel, people, and the HORROR for me never ended in this adult re-read. Here's what I found the MOST horrific:
the dialogue
inauthentic Voice for ALL characters (and DO NOT get me started on how little Cory and Carrie talk!)
the narration coming from a grown up Cathy, who never sounds like an adult OR a child
the constant back-pedaling of “filling in” the reader on plot points at the most awkward and inappropriate times
the writing
And, THEN, after all of that, let me toss in the creep factor. Again, not so much a case of “why was there incest in the story,” as a case of WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THIS V.C. ANDREWS WOMAN?
Never, in my youth, did I give her OBSESSION with incest a moment's thought, but this time around, my fully formed brain demanded to know why every woman in this story wants to smash her son's face deep into her bosom and why every man wants to kiss his daughter (um, or his granddaughter or niece) full on the lips to warm her, and leave her all tingly.
Well, you can do your own Google search, but let me just summarize it like this:
she had two older brothers, no sisters
she had terrible back injuries from falling in a stairwell (that kept her in crutches and a wheelchair)
she lived with her parents her entire life
You can see how family relations, house confinement, and fear of staircases all come into play in her stories.
Sorry, Ms. Andrews. I'd have given your writing a solid 5 stars as a teen, I'd give this 1 star as an adult. Let's average that out to three.
I sure wish you could have left your house and gone out for drinks at least one time with an unrelated man. Poor thing.
No wonder you wrote horror.
I get the impression that they have enough scientific evidence to prove this theory. But, just in case there are still any doubters out there, I would like to offer up V.C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic as the final piece of conclusive scientific evidence.
When I was 13-years-old, I got my hands on Flowers in the Attic, and I not only read it multiple times, I read the entire series, and I even went on to read Ms. Andrews's next series, The Casteel Family .
I loved these damn books.
Strangely enough, I was a precocious reader who had also discovered both Carson McCullers and Thomas Hardy by that time, and even those good books in my hands didn't cause me to toss the others aside.
I repeat. . . I loved these books; I read them like the pages were crafted from meth, and I have long wondered what returning to this beloved series would feel like.
So, I returned this week, to crack open the first book in The Dollanganger Family series and be with Cathy, Chris, Cory and Carrie (my dear friends!) all over again.
And, let me tell you what I felt like, re-reading them: Horrified.
I wondered at the reasoning part of my adolescent brain. Had mine been even less developed than those of my peers?
And, if you were a reader who loved these books as I did, you might be wondering. . . is it the incest, Julie?? Is your 40-something self just recoiling that so many young, impressionable minds were left pondering such blatant, three-generational examples of glorified incest??
And I can only respond with. . . the only thing worse than reading a book about incest is reading a book about incest that HAS DIALOGUE THIS ATROCIOUS!!!
This is a horror novel, people, and the HORROR for me never ended in this adult re-read. Here's what I found the MOST horrific:
the dialogue
inauthentic Voice for ALL characters (and DO NOT get me started on how little Cory and Carrie talk!)
the narration coming from a grown up Cathy, who never sounds like an adult OR a child
the constant back-pedaling of “filling in” the reader on plot points at the most awkward and inappropriate times
the writing
And, THEN, after all of that, let me toss in the creep factor. Again, not so much a case of “why was there incest in the story,” as a case of WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THIS V.C. ANDREWS WOMAN?
Never, in my youth, did I give her OBSESSION with incest a moment's thought, but this time around, my fully formed brain demanded to know why every woman in this story wants to smash her son's face deep into her bosom and why every man wants to kiss his daughter (um, or his granddaughter or niece) full on the lips to warm her, and leave her all tingly.
Well, you can do your own Google search, but let me just summarize it like this:
she had two older brothers, no sisters
she had terrible back injuries from falling in a stairwell (that kept her in crutches and a wheelchair)
she lived with her parents her entire life
You can see how family relations, house confinement, and fear of staircases all come into play in her stories.
Sorry, Ms. Andrews. I'd have given your writing a solid 5 stars as a teen, I'd give this 1 star as an adult. Let's average that out to three.
I sure wish you could have left your house and gone out for drinks at least one time with an unrelated man. Poor thing.
No wonder you wrote horror.
February 10, 2019
With the novel that put V.C. Andrews on the map—and set the book-reading world aflutter—this piece seeks to explore the darkest and most seedy side of familial interactions and the extend to which blood can blind when placed in front of an extreme moral code. The Dollanganger family are living a wonderful life, two loving parents and four well-behaved children—Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie. When news comes that the patriarch has died in a fiery crash, changes must be made. A slew of letters go out, seeking assistance, though the replies are slow. When Mother receives word from her own parents that she and the children may come to Virginia, the entire Dollanganger brood are overjoyed. However, there are certain stipulations. As Mother was tossed out of her childhood home and disinherited, she must hide the children away until she can convince her father to write her back into the will. And, he knows nothing of the children and can never be made aware. With all four children baffled about these strict rules, they are forced to accept that their mother knows best. Upon arriving at this old mansion, the children are introduced to their grandmother, who is as steely as she was made out to be. The children are locked in a room on the upper floor, forced to remain quiet, so as not to make their presence known to anyone. Receiving food once a day, these children must follow a regimen that includes highly moralistic rules and strong biblical teachings. The one night they are to be stashed away becomes a week, a month, and then more than a year. Chris and Cathy mature into young adulthood and become the surrogate parents to their younger twins. Trying to find a way out, they discover that this prison is one worse than they could have imagined. With the wickedness only increasing and their mother beginning to plot out her own life, winning her parents over after a scandalous union that saw her banished fifteen years ago, these children learn that they will have to fend for themselves. Hormones coursing through them and blood boiling at the deception they faced, it is time to take action, or remain wilting flowers in this gloomy attic forever. Chilling and graphic at times, Andrews has me hooked and wanting to know more. Recommended to the reader who has heard all about these pieces or remembers them from when they were released, but likely not a good book for readers who cannot stomach some odd inter-familial behaviours.
I knew little of the book before I began reading it, save that V.C. Andrews presented a high-impact incestuous storyline throughout. However, as scandalous as it sounds, the reader may better understand this underlying thread once they are able to explore the novel and series a little deeper. The characters come to life on the page, particularly the narration through the eyes of Cathy. As the surrogate mother, the reader is able to see her enter a forced maturity, from the apple of her father’s eye to fending for herself while protecting her younger siblings. Chris has the same maturation, though he presents as a little more standoffish before an intoxication with power, which some readers may justify while others condemn strongly. Other strong and supporting characters help fuel the cruel undertone of the piece, including The Grandmother and the children’s mother herself, giving the reader a sobering look at the extent to which some will exact their own moralistic code in order to keep some in line. Other readers may see an ongoing vapidity in these two, out of touch with what children need to foster strong and healthy characters. The story was surely disturbing on many levels, though I cannot see the extreme scandal in today’s more open-mined society as would have been present in the late 1970s and early 80s. Surely, as the book is deemed “Young Adult Horror”, those who read the book at the time have grown, as I have, to better understand some of the literary and societal nuances not grasped at the time. Not to say that this is condoned behaviour, taken out of context. I would like to read the rest of the series to see what is to come... but must wrestle with my TBR pile in order to give it the time it deserves.
Kudos, Madam Andrews, for a fabulous and surely memorable opening novel in this series. I will return to see how these flowers grow and what blossoms emerge.
This book fulfils Topic #2:Remember... in the Equinox #6 Reading Challenge.
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I knew little of the book before I began reading it, save that V.C. Andrews presented a high-impact incestuous storyline throughout. However, as scandalous as it sounds, the reader may better understand this underlying thread once they are able to explore the novel and series a little deeper. The characters come to life on the page, particularly the narration through the eyes of Cathy. As the surrogate mother, the reader is able to see her enter a forced maturity, from the apple of her father’s eye to fending for herself while protecting her younger siblings. Chris has the same maturation, though he presents as a little more standoffish before an intoxication with power, which some readers may justify while others condemn strongly. Other strong and supporting characters help fuel the cruel undertone of the piece, including The Grandmother and the children’s mother herself, giving the reader a sobering look at the extent to which some will exact their own moralistic code in order to keep some in line. Other readers may see an ongoing vapidity in these two, out of touch with what children need to foster strong and healthy characters. The story was surely disturbing on many levels, though I cannot see the extreme scandal in today’s more open-mined society as would have been present in the late 1970s and early 80s. Surely, as the book is deemed “Young Adult Horror”, those who read the book at the time have grown, as I have, to better understand some of the literary and societal nuances not grasped at the time. Not to say that this is condoned behaviour, taken out of context. I would like to read the rest of the series to see what is to come... but must wrestle with my TBR pile in order to give it the time it deserves.
Kudos, Madam Andrews, for a fabulous and surely memorable opening novel in this series. I will return to see how these flowers grow and what blossoms emerge.
This book fulfils Topic #2:Remember... in the Equinox #6 Reading Challenge.
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
April 22, 2013
Whoa, what did I just read??
Freud would have a field day with this one...
January 30, 2022
I know, I know... this book is tawdry, it's tabloidy. It's the one book I secretly coveted and acquired in my tedious pre-pubescent soul-searching. I'd lay under the covers, flashlight in hand, knees up to make a psuedo-tent and I'd search... for the dirty parts. I knew there was something naughty between these pages, something to be whispered and giggled about later on with my girlfriends, something I didn't rightly understand.
I went back and read the entire Dollanganger series as an adult, and yes, it is tacky. But it's also elegant, like a beautifully written yet laughable soap opera. It's pedantic yet fluid. Monotone and a little stale, but it works, damn well. And oh, the melodrama. And above all else these books are fascinating. The series is truly epic in scale, reaching back far before the children in Flowers were even born. And it stretches further into their future, when some of their lives have ended, or been drastically altered.
Andrews is relentless in her portrayal of parental indifference. The mother and grandmother characters treat their progeny with such disregard, and yes, they do lock them in the attic, for years. They never get to go outside, they're starved and slowly poisoned. They get sick and grow weak, their bones don't grow right, it's interminable. And you begin to wonder, Jesus! Why am I reading this terrible book? And then it dawned on me.
The gist, the grist, the core of this saga is the lasting and far reaching effects of incest, abuse and neglect. The worst of which occurs in this first book. And these things happen... all the time. In our world, the real world, all around us. I think this book is important. I think it tells a universal story and I was often moved by it and by the series as a whole. But it made me wonder, it made me wonder about the author, about her story... if she was raised in similar circumstances. And I think that's the point... because you never know, you can never ever really know what someone else has been through, where their lives took them, and why they are the way they are.
I went back and read the entire Dollanganger series as an adult, and yes, it is tacky. But it's also elegant, like a beautifully written yet laughable soap opera. It's pedantic yet fluid. Monotone and a little stale, but it works, damn well. And oh, the melodrama. And above all else these books are fascinating. The series is truly epic in scale, reaching back far before the children in Flowers were even born. And it stretches further into their future, when some of their lives have ended, or been drastically altered.
Andrews is relentless in her portrayal of parental indifference. The mother and grandmother characters treat their progeny with such disregard, and yes, they do lock them in the attic, for years. They never get to go outside, they're starved and slowly poisoned. They get sick and grow weak, their bones don't grow right, it's interminable. And you begin to wonder, Jesus! Why am I reading this terrible book? And then it dawned on me.
The gist, the grist, the core of this saga is the lasting and far reaching effects of incest, abuse and neglect. The worst of which occurs in this first book. And these things happen... all the time. In our world, the real world, all around us. I think this book is important. I think it tells a universal story and I was often moved by it and by the series as a whole. But it made me wonder, it made me wonder about the author, about her story... if she was raised in similar circumstances. And I think that's the point... because you never know, you can never ever really know what someone else has been through, where their lives took them, and why they are the way they are.
June 28, 2022
When I was a kid EVERYBODY was talking about this book. A gothic horror with dollops of terror... as a woman hides her children in the attic of her child-unfriendly new partner... for years!!! This Gothic horror mega-best selling novel by V.C. Andrews is the first book in her Dollanganger Series. Written in the first-person, from the point of view of Cathy Dollanganger, one of the children in the attic. Such a clever idea, superbly executed to create a phenomenon without being seen (or read) as tacky or tawdry, despite the main themes of this series being set around child abuse and much much more. 7 out of 12
2003 read
2003 read
August 5, 2019
What I call a Jerry type of book. Jerry Springer in the US. Jeremy Kyle in the UK. Sleazy incest stories where privacy has been exchanged for fame. The book has much more of an icky cringe factor than Jerry or Jeremy, where the salacious details are part of the entertainment of fifteen minutes of the tackiest, loudest and most violent people on tv.
I went through a Flowers in the Attic phase years ago, lots of people did, a guilty, guilty pleasure. I've gone through a Jeremy Springer one too, mornings in the gym. I'm just embarking on the Jeremy Kyle one. He takes things seriously whereas Springer, who is as disreputable as his guests, is tongue in cheek. Also sadly, whilst the participants are equally vulgar, British ones tend to be less loud and violent. The producers need to learn to provoke them more.
Read back in the 20th century. Reviewed 2016 edited 2019 to bring out the sleaze factor!
I went through a Flowers in the Attic phase years ago, lots of people did, a guilty, guilty pleasure. I've gone through a Jeremy Springer one too, mornings in the gym. I'm just embarking on the Jeremy Kyle one. He takes things seriously whereas Springer, who is as disreputable as his guests, is tongue in cheek. Also sadly, whilst the participants are equally vulgar, British ones tend to be less loud and violent. The producers need to learn to provoke them more.
Read back in the 20th century. Reviewed 2016 edited 2019 to bring out the sleaze factor!
January 23, 2023
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Is anyone actually surprised I enjoyed this book? Probably not. I have a reputation on here for curating some of the best/worst vintage books out there. I have a pretty high bar for not getting squicked out by books, but FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC really tested me because, well, if you know you know. It's gross as fuck. And SO UNCOMFORTABLE.
I was late to the V.C. Andrews game. My mother didn't keep books like this in the house, so I missed out on being traumatized by The Flame and the Flower and Flowers in the Attic at thirteen or fourteen-years-old like some of my peers. The first V.C. Andrews book I read was actually written by her ghostwriter, and if you're asking, "Well, what's the difference?" think about New Coke versus Coca-Cola Classic. One kinda sorta follows the formula, but it's clearly Pepsi in a red can, and nobody wants that. V.C. Andrews-written-as-Andrew-Neiderman has bubbles and is brown and comes in a can, but it's missing that je ne sais quoi that makes it a Classic.
The first time I read Flowers, I was in my twenties. And I liked it then, too. Sort of? I think you need to know going in that this is basically a bodice-ripper with preteens/teenagers as the characters. Child abuse is a predominant theme. Who can forget the story of the cute little nuclear family that's disrupted when the father is grotesquely burned beyond recognition in a car accident? With no one else to pay the bills (women working? Ha, this is the FIFTIES), the mother writes pleading letters to her parents, begging them for money. Which is something that many college students and college graduates still do to this day. The only difference? Your parents probably didn't disinherit you for your incest marriage and whip you for your sins. That's right, it turns out mother and father were actually niece and uncle. WHOOPS.
I'm not tagging that as a spoiler because you find it out pretty early on. But some major spoilers are coming, so hold on to your hats and get your pearl clutchers ready, because shit is about to get real.
Chris, Cathy, Carrie, and Cory (who are they? the Cardashians???) are all locked up in an attic until the mother can convince the grandfather to love her again and put her back in this will. He's on death's door, she assures them, so it shouldn't take long. In the meantime, they're at the mercy of the abusive grandmother, who seems strangely preoccupied with what kinds of sins they might get up to in the attic space she's locked them in. At first, things are basically Diet Suck. They aren't happy but they still think their mother loves them and guilt propels her to make their stay as comfortable as possible. This is what is known as the honeymoon period and don't worry, it won't last long.
It doesn't take long for things to get gross. Cathy and Chris end up wrist deep in shit and piss, cleaning up soiled sheets and backed-up toilets. When the grandmother catches Cathy studying herself naked in a mirror while Chris watches (and yes, they're both still underage at this point), Cathy gets whipped and then the grandmother drugs her and paints her hair with tar, forcing her brother to cut off all her hair for their vanity (after starving them). They get starved again at some point and Chris actually cuts his wrist and forces them to drink his blood for nourishment. Cathy gets raped by her brother after he thinks she's fantasizing about someone else, and then he's like, "Didn't mean to rape you, sorry," and she's like, "I could have stopped you if I wanted to, and also I asked for it by wearing slutty clothes." Also, pretty sure that since their parents are already related, that makes this incest-plus. Somebody gets poisoned by arsenic. There are an uncomfortable amount of passages describing young kids wearing lingerie or underwear (the youngest kid, I guess, likes to show off her fancy panties, which she also shits multiple times, forcing her older sister to wash them-- ew, ew, ew). Oh, and Cathy goes out to the roof, determined to throw herself off of it, but backs down at the last second. Yay.
Basically, anything that's there to be triggered by is in this book. I can say with certainty that there is no way something like this could get written today. Someone would 100% take the author by the hand and say, "Maybe don't do that." As they should, because there are some things that should just be hinted at in a puberty book and not used as fodder for the world's best worst soap opera, you know? The only way you can get through this book is by saying, "Oh, it was the seventies. Of COURSE it was the seventies. That was the decade that came out with Love's Baby Soft, anything written by Bertrice Small, and Brooke Shields's Calvin Klein jeans ad (okay, technically that was 1980, but that's still basically the seventies and also she was FIFTEEN, wtf).
The best parts of the book are the intense psychology of the characters. Cathy is a sympathetic and believable gothic heroine, which is drilled into us by the books she reads (Wuthering Heights, Lorna Doone, Jane Eyre). Through her eyes, we witness the disintegration of her belief that the world is just and loving and good, first with the death of her father, then with their inability to sway the grandmother's affections through obedience, and finally, in the gradual crumbling of their mother's morality and compassion; she has been corrupted by the house and in the end, she has become as cold and callous as the grandmother. The transformation-- and the lesson-- is a brutal one.
So yeah, hopefully this arms you with what you need before going in-- if you decide to read this book at all (and if you don't, I seriously don't blame you). I for one am excited to read the sequel, which follows Cathy's life as an older teen/adult, once she manages to escape the house and get her revenge. YAAASS.
3.5 to 4 stars
September 20, 2007
I have this unfortunate penchant for ugly things; I buy ugly jewlery, I go out with slightly unatractive men, and I read books like this.
It's awful, and yet there is something about how awful it is that made me enjoy it. I have a relationship with VC Andrews that goes way back. In my junior high days these awful books were all the rage, along with body glitter and peel off nail polish. Reading this book again was like going back to a simpler time; a time when there were no bills, no laundry and when my greatest concern was if Dan would ask to borrow a pencil in math class (I had a ready supply, just in case).
It was a very quick read, which is possibly it's only merit. So, if you are looking for something to pass the time, which is slightly trashier than warm wine coolers in a trailer park, read this book.
It's awful, and yet there is something about how awful it is that made me enjoy it. I have a relationship with VC Andrews that goes way back. In my junior high days these awful books were all the rage, along with body glitter and peel off nail polish. Reading this book again was like going back to a simpler time; a time when there were no bills, no laundry and when my greatest concern was if Dan would ask to borrow a pencil in math class (I had a ready supply, just in case).
It was a very quick read, which is possibly it's only merit. So, if you are looking for something to pass the time, which is slightly trashier than warm wine coolers in a trailer park, read this book.
February 14, 2023
‘We lived in the attic, Christopher, Cory, Carrie, and me.’
The tragic death of her husband leaves Corinne penniless, unable to support her four children. At the tender age of eighteen, she was disowned by her wealthy parents for her sins, but a desperate letter to her mother, begging to be allowed to return to her childhood home, sees the five of them travelling to the sprawling estate – Foxworth Hall – in rural Virginia.
Corinne tells her children, Chris (14), Cathy (12), Cory and Carrie (5), that she needs a day or two to prepare her father to meet them. She informs them their Grandfather is dying, and that once she wins back his affections, she will inherit everything and they will be rich. But in the interim they must remain quiet and hidden, locked in a back bedroom on the second floor their Grandmother has prepared for them, with access to the attic via a staircase in the closet, to use as a playroom. But a day turns into a week, then a month, and then years pass. Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie have long ago stopped caring about the Grandfather and the money. All they want is their freedom.
First published in 1979, set in the late 1950’s, Flowers in the Attic, and it's three sequels, Petals on the Wind (1980), If There Be Thorns (1981), Seeds of Yesterday (1984), and the prequel, Garden of Shadows (1986) have been favourites of mine for over thirty years. Part horror, family saga and drama, forbidden romance, coming of age and gothic tale, Flowers in the Attic is the troubling story of love, loss, abuse, secrets, lies, and betrayal.
Cathy is the sole first-person narrator, and we experience every injustice and shocking revelation as she, along with her brothers and sister, do. As a pre-teen I found Cathy’s thoughts, hopes and dreams, teen angst, body image issues, and mood swings to be very relatable, and as an adult reader my heart ached for her and her siblings and their suffering, and I admired Cathy's strength of character, and her caring nature. Chris, Cory, and Carrie were just as compelling, all with their own unique personality traits, and I love them all. The Grandmother and Corinne's behaviour and actions, particularly the latter’s selfishness and motivations, held a particular horrified fascination on this read through. How could any mother cast her children aside like this one did?
A prominent theme is the end of innocence. The consequences of being isolated and shut away drastically affect the children's physical, mental, emotional, and social development, as well as alter the course of their lives. Cathy and Chris are forced to grow up fast, taking on adult roles of surrogate parents and teachers to their younger siblings – sacrificing their own childhood to care for them. They do everything in their power to minimise the twins suffering, keeping them busy and entertained, making their tiny living space as comforting and homely as possible, and protecting them from the worst of the horrors that surround them.
For Chris and Cathy, teenagers on the cusp of manhood and womanhood, experiencing puberty in close quarters, acting the part of mother and father, causes them to become dangerously close, and develop sexual feelings for one another. The combination of the dark shadow of their recently learned family history hanging over them, and their fanatically religious Grandmother constantly reminding them that they are wicked, spawned from the Devil, evil from the moment of conception, and that it's only a matter of time until they succumb to their sinful lust contributes to this. Bored, starved of love, education, peer-to-peer contact, and adolescent milestones, it made sense that they become drawn to one another in an inappropriate way. It does contain a certain amount of the ick factor, but to be honest I think it helps that I don't have any brothers, and my overwhelming emotion back then, and now, were sadness for both Cathy and Chris.
Flowers in the Attic has elements of dark fairy tale. Cathy, with her long flowing blonde hair, is reminiscent of Rapunzel or a princess, locked up in a dark tower. The Grandmother is cruel, strict, cold, and severe looking, and controls their behaviour and environment through corporal punishment deprivation, judgement, authority, and humiliation. The mere thought of her strikes fear in the children and she is the embodiment of the hag, the old woman, and the witch of fairytale lore. Their mother is beautiful, helpless, weak-willed, and spoiled, showering them with gifts, but the longer they are kept in the attic the less connected she feels to them. The children possess doll-like features, are collectively called the Dresden dolls, their surname is Dollanganger, and Cathy is a talented ballerina who envisions her future stage name as Catherine Doll. The imposing Foxworth Hall has all the gothic trappings – creepy, shadowy, gloomy, depressing, and cut off from civilisation.
In my opinion Flowers in the Attic remains a must read. If you’ve never read it then what are you waiting for? If, like me, you devoured it when you were young, then I'm telling you now it deserves a re-read. I’m undoubtedly bias, because I read it for the first time when I was eleven, and wasn't scarred for life, but I still think it is suitable for a YA audience, the POV is a young person after all, and my local library agrees with me, and has it shelved accordingly. I look forward to picking up Petals on the Wind later this year, when the 40th Anniversary edition is released.
April 16, 2017
5 stars to V.C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic. This was one of the earliest books I remember reading as a young adult. I was captivated by the relationships which is probably from where my love of reading and writing family dramas was born.
As an avid genealogist, this books is ripe with analysis to understand all the connections between blood and non-blood relatives. It played to everything I found fascinating and the psychology of why people do the things they do.
The subject, incest at its core, can be a difficult one to digest; however, Andrews handles it with care. I daresay many readers are rooting for some of the couples to get or stay together -- and that's not easy to acknowledge. But ultimately, I think the reader has to forget the family relationships between some of these characters and just focus on the intensity of the drama between 2 people regardless of their relationships.
Locked in an attic. Rejected by your mother. Poisoned by someone. Religious grandmothers with a vengeance. Who is right and who is wrong? The religious themes in this book are so prevalent that you can't help but question your own beliefs.
I didn't realize there were multiple volumes in this story until many years later and went back to re-read the original one. But when I did, I was ensconced in my reading realm. This family is just so maniacal... you have to read it just to see what some people are capable of.
As an avid genealogist, this books is ripe with analysis to understand all the connections between blood and non-blood relatives. It played to everything I found fascinating and the psychology of why people do the things they do.
The subject, incest at its core, can be a difficult one to digest; however, Andrews handles it with care. I daresay many readers are rooting for some of the couples to get or stay together -- and that's not easy to acknowledge. But ultimately, I think the reader has to forget the family relationships between some of these characters and just focus on the intensity of the drama between 2 people regardless of their relationships.
Locked in an attic. Rejected by your mother. Poisoned by someone. Religious grandmothers with a vengeance. Who is right and who is wrong? The religious themes in this book are so prevalent that you can't help but question your own beliefs.
I didn't realize there were multiple volumes in this story until many years later and went back to re-read the original one. But when I did, I was ensconced in my reading realm. This family is just so maniacal... you have to read it just to see what some people are capable of.
October 15, 2016
50 páginas menos y hubiera estado perfecto.
Read
July 24, 2014Yes, I read the entire series. No, I am not ashamed. I'm not rating them because I would have to rate them low because they're awful, but I loved them anyway. Wipe that judgy look off your face right now.
February 17, 2024
I may be in the minority on this one, but I thought Flowers in the Attic was fantastic and I am so glad I read it.
This book was published in 1979. In reviewing and critiquing this book, I thought it might be helpful to know/recall what else was going on in 1979 in terms of events and cultural/political issues. A brief Google search revealed the following:
1. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
2. Movies that came out that year running the gamut were Superman The Movie, (the horror that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Kramer v. Kramer.
3. Great Britain elected Margaret Thatcher, the first woman elected to that position.
4. The Sony Walkman blasted into the years of the world’s youth (damn I wish I’d had the forethought to keep mine).
5. The Iran hostage crisis occurs.
6. The Moral Majority was formed.
7. Television shows that debuted (at least in the US) include The Dukes of Hazard, Hart to Hart, and The Facts of Life. Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman ended in 1979.
8. On the darker end of the entertainment spectrum, Uncle Stevie published The Long Walk and The Dead Zone. Koontz published The Key to Midnight. Also the movies Alien and The Amityville Horror came out.
This provides some limited context of the world when this book came out. Not exhaustive, but just few things that came up and seemed relevant to me.
So it should not come as a huge surprise that a book where four kids who are imprisoned in an attic by a crazed religious grandmother, two of whom have an incestuous relationship, blew minds. It had to be seen as pretty wild and unique at the time. I was only vaguely aware of the content when I was a kid. I haven’t read it until, well, now. I don’t know if VC Andrews had an intended audience in mind when she wrote it. But I have pretty diverse literary tastes. And I personally loved this one. People may have been shocked by the relationship, but the book is so much more than that. To me, the psychological components of this book were so much more impressive. It’s the build up to Cathy and Chris’s relationship that is captivating and engrossing. It’s how the four young lives are uprooted and degraded. It had suspense and twists that hit me and impressed me. Andrews captured Cathy’s voice (who is the oldest of the two sisters and the second oldest child), especially as their horrific conditions develop.
This book offered a much deeper psychological component than perhaps pop culture would have you believe. It’s not perfect. For example, the exclamation points are WAAAAY over-used. But the book exceeded my expectations and I loved it nonetheless.
You can bet your butt I’ll be reading the rest of the Dollanganger series.
This book was published in 1979. In reviewing and critiquing this book, I thought it might be helpful to know/recall what else was going on in 1979 in terms of events and cultural/political issues. A brief Google search revealed the following:
1. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
2. Movies that came out that year running the gamut were Superman The Movie, (the horror that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Kramer v. Kramer.
3. Great Britain elected Margaret Thatcher, the first woman elected to that position.
4. The Sony Walkman blasted into the years of the world’s youth (damn I wish I’d had the forethought to keep mine).
5. The Iran hostage crisis occurs.
6. The Moral Majority was formed.
7. Television shows that debuted (at least in the US) include The Dukes of Hazard, Hart to Hart, and The Facts of Life. Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman ended in 1979.
8. On the darker end of the entertainment spectrum, Uncle Stevie published The Long Walk and The Dead Zone. Koontz published The Key to Midnight. Also the movies Alien and The Amityville Horror came out.
This provides some limited context of the world when this book came out. Not exhaustive, but just few things that came up and seemed relevant to me.
So it should not come as a huge surprise that a book where four kids who are imprisoned in an attic by a crazed religious grandmother, two of whom have an incestuous relationship, blew minds. It had to be seen as pretty wild and unique at the time. I was only vaguely aware of the content when I was a kid. I haven’t read it until, well, now. I don’t know if VC Andrews had an intended audience in mind when she wrote it. But I have pretty diverse literary tastes. And I personally loved this one. People may have been shocked by the relationship, but the book is so much more than that. To me, the psychological components of this book were so much more impressive. It’s the build up to Cathy and Chris’s relationship that is captivating and engrossing. It’s how the four young lives are uprooted and degraded. It had suspense and twists that hit me and impressed me. Andrews captured Cathy’s voice (who is the oldest of the two sisters and the second oldest child), especially as their horrific conditions develop.
This book offered a much deeper psychological component than perhaps pop culture would have you believe. It’s not perfect. For example, the exclamation points are WAAAAY over-used. But the book exceeded my expectations and I loved it nonetheless.
You can bet your butt I’ll be reading the rest of the Dollanganger series.
February 8, 2013
So how is perfection decided?
Is it by looks?
Is it by choices?
Is it by God's standards?
Or perhaps by the human's opinions?
Do children pay for their parents' decisions?
Why should they?
And who in this motherf*cking universe is entitled to do just that?
So here's the deal.
I'm going to start with the mother of the story.
She gets the honors because she's really something.
So let me get this straight.
You decide, after the death of your husband and your childrens'father, to grab your kids and lead and leave them at the mercy of your mother, to whom the Devil wouldn't hold a candle to, and who has thrown you out of her life after you eloped with your half-uncle, because that was the best decision.
THE.BEST.DECISION.
Why is this the best decision?
Because you want to get back to your father's good graces so that the prodigal daughter can be re-installed in the will.
So what's reason?
F*CKING MONEY.
Que bitter laugh. And hear this.
You lock up your children in a secluded room , with the only pacing opening towards an ATTIC, lie incessantly to them about the time they are going to be trapped in that hell-hole and then gradually abandon them, forget they need their mother after losing their father so recently, and drop them like a sack of sh*t.
And what's the reason of that?
TO GET BACK THE F*CKING MONEY.
Why?
BECAUSE YOU WON'T RECEIVE NOT ONE F*UCKING PENNY IF YOUR FATHER FINDS OUT ABOUT YOUR KIDS.
So the woman does something brilliant.
Really great parent advice.
Not only does she leave her beautiful and most caring children at the mercy of a flogging,relentless,grey-haired monster with the lamest excuse of all that she will get them out as soon her father is dead and the fortune is hers. But. She fails to inform them that her father has already been dead for a whole year, during which time one of her kids dies, she gets remarried and then flees without so much as an explanation.
Do you thing that's it?
NO. Because she actually poisons her own kids little by little with arsenic hidden in candy.
Why is that?
BECAUSE THE F*CKING MONEY WILL BE TAKEN FROM HER IF SHE'S FOUND OUT TO HAVE HAD CHILDREN FROM HER FIRST MARRIAGE.
This must be one of the most outrageous things I have ever read.
Now as far as the brother ans sister, Chris and Cathy are concerned, I have to say this.
If they can manage in such an appaling condition to find love despite what their blood is telling them, then so be it. Circumstances make us who we are. Feeling that this relationship is a taboo would be solely hypocritical when the true disgust stems from the actions of those considered older and wiser. That young love had no part in the atrocities that were bestowed upon them.
Nobody was ever going to make me hate my father or my mother! Nobody was going to have the power of life and death over menot while I was
alive and could still fight back!
“What have we done so sinful?” he asked. "Do you think we can live in one room, year after year, and not see each other? You helped put us
here. You have locked this wing so the servants cannot enter. You want to catch us doing something you consider evil. You want Cathy and me to
prove your judgment of our mother's marriage is right! Look at you, standing there in your iron- gray dress, feeling pious
and self- righteous while you starve small children!“
“I'm going to get even one day, old woman,” I said. “There's going to come a
day when you are going to be the helpless one, and I'm going to hold the whip in my hands. And there's going to be food in the kitchen that you are
never going to eat, for, as you incessantly say, God sees everything, and he has his way of working justice, an eye for an eye is his way,
Grandmother!”
“Wrong?” he repeated. “Momma, what can be right about living in one room? You said I don't sound like myselflook me over good. Am I a little
boy now? Look at Cathyis she still a child? Look longest at the twins; notice in particular how tall they've grown. Then turn your eyes back on me,
and tell me that Cathy and I are still children to be treated with condescension, and are incapable of understanding adult subjects. We haven't
remained idle, twiddling our thumbs while you were off having a good time. Through books Cathy and I have lived a zillion lives . . . our vicarious way
to feel alive.”
“I love you,” was his reply. “I make myself keep on loving you, despite what you do. I've got to love you. We all have to love you, and believe in
you, and think you are looking out for our best interests. But look at us, Momma, and really see us."
“Momma, whether or not you inherit your father's immense fortune, we want out of this room! Not next week, or tomorrowbut today! Now! This
minute! You turn that key over to me, and we'll go away, far away. And you can send us money, if you care to, or send nothing, if that's what you
want, and you need never see us again, if that is your choice, and that will solve all your problems, we'll be gone from your life, and your father need
never know we existed, and you can have what he leaves you, all to yourself.”
“Damn you to hell, Corrine Foxworth,” I shouted at the top of my lungs, “if you don't take your son to a hospital! You think you can do anything you
want with us, and no one will find out! Well, you can throw away that security blanket, for I'll find a way for revenge, if it takes me the rest of my life, I'll
see that you pay, and dearly pay, if you don't do something right now to save Cory's life. Go on, glare your eyes at me, and cry and plead, and talk to
me about money and what it can buy. But it can't buy back a child once he's dead! And if that happens, don't think I won't find a way to get to your husband and tell him you have four children you have kept hidden in a locked room with their only playground an attic . . . and you've kept them there
for years and years! See if he loves you then! Watch his face and wait to see how much respect and admiration he has for you then!” She winced,
but her eyes shot deadly looks at me. “And what's more, I'll go to the grandfather and tell him, too!” I yelled even louder. “And you won't inherit one
damned red pennyand I'll be glad, glad, glad!”
“And when I fall in love,” I began, "I will build a mountain to touch the sky. Then, my lover and I will have
the
best of both worlds, reality firmly under our feet, while we have our heads in the clouds with all our illusions still intact. And the purple grass will
grow all around, high enough to reach our eyes."
So this is my gift to you.
STUNNING.PARENT.MODEL.
August 4, 2020
I watched this film as a teenager never realising until recently it was a book. I was sucked into this on the opening scenes, the attic where the paper flowers blow sucked me in and wouldn't let me out in the same way as the characters couldn't leave.
This was a really dark read for its time and using a taboo trope that raises eyebrows now i can only imagine the hype of the 70's.
I will continue this series, its very readable, the words flow and i flew through the book. While at the time this was probably considered adult, i think this reads and feels very YA in today's society.
This was a really dark read for its time and using a taboo trope that raises eyebrows now i can only imagine the hype of the 70's.
I will continue this series, its very readable, the words flow and i flew through the book. While at the time this was probably considered adult, i think this reads and feels very YA in today's society.
May 24, 2021
Bueno. A ver. Estamos hablando de un libro sumamente controversial y la verdad tampoco sé muy bien qué pensar.
Sé que me gustó mucho. Es un libro SUPER interesante, así como también triste, desesperante y trágico.
Me parece que la historia está llevada de una manera maravillosamente buena, la autora escribe muy bien y sabe cómo lidiar con la temática del libro.
Lo que a mi me encanta de Flores en el ático es cómo se atreve a jugar con la mente humana, así como también cómo se balancea en esa soga tirante entre lo que está bien y lo que está mal. La psicología de este libro te hace realmente caer de culo, porque sí, y OJO, hay incesto, y es una gran parte de la trama, pero al final del día no tenés ningún tipo de razón para juzgarlos, y está muy bueno cómo la autora pone a cuestionar la propia moral de uno. Posta me parece increíble eso.
Sí puede ser que no sea una historia ligera, todo lo contrario, es pesada y fuerte, porque son muy explícitas las duras condiciones por las que tienen que pasar los cuatro niños. La primera parte es más lenta de leer por una cuestión de introducción, pero ya la segunda la arranca con todo y no podés parar de leer.
Tanto Cathy como Chris como Corrine son personajes super complejos y es muy bueno ver claramente cómo se van desarrollando a través de la historia y cómo van tomando nuevos colores a partir de las circunstancias del libro.
De más está decir el ODIO que le tenog a Corrine. Al principio pensé que detestaba a la abuela, pero NADA, NADA *NADA* se compara con la madre.
Realmente es un muy buen libro que deja al desnudo la naturaleza humana.
Super recomendado.
Sé que me gustó mucho. Es un libro SUPER interesante, así como también triste, desesperante y trágico.
Me parece que la historia está llevada de una manera maravillosamente buena, la autora escribe muy bien y sabe cómo lidiar con la temática del libro.
Lo que a mi me encanta de Flores en el ático es cómo se atreve a jugar con la mente humana, así como también cómo se balancea en esa soga tirante entre lo que está bien y lo que está mal. La psicología de este libro te hace realmente caer de culo, porque sí, y OJO, hay incesto, y es una gran parte de la trama, pero al final del día no tenés ningún tipo de razón para juzgarlos, y está muy bueno cómo la autora pone a cuestionar la propia moral de uno. Posta me parece increíble eso.
Sí puede ser que no sea una historia ligera, todo lo contrario, es pesada y fuerte, porque son muy explícitas las duras condiciones por las que tienen que pasar los cuatro niños. La primera parte es más lenta de leer por una cuestión de introducción, pero ya la segunda la arranca con todo y no podés parar de leer.
Tanto Cathy como Chris como Corrine son personajes super complejos y es muy bueno ver claramente cómo se van desarrollando a través de la historia y cómo van tomando nuevos colores a partir de las circunstancias del libro.
De más está decir el ODIO que le tenog a Corrine. Al principio pensé que detestaba a la abuela, pero NADA, NADA *NADA* se compara con la madre.
Realmente es un muy buen libro que deja al desnudo la naturaleza humana.
Super recomendado.
February 28, 2021
Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger #1), V.C. Andrews
Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 Gothic novel by V. C. Andrews. It is the first book in the Dollanganger Series.
In 1957, the Dollanganger family lives an idyllic life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania until Mr. Dollanganger dies in a car accident, leaving his wife Corinne deep in debt with four children and no professional skills.
The family is forced to move in with Corinne's wealthy parents, from whom she is estranged. Upon arrival at Corinne's ancestral home, Foxworth Hall, the family is greeted coldly by Corinne's mother, Olivia, who sneaks them into a small bedroom connected to the attic.
The children are told they must remain hidden from their grandfather, Malcolm, and can never leave this room.
The older children, Cathy and Chris, attempt to make the best of the situation for their younger siblings, twins Carrie and Cory, by turning the attic into an imaginary garden.
They are dismayed when Corinne returns after meeting with her parents and they see she has been savagely whipped.
Corinne confesses that the children's dead father was her father's half-brother, and this incest is the cause of her and her parents' estrangement. Corinne plans to win back her father's love, and hopes to introduce the children once this has been accomplished. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز بیست و دوم ماه فوریه سال 2017میلادی
عنوان: سلسله ی دولانگنگر کتاب نخست: گلها در اتاق زیر شیروانی؛ نویسنده: ویرجینیا سی اندروز؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
این سری داستانهای «گوتیک» هستند؛ (هنر «گوتیک» سبکی از هنر است، که از سده های میانی میلادی، و در «فرانسه» آغاز شد؛ این شیوه ی هنری، در نیمه دوم سده دوازدهم میلادی، پا گرفت، و تا نیمه ی سده ی شانزدهم میلادی، دوام یافت، و در همه کشورهای اروپایی متداول شد؛ هنر «گوتیک» شامل «معماری»، «مجسمه سازی»، «نقاشی»، «رنگ آمیزی شیشه ها»، «نقاشی با آبرنگ روی گچ» و «دست نوشته ها» میشد)»؛ «باغ سایه ها» پیش داستانی است، که داستان پدربزرگ و مادربزرگ، و چگونگی درگیری آنها را، روایت میکند؛ کتابهای «گلهای زیر شیروانی» و «گلبرگها روی باد» روی کودکان تمرکز دارد؛ «کریس»، «کتی»، «کوری» و «کری»، که پس از، از دست دادن پدرشان، در یک تصادف، توسط مادر و مادربزرگشان، در «اتاق زیر شیروانی» زندانی میشوند؛ که داستانشان همین کتاب «گلها در اتاق زیر شیروانی» را میآراید؛ که از زندان، و مرگ یک کودک، سخن میگوید، و در کتاب «گلبرگها روی باد» فرار آن سه کودک باقیمانده بازگو شده است؛ و ...؛
کتابهای این سری: «باغ سایه ها»؛ «گلها در اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ «گلبرگها روی باد»؛ «اگر خارهایی وجود داشته باشد»؛ «دانه های دیروز»؛ «دفتر یادمانهای کریستوفر اسرار فوکس ورث»؛ «دفتر یادمانهای کریستوفر پژواکهای دولانگنگر»؛ «برادر محرمانه (پنهانی)»؛ «زیر اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ «بیرون از اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ و «سایه های فوکس ورث»؛
در سال 1957میلادی، خانواده «دولانگانگر»، در «گلدستون، پنسیلوانیا» یک زندگی آرام دامداری را، با هم سپری میکنند، تا اینکه آقای «دولانگانگر»، در یک حادثه ی رانندگی درمیگذرد، و همسرش «کورین» را، که دارای چهار فرزند بوده، با بدهیهایش گرفتار میکند؛ این خانواده مجبور میشوند، که با والدین ثروتمند «کورین»، که با آنها بیگانه هستند، زندگی کنند؛ با رسیدن به خانه ی اجدادی خانوادگی، در «فوکسورث هال»، «اولیویا»، مادر «کورین»، آنها را، در یک اتاق خواب کوچک، متصل به اتاق زیر شیروانی، پنهان میکند، و از آنها به سردی پیشواز میکند؛ به کودکان گفته میشود که باید از پدربزرگ خود، «مالکوم» پنهان بمانند، و آنها هرگز نمیتوانند، از آن اتاق خارج شوند
دو کودک بزرگتر، «کتی» و «کریس»، کوشش میکنند، اتاق زیر شیروانی را، به یک باغ افسانه ای تبدیل کنند، تا این وضعیت را، برای برادران کوچکترشان، «کری» و «کوری»، قابل تحمل کنند؛ با اینحال، آنگاه که «کورین»، پس از دیدار با پدر و مادرش، بازمیگردد، وحشت میکنند، و میبینند، که او را، به طرز وحشیانه ای، شلاق زده اند؛ «کورین» اذعان میکند، که پدر فرزندانش، که در گذشته برادر ناتنی پدرش بوده، و این محاربه به دلیل دور شدن وی، از والدینش بوده است؛ «کورین» قصد دارد، عشق پدرش را، دوباره به دست بیاورد، و امیدوار است، پس از یافتن راهی، او را به فرزندانش بشناساند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 Gothic novel by V. C. Andrews. It is the first book in the Dollanganger Series.
In 1957, the Dollanganger family lives an idyllic life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania until Mr. Dollanganger dies in a car accident, leaving his wife Corinne deep in debt with four children and no professional skills.
The family is forced to move in with Corinne's wealthy parents, from whom she is estranged. Upon arrival at Corinne's ancestral home, Foxworth Hall, the family is greeted coldly by Corinne's mother, Olivia, who sneaks them into a small bedroom connected to the attic.
The children are told they must remain hidden from their grandfather, Malcolm, and can never leave this room.
The older children, Cathy and Chris, attempt to make the best of the situation for their younger siblings, twins Carrie and Cory, by turning the attic into an imaginary garden.
They are dismayed when Corinne returns after meeting with her parents and they see she has been savagely whipped.
Corinne confesses that the children's dead father was her father's half-brother, and this incest is the cause of her and her parents' estrangement. Corinne plans to win back her father's love, and hopes to introduce the children once this has been accomplished. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز بیست و دوم ماه فوریه سال 2017میلادی
عنوان: سلسله ی دولانگنگر کتاب نخست: گلها در اتاق زیر شیروانی؛ نویسنده: ویرجینیا سی اندروز؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
این سری داستانهای «گوتیک» هستند؛ (هنر «گوتیک» سبکی از هنر است، که از سده های میانی میلادی، و در «فرانسه» آغاز شد؛ این شیوه ی هنری، در نیمه دوم سده دوازدهم میلادی، پا گرفت، و تا نیمه ی سده ی شانزدهم میلادی، دوام یافت، و در همه کشورهای اروپایی متداول شد؛ هنر «گوتیک» شامل «معماری»، «مجسمه سازی»، «نقاشی»، «رنگ آمیزی شیشه ها»، «نقاشی با آبرنگ روی گچ» و «دست نوشته ها» میشد)»؛ «باغ سایه ها» پیش داستانی است، که داستان پدربزرگ و مادربزرگ، و چگونگی درگیری آنها را، روایت میکند؛ کتابهای «گلهای زیر شیروانی» و «گلبرگها روی باد» روی کودکان تمرکز دارد؛ «کریس»، «کتی»، «کوری» و «کری»، که پس از، از دست دادن پدرشان، در یک تصادف، توسط مادر و مادربزرگشان، در «اتاق زیر شیروانی» زندانی میشوند؛ که داستانشان همین کتاب «گلها در اتاق زیر شیروانی» را میآراید؛ که از زندان، و مرگ یک کودک، سخن میگوید، و در کتاب «گلبرگها روی باد» فرار آن سه کودک باقیمانده بازگو شده است؛ و ...؛
کتابهای این سری: «باغ سایه ها»؛ «گلها در اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ «گلبرگها روی باد»؛ «اگر خارهایی وجود داشته باشد»؛ «دانه های دیروز»؛ «دفتر یادمانهای کریستوفر اسرار فوکس ورث»؛ «دفتر یادمانهای کریستوفر پژواکهای دولانگنگر»؛ «برادر محرمانه (پنهانی)»؛ «زیر اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ «بیرون از اتاق زیرشیروانی»؛ و «سایه های فوکس ورث»؛
در سال 1957میلادی، خانواده «دولانگانگر»، در «گلدستون، پنسیلوانیا» یک زندگی آرام دامداری را، با هم سپری میکنند، تا اینکه آقای «دولانگانگر»، در یک حادثه ی رانندگی درمیگذرد، و همسرش «کورین» را، که دارای چهار فرزند بوده، با بدهیهایش گرفتار میکند؛ این خانواده مجبور میشوند، که با والدین ثروتمند «کورین»، که با آنها بیگانه هستند، زندگی کنند؛ با رسیدن به خانه ی اجدادی خانوادگی، در «فوکسورث هال»، «اولیویا»، مادر «کورین»، آنها را، در یک اتاق خواب کوچک، متصل به اتاق زیر شیروانی، پنهان میکند، و از آنها به سردی پیشواز میکند؛ به کودکان گفته میشود که باید از پدربزرگ خود، «مالکوم» پنهان بمانند، و آنها هرگز نمیتوانند، از آن اتاق خارج شوند
دو کودک بزرگتر، «کتی» و «کریس»، کوشش میکنند، اتاق زیر شیروانی را، به یک باغ افسانه ای تبدیل کنند، تا این وضعیت را، برای برادران کوچکترشان، «کری» و «کوری»، قابل تحمل کنند؛ با اینحال، آنگاه که «کورین»، پس از دیدار با پدر و مادرش، بازمیگردد، وحشت میکنند، و میبینند، که او را، به طرز وحشیانه ای، شلاق زده اند؛ «کورین» اذعان میکند، که پدر فرزندانش، که در گذشته برادر ناتنی پدرش بوده، و این محاربه به دلیل دور شدن وی، از والدینش بوده است؛ «کورین» قصد دارد، عشق پدرش را، دوباره به دست بیاورد، و امیدوار است، پس از یافتن راهی، او را به فرزندانش بشناساند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
September 3, 2007
I really hate this book. I also hate "Petals on The Wind", "If There Be Thorns" and "Seeds of Yesterday". I say this having just re-read each of the above 17 years after I first read them (they were heady stuff to a 12 year old), and I was appalled at the predictability of the plot, the characters, the obsession Virgina Andrews appeared to harbour for incestuous relationships.
I hate the fact that characters are so stereotypically physically stunning, but must shoulder a terrible tragic burden. I hate the dialogue used. Awful. Simply awful.
I hate the fact that characters are so stereotypically physically stunning, but must shoulder a terrible tragic burden. I hate the dialogue used. Awful. Simply awful.
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