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Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger #1)

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 58,691 ratings · 2,748 reviews

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 whi...more

Paperback, 389 pages

Published 1979 by Pocket Books

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Dec 29, 2011 Alex added it Recommends it for: perverts

Shelves: particularly-drunk-reviews, 2011

I 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. In an informal poll, most of Goodreads has this thing 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 w...more

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Oct 12, 2007 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: reluctant readers of the premenstrual persuasion

Shelves: balletomanes, mommiedearest, sicksicksick

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 f...more 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!

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Feb 09, 2013 Soraya Naomi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Soraya Naomi by: Rosalinda

Shelves: dark-twisted, drama

My first heartbreaking story of this year was definitely Flowers in the attic.

Four beautiful children are being held captive for years by their own mother and grandmother in the attic of their grandparents mansion.

Indeed, by their own mother. Two people in this story infuriated me. The mother and the grandmother........

These women are unbelievable! One of the most despised characters I have ever come across is their mother. After her husband dies, she's left without any financial security. She d...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Marina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, food-for-thought, in-one-word-good, heart-stopping, abused-hero-heroine

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 l...more

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Jul 01, 2007 Malbadeen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: confused-or-informed-my-sexuality, read-by-virtue-of-proximity

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...more

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Oct 26, 2007 Anne-Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: back-in-the-day

I read Flowers in the Attic when I was 11 or 12 years old. I'm pretty sure the copy I had was borrowed from my BFF's older (and cooler) sister without her permission. This book was creepy and scary and erotic enough to make me feel rebellious. I knew that my parents would not want me to be reading about child abuse and incest (they wouldn't even let me watch Purple Rain on HBO, for Christ sakes!) so that made Flowers in the Attic all the more alluring. This was one of the first books of many tha...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Sita Sargeant rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, reviewed

I don't know why I read this...
Guess I was in a mood for something really disturbing...

So because there isn't much of a plot i'll give it to you, the book centers around 4 brothers and sisters – Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory. Carrie and Cory are twins. They all live a happy life with their parents. They are all blond and beautiful, but that all changes when their father is killed in a car crash. Their mother can't support the children, so she decides to pack them up and move in with her rich par...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Kristin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, i-own-it, troubled-women

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...more 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, they're 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 really know what someone else has been through, where their lives took them, and why they are the way they are. (less)

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Sep 20, 2007 Linnea rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: time wasters

Shelves: time-i-can-never-have-back

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...more

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Feb 07, 2009 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, girls-girls-girls

The inspiration for reading this book came from David's stellar review from a few weeks ago. I know my own review of this book will not in any way compare.

Being of middle school age in the late 1980's it seemed like the reading type girls either read V.C. Andrews or Sweet Valley High, or maybe they were reading SVH in like sixth and seventh grade and they started on V.C. Andrews in eighth grade. I don't really remember, but I do remember seeing books from these two series in the hands of lots of...more The inspiration for reading this book came from David's stellar review from a few weeks ago. I know my own review of this book will not in any way compare.

Being of middle school age in the late 1980's it seemed like the reading type girls either read V.C. Andrews or Sweet Valley High, or maybe they were reading SVH in like sixth and seventh grade and they started on V.C. Andrews in eighth grade. I don't really remember, but I do remember seeing books from these two series in the hands of lots of girls. I didn't dare speak to them so I don't know what they thought of either series. V.C. Andrews at the time sort of appealed to me only because I was on a steady diet of Stephen King books and for some inexplicable reason the V.C. Andrews books were shelved in the same Horror sections at the book stores. I figured there must be something cool about them, like horror for girls or something, but I didn't pay too much attention to them. How little did I know about the books? Well I might have heard they were about incest, but it wasn't until reading David's review that the incest thing actually struck me.

After reading Flowers in the Attic I'm confused about why this would be placed in the horror section. There is little that would classify this book as horror. Incest might be horrific and the treatment of the children in the book is certainly cruel and unusual but there isn't much horror or even real terror going on in the book. Maybe because the horror is only beginning in this book (as it says on the inside front cover in the few word description for each of the novels in the series) the real horror will pop up in books 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Will I read those to find out if the horror really gets going? I don't know. Part of me says no. I have delved into the psyche of teen girls enough for now, and instead I'll return to reading depressing post-war German authors. Another part of me says of course I'll read at least the next one. Most books in a series end in someway that make you want to read on to find out the answers to questions left unanswered, or from some kind of cliffhanger like quality. Not this one though. For me I can't see where the story is going to go next. I don't believe that there is enough fodder or momentum to sustain another book, nevermind another four books. My only guess is that the hapless children will get themselves locked up once again somewhere and some more incest will happen. Or something like that.

The content of this book was sort of disappointing. From the comments people made about the book I was expecting it to be dirtier, instead it turned out pretty tame with more stolen glances and shy looks then actual good ol' Southern incest. On the plus side after a painful first chapter loaded down with pedantic dialog the book became pretty readable and dare I say enjoyable once it got going.

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Feb 06, 2013 Rosalinda marked it as to-read

***STARTING THIS ONE TOMORROW WITH A LOT OF BR***

Thanks Soraya for arranging this! ;)

like 5 likes · see review

Jun 20, 2007 Carolanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 18, 2008 Bex rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who read it in the 1980s

I have no perspective on this book. I can't separate it from my teenage self.

For the first 200 pages I was amused to be re-reading a book I had loved as a teenager. I LOVED this book in the 1980s, and I'm guessing that had something to do with the titillating subject matter but it might also have been because I was desperate to get away from my hometown and start my life and there is a theme of isolation and a desperation to get out into the world and be free. It's a theme lots of teens could r...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Rhonea Williams-Dillard rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Generation X and Yers

Recommended to Rhonea by: Troll Book Club

I can see from a great deal of the reviews that many of the reviewers are around my age (late twenties, early thirties). Somewhere between Michael Jackson, who was child-like but grabbed his crouch and made faces as if he was in the throes of passion, hot, plastic jelly shoes, biker shorts, big shirts, shoulder pads, breakdancing and Dynasty was this wonderfully awful book. We liked it because Cathy was us. Victimized, misunderstood, niave, hormonal . . . us.
We were disturbed by the incest but...more

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May 06, 2013 Lauren (Sugar & Snark) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: old-favorites

I went straight to sleep after finishing this book late last night and it actually gave me nightmares!

I was trapped in a room desperately trying to keep a pot plant alive and no matter what I did it kept wilting and dying.

I first read this book when I was 12 years old and the story of 4 children being kept prisoner in an attic by their Mother and Grandmother has always stuck with me. And I suppose the theme of incest left an impression on my young mind. Now reading it a 30 I enjoyed the book bu...more

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Feb 18, 2008 Yumi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

admit it: everyone goes through a v.c. andrews phase, devouring every word of her ghost-written books and all the anguished incest-y desires that jump off the page in horridly written prose. if jerry springer and tyra banks ever had a lovechild and turned it into text, v.c. andrews books would be it.

that being said, i did enjoy the hell out of this book when i first read it, simply because it was so tawdry. im beginning to wonder when and if the hipsters will bring her back, and then it can be...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Kristen rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No-one

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...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Liam rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Liam by: Arwen B.

Shelves: fiction

When I was in the fifth grade, the "advanced" reading class was really small, and was divided into two groups- the boys' group and the girls' group. Because I didn't get along with the other boys, and kept getting in fights, I was moved (after being sent to the vice-principal's office several times for fighting & cursing)to the girls' reading group. That was perfectly fine with me for a couple of reasons: for starters, I preferred the company of women even then; an added bonus was that the...more When I was in the fifth grade, the "advanced" reading class was really small, and was divided into two groups- the boys' group and the girls' group. Because I didn't get along with the other boys, and kept getting in fights, I was moved (after being sent to the vice-principal's office several times for fighting & cursing)to the girls' reading group. That was perfectly fine with me for a couple of reasons: for starters, I preferred the company of women even then; an added bonus was that the girls only occasionally desired any participation by me in their conversation, which allowed me to read without interruption for the most part. What was even more important, though, was the fact that I got to sit next to Arwen, who lived about half a mile down the road from me, and who I secretly had a crush on...
Reading class was enlivened that year by the fact that we finished the coursework for the year well before Christmas, and were allowed to spend the rest of the school year reading whatever we wanted (in my case that was primarily "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"). The girls spent most of that time passing around two books: "Flowers In The Attic" was the first one, the second was "Forever" by Judy Blume. Eventually, of course, I was more or less coerced into reading both books, which started in both cases with Arwen whispering something along the lines of "...read page 111...", or whatever page it was, while all the other girls giggled uncontrollably.
V.C. Andrews was not a particularly good writer, but far from the worst I've ever read- she had a definite talent for creepy description. The most vivid memory I have of the book is the scene where the grandmother(?) puts tar in the girl's hair. Actually, if I remember correctly, V.C. Andrews wrote the scariest story I ever read- it was a short story about a dead girl's dolls, and it scared the hell out of me. What really strikes me as I write this is how innocent we were then, almost thirty years ago... Considering the sort of thing that is on television these days, I would think most parents would be thrilled beyond belief to see their kids reading even this book...(less)

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Sep 18, 2008 Denys L.H. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone with an open-mind

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ever watched the 1980 movie adapted from the book? I have. That is how I stumbled upon this story about four siblings locked in an attic by their selfish mother and bitter grandmother. After years of finding this book, I finally encountered it in my high school library and right away, started reading. And this wasn't only one book--- it was a series! This meant something to keep me busy for days to come...

We are introduced to Catherine Dollanganger(but called Cathy for short). She is the 12 year...more Ever watched the 1980 movie adapted from the book? I have. That is how I stumbled upon this story about four siblings locked in an attic by their selfish mother and bitter grandmother. After years of finding this book, I finally encountered it in my high school library and right away, started reading. And this wasn't only one book--- it was a series! This meant something to keep me busy for days to come...

We are introduced to Catherine Dollanganger(but called Cathy for short). She is the 12 year old narrator (telling the story as if she was some 40 year old widow). Along with her older brother Christopher (Chris), her two younger sibling twins Cory and Carrie, and last, her BEAUTIFUL mother and father. They all have blond hair and blue eyes, making it all see as if they come from one generation (foreshadow be warned). They are all happy, reaching dreams determined to accomplish, and having a perfect, carefree life... that is, until the father dies of a tragic car accident on his birthday.

They are all horrified at what happened, mourning the loss of their beloved father (especially Cathy, who was looked upon as his favorite). We start to realize that Corinne (the mother) is incapable of taking care of her children, since she has no useful skills to help her whatsoever. The codependent doll then, writes letters to her estranged parents that were presumed dead. After writing a lots of them, pleading to help her out, they are finally answered by the grandmother instructing her to bring along her children. They pack what they can and leave behind what hasn't been fully paid (mortgage/financial reasons). Suspiciously, you can see the mother puts herself first (she packs two suitcases for herself and gives two to her four children) and then thinks about her family.

Suddenly, the secrets start pouring out. Their name isn't Dollanganger, but actually Foxworth. That isn't explained until later on. They reach it to their mother's home--- a huge mansion that probably has twenty rooms everywhere. They might their grandmother thinking she would be one of those sweet old ladies, but it turns out she's as rotten as a spoiled apple to the core. A real bitch at that too. Just for that, she quickly sends them to the attic, where their mother explains the children have to hide in because their grandfather does not know about them. This is so, because the mother actually married her half-uncle (long story; won't tell) and her parents disowned her from the household name. If the grandfather ever finds out, then he might not write his daughter in the will, since she's the only one who can inherit his money (her two brothers died and can't be able to).

Corinne keeps telling her children the grandfather will die soon, bringing them false hope every-time she visits them in the attic. Together, the four siblings have to survive with the help of each other. Pretty soon, they decorate the attic, making it seem more creative and artistic and are attended to with meals, but are also given ridiculous rules that forbid any of them to develop lustful, "sinful" incestuous relationships with one another. And the mother starts visiting her children less often over the course of two years they're stuck inside the attic. The two older children start to develop--- Cathy gets her period and becomes a little woman, while Chris has urges of sexual desires. And that's when trouble arrives and they start feeling attracted to one another, the grandmother starts punishing them for an incident she falsely assumed happened, and the twins are getting less healthy by the month. Their mother isn't even caring anymore, but tries to hide it with useless gifts and acting as if all this pressure is put upon her and SHE'S the one having fun from it all.

From reading and finishing the novel, and also looking forward to finding the second one, I've realized one thing from all this. Love is love. The relationship between Cathy and Chris made me root for them the whole way, even though Chris raped Cathy (and she liked it). Of course it's seen as taboo for our modern society, but what if two people of the same blood really did love each other as much as they did? And it wasn't their fault either. It was the grandmother's and their mother's for leaving them inside the attic while they naturally develop hormones. Who can really blame them?

My heart went out to the four of them. I cried in the sad parts, and I felt very sympathetic with Carrie and Cory, and when Chris and Cathy were whipped. What I really bawled for was the death of Cory's ( :( ). The narrating of Cathy's was so beautifully told and very explicit. You will also hate the mother and the grandmother for taking away the childhood they deserved. Your heart will be yanked by these "Dresden dolls" and most likely follow them throughout their journey through the next series...

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Nov 08, 2010 Beth Dufraine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childhood, owned, ya-edgy-taboo-subjects, young-adult, reviewed, 5-stars, series, horror, mystery, romance, thriller, drama, gothic, chick-lit, classics, suspense

Disturbingly Enticing, Guilty Pleasure, Book I wasn't supposed to read, Scandalous and Unforgettable.

Flowers in the Attic did something wonderful for my generation of pre-teen girls. It allowed us to explore our sexuality. When I was 12, everybody seemed to be sneaking this novel under the covers or behind their school books. I remember a girl brought it out during our free reading period in English class and received some not so nice looks from the teacher. He didn’t say anything, but then agai...more

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Mar 02, 2007 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like simple stupid books

Shelves: bookclubbook

This book just was not good. That said, it did exceed my expectations, which were that it would be total trash and unreadable. It was readable - laughable- but readable. You might want to invest in a book cover so people on the train can't see what you are reading. Besides the ultra-simplistic, juvenile writing style, the personalities and behavior of the characters are not believable at all. It's like V.C Andrews (or whoever wrote this book) had the crazy twisted plot in mind and paid no attent...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Stephanee added it

I cannot rate this book. I really can't say whether I loved it or hated it. So I'd have to give it a 3 for being right in the middle, but that really doesn't describe it either.

I read it in 7th grade, and I remember not being able to stop reading it. This book was a train wreck with lots of carnage. So awfully horrible and yet at the same time completely fascinating. And then you feel guilty for being so absorbed in something so terrible. I ended up reading the whole series, plus a few other vc...more

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Dec 11, 2007 treehugger added it

Like others have said in their reviews, this is was one of the books that launched me out of young adult novels into the adult world of 'pretty much anything goes' fiction. The first book I ever read that had sex in it, and, 15 years later, I'm still disturbed by the incest (and the author's continuing theme of this circumstance throughout other of her novels). If a book hangs with you that long, especially with the poor writing style, someone did something right in creating the characters and s...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Neva rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like weird crap

Oh, VC Andrews. I love how you've been dead for 20 years and somehow found the time to write 600 new books. This isn't one of those books, though. You actually wrote it! This is a magical tale of Cathy and her magical romance with her brother. Intrigued? Of course you are. It also features a money hungry mother, a crazy grandma who whips them and poisons them with arsenic, and a dead kid (died from ARSENIC poisoning! Who did THAT? Oh, right. It was the mother that poisoned them, not the grandma....more

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Feb 16, 2009 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer by: Tina O.

Shelves: crack, abuse, horror, tmi, pg-13, i_saw_the_movie, v-c-andrews

When I was in my early teen years reading Sweet Valley High with my allowance money, a girlfriend (Tina O.) loaned me four of her V.C. Andrews books. DAAAAAAAAMN. Popped my little girl eyes open and introduced me to teen porn.

You have everything in here that speaks to a budding woman fresh out of her tweens:
1)Beloved father dies and family falls apart. (check)
2)Mom can't handle life without her husband and makes stupid decisions that end up being really great for her but not so great for her 4...more

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Jul 06, 2008 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

If loving the Flowers In The Attic series is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

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Nov 26, 2012 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, horror, series, 2012-read, updated

Somewhere in my adolescence, I appear to have missed the memo about V.C. Andrews. It was only after a discussion on Goodreads that two friends pointed me in the direction of Flowers in the Attic, and it was only then I realised it was a book read by many tween/teen girls in the 1980s, which should have (almost) included me. I was immediately intrigued - after all, how explicit and creepy could this book really be?

It was only after I finished reading that I realised what the attraction here actua...more Somewhere in my adolescence, I appear to have missed the memo about V.C. Andrews. It was only after a discussion on Goodreads that two friends pointed me in the direction of Flowers in the Attic, and it was only then I realised it was a book read by many tween/teen girls in the 1980s, which should have (almost) included me. I was immediately intrigued - after all, how explicit and creepy could this book really be?

It was only after I finished reading that I realised what the attraction here actually was - all those taboo topics that were rarely spoken about during my teen years, along with one huge one that's rarely spoken about now culminate into a book that although it appears to have been written for readers of a certain age, is the reading equivalent of watching a car crash for hormone-ridden teenagers.

To be honest, the writing is, well, crap. The language and dialogue is cringe-worthy and extremely outdated - the word 'golly' is used a whopping nineteen times, and often combined with 'day'. The characters are either blindingly naive or so nasty I wanted to throw them down the stairs, there are generous lashings of innuendo and the story itself borders on the ridiculous. How a bunch of children can live in an attic for a long period of time without a household full of servants even guessing that something other than 'hundreds of mice' was living upstairs, how the mothers friends and family don't guess that she'd popped out four kids and how the grandmothers crackpot religiousness both discouraged and yet in a way encouraged the inevitable really pushes the limits of believably, but in the end it was so engrossing I really didn't care.

And yet, I found this incredibly readable simply because it was like watching that car crash. It's creepy and controversial yet appallingly written, but I went straight out and bought the next book, Petals on the Wind.

I can't with any integrity rate this book - on one hand I rolled my eyes so hard they hurt, on the other I was completely captivated.(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jan 14, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, re-read

I decided to review this book before I started to read "Forbidden" by Tabitha Suzuma. Mainly because it sounds like there will be similarities. Also because I adore this book and hope that people who haven't heard of it might give it a chance!

Okay, so I first read this when I was 10 or 11 years old. Since that first time, I've re-read it more than any other book. I'm sure I've read it once every year or two. Oddly, it became a comfort read, a book I'd grab when I was sick or wanted something fam...more

like 7 likes · see review

Apr 18, 2011 Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ] rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, surely-i-ll-never-forget-book, reviews, 2010-reads, disturbing, i-have, favorites, creepy-worlds

A whole new world was opened to me with this book; its shockingly disturbing, awesomely trashy and completly madness with all the incest.

The whole incest topic caught my attention because I've never read a book that dealt with incest before. And as a teenager, its sort of overwhelming with the subject matter- the incest, child murder by there dearest mother, emotional abuse- that is so appalling.
The plot itself is really amazing but the book isnt well written.
This book made me feel literally sic...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, 2012, best-of-2012, re-read, very-well-written, feels

I'm reviewing this book again. Soon. It's mostly going to be quotes. Yes.

My general summary of the book:
There are four children whose nickname is "The Dresden Dolls", named after their blonde hair and their doll-like beauty. These four charming kids lose their father and then are taken to their Grandparents mansion by their mother, where they were locked in a single room which leads to a huge attic. This is the story of those years they spent locked away from the world, creating a new world in t...more

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Preparing to read it	38	118	May 14, 2013 11:56pm
V.C. Andrews: Borderline plagiarism?!	7	113	Apr 02, 2013 11:47am
Sex scenes - Too inapropriate? Spoilers	39	302	Mar 08, 2013 02:00pm
Masochist Readers: Buddy read Flowers in the attic, starting soon	96	54	Feb 05, 2013 05:13am
its a bit too much!	7	165	Jan 19, 2013 08:09pm
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About V.C. Andrews

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 An...more 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 1960's, 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 best-seller 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 best-seller 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 best-seller 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 Andrews herself.

Her novels were so successful that after her death her estate hired a ghost writer Andrew Neiderman, to write more stories to be published under her name.(less)

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Trivia About Flowers in the Attic

23 trivia questions
3 quizzes

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Quotes from Flowers in the Attic

“Love doesn't always come when you want it to. Sometimes it just happens despite your will.” — 78 people liked it

“I wish the night would end,
I wish the day'd begin,
I wish it would rain or snow,
or the wind would blow,
or the grass would grow,
I wish I had yesterday,
I wish there were games to play...” — 61 people liked it

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title link	preview: Flowers in the Attic
avg rating	preview: Flowers in the Attic Goodreads rating: 3.69 (58691 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43448.Flowers_in_the_Attic?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327880853l/43448.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43448.Flowers_in_the_Attic?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews[/url]

Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger #1)

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