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Petals on the Wind (Dollanganger #2)

by V.C. Andrews

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 21,371 ratings · 569 reviews

For Carrie, Chris and Cathy the attic was a dark horror that would not leave their minds.

Of course mother had to pretend they didn't exist and grandmother was convinced they had the devil in them.

But that wasn't their fault. Was it?

Cathy knew what to do. She knew it was time to show her mother and grandmother that the pain and terror of the attic could not be forgott

...more

Paperback, 410 pages

Published November 10th 1980 by HarperCollins (first published 1980)

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Sep 16, 2010 Cassy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-girlie, 2009, physical-own

I cringe to think how much V. C. Andrews I read in middle school. And honestly, once you have read one of her series, you have read them all. Mix together incest, rape, car accident, evil grandmother, vacant mother, missing father and bam, you have her latest series!

That was my disclaimer. Here is my confession.

I love this particular book. I thought the initial book in the series, Flowers in the Attic was good. The subsequent books and prequels were horrible. But this book was written for me –...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Neva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jul 02, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ballet

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

15 likes · like · see review

Jun 07, 2008 Trudy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: v-c-andrews

My books are tattered and dog eared... I couldn't put these books down when I was in high school. Read the whole series twice. Which says alot at a time in most teenagers lives when they are repulsed by reading anything that isn't required by school.

So, just when you think the kids are going to be all right - after escaping Grandmama's evil clutches - they go and find bigger and better ways to mess up their lives... and I root for the remaining Dollangagner kids all the way.

Chris is unshakable i...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

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

8 likes · like · see review

May 17, 2010 travelmel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-my-teens, book-was-freaky, consider-yourself-warned

part two to the original guilty pleasure read really delivered the disturbing. Even looking at the cover brings me immediately back to my teens.

I'm stealing the following paragraph from another reviewer because it fits this so well:

QUOTE FROM JESSICA:
I can't (for me: shouldn't) rate these books, because giving a bad rating would be a lie -- I was crazy about them when I read them -- but giving them a good rating would be misleading because it would lead you to believe that they were good, and t...more

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May 23, 2012 Acohen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychological

If the previous book of the series was a sad tearjerker, this one is seriously sick. This is the first book that I read and catch myself wishing for the main heroine: "Don't do it. Oh please don't do it".

When Dollangangers were living in the attic they were sort of likable, even incest could've been justified by the fact they've been locked together in one room for years and had to live through very desperate times.

Now as they've escaped you can really see how much they have been destroyed. How...more

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May 23, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-2009

This book was not as good as the first book, Flowers in the Attic, but was definitley just as creepy. Cathy, Chris, and Carrie have escaped the Attic and are adopted by a 'kindly' doctor. Cathy licentiously works her way in to many a mans heart in her attempt to become a Prima Ballerina and get revenge on her mother and now sickly Grandmother. Chris continues towards being a doctor but never stops loving Cathy (CREEPER). Carrie, still very small, just tries to fit in and find true love, despite...more

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Jun 08, 2008 Laura added it · review of another edition

I wanted to claw my eyes out while reading this book. It was so horrible, and yet I had to finish it because I can never leave a book unfinished. It was difficult and painful. Every chapter was redundant. Cathy and the men that LOVE her, Cathy and her long golden hair, Cathy and her plies and "supple" leg muscles. Cathy talks for 400-something pages about the revenge she is going to get on her mother...and she has all of these random run-ins with her and doesn't do anything. The revenge she fina...more

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Nov 03, 2007 Robin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm going to copy and paste this to all of them!!!! I feel like I have to justify this and all of the other V. C. Andrews books on my list!! I read these when I was young and loved them! My sister and I poured through them- they were obviously trashy for our age (probably the appeal) but mom let us read ANYTHING- as long as we were readung she was ok with it! And that paied off- because both my sister and I still read for pleasure daily. You can't beat it! Hey- and why be a book snob???

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Jun 12, 2013 Leydy Ramirez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Petals on the Wind, by V.C. Andrews is a continuation of Flowers in the Attic. Chris, Cathy, and Carrie were finally able to escape Olivia’s house and are on their way to Florida. Carrie is very sick and throws up a couple of times. A nice lady named Henny comes to help them and takes them to the house where she works at. At the house they meet a doctor named Paul and it first he doesn’t believe their story but he then realizes that they are telling him the truth. Paul later adopts the kids and...more Petals on the Wind, by V.C. Andrews is a continuation of Flowers in the Attic. Chris, Cathy, and Carrie were finally able to escape Olivia’s house and are on their way to Florida. Carrie is very sick and throws up a couple of times. A nice lady named Henny comes to help them and takes them to the house where she works at. At the house they meet a doctor named Paul and it first he doesn’t believe their story but he then realizes that they are telling him the truth. Paul later adopts the kids and they stay with him and that is when their new life begins. I would recommend this book to a friend because the kids are able to prosper, unexpected events occur, and because of the vengeance that Cathy seeks towards her mother.
When the kids arrive at Paul’s house they tell Paul their story and he finds it hard to believe that a mother could do that to their kids. After examining the kids medically and finding tracings of arsenic in their systems, he believes them and feels bad for them. He soon gets custody of the kids and helps them move on with their life “I will be granted permanent custody” (Petals on the Wind (429). Paul helped Chris get into college and coached him to help him get ready for medical school. He sent Carrie to a private school where she would be able to catch up and be where she needed to be. Cathy was able to start high school as a senior and graduate early, she also got into a prestigious ballet school. Paul treated the kids with so much love and care and he provided them with everything that they needed. The kids loved their new life and were thankful to have someone love them as much as Paul did.
The kids have now lived with Paul for about two years and Paul has started to see Cathy with different eyes. Cathy has also started to feel attracted to Paul and she even starts to think that she is in love with him. Paul tries to stay away from Cathy as much as he can because he knows that their love will not work out because he is about 20 years older than her. Soon they both can’t help it and start a relationship. They keep their relationship a secret and Paul proposes to Cathy “I want you to be my wife!” (Petals on the Wind (586). They are never able to get married because Cathy finds out the truth about what really happened to Paul’s first wife and marries her dance partner Julian out of spite and has a child with him. Soon after that Carrie, now a teenager dies from an attempt of suicide which leaves both Chris and Cathy devastated. Julian suffers an accident and is left paralyzed, he is devastated by that and commits suicide and Paul also dies of a heart attack.
Cathy is now more determined than ever to get revenge on her mom. After Julian’s death Cathy needed a lawyer to help her collect insurance money and she intentionally hired Bart Winslow who is Corrine’s husband. Cathy soon began to engage in an affair with Bart and became pregnant with his child. Cathy then decided that it was time to confront her mother for all the pain and suffering that she had caused them. Cathy went to Foxworth Hall during a party and made a scandal, Bart made her go into the library and Corrine and Olivia also went in. Corrine confessed to everything and Bart was disgusted when he found out who she really was. Chris came into the library and told Cathy that they had to leave immediately; at this point Corrine is supper upset and left the library acting crazy. A couple minutes later Foxworth Hall caught on fire “My God, the house is on fire!’(Petals on the Wind 854) and Bart and Olivia both died in that fire.
I would recommend this book to a friend because the kids are able to prosper, unexpected events occur, and because of the vengeance that Cathy seeks towards her mother. This book has many twists that make the reader not want to put the book down. All of the unexpected events just made the book ten times better. Cathy tried to move on but she just couldn’t forget all the pain and suffering they went through. Throughout the whole book Cathy makes it known that she hates her mother very much and that she was going to get revenge on her, but it never really occurred to me that she would get involved with her mom’s husband. It seemed as if Cathy’s greatest joy was being able to rub the affair in her mom’s face. It’s awesome.
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Mar 14, 2013 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the second book of the Dollanganger series, Petals on the Wind by V. C. Andrews, the three surviving Dollanganger children, Chris, Cathy, and Carrie, have escaped their attic prison. They are running to Florida to join the circus when chance lands them on the doorstep of small town doctor, Paul Sheffield. He takes them in to treat them for their arsenic poisoning. Dr. Sheffield can’t help but fall in love with the children, all in their own way, and formally become their guardian. He puts Chr...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Kero rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I preferred the first book. Coming from being an anime-fan, the best way I can describe it is as a "reverse harem". She had 4 men chasing after her, and she wanted them all. She got them all, and for no good reason besides her smarts (which really aren't emphasized on much) and her looks/charm. I didn't like her change from being an innocent romanticist in the first book to a poisonous, destructive, hateful woman in this one. There were a lot of things I didn't like about this one, but when she...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Hannahcs rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was really good, except that I did not like it as much as I liked the first one though.

In this book the thing that I didn't like as much about it was that the time of how they grew up went really quickly. Also one of my used to be favorite characters turned very vain and seductive for most of the book, so that was a big disappointment.

The rest of this review contains spoilers, so if you don't want me to spoil the book for you then DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS REVIEW!!!!!!

THe book was a...more This book was really good, except that I did not like it as much as I liked the first one though.

In this book the thing that I didn't like as much about it was that the time of how they grew up went really quickly. Also one of my used to be favorite characters turned very vain and seductive for most of the book, so that was a big disappointment.

The rest of this review contains spoilers, so if you don't want me to spoil the book for you then DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS REVIEW!!!!!!

THe book was about what happened to the Dollangangers (now only three of them) after they have escaped from the attic in which their mother and grandmother had locked them up and been very cruel to them (read 1st book for full details). They meet this lady on the train who takes them to her "doctor-son" because Cathy is very sick from eating the poisoning that their mother tried to kill them all with. The doctor takes them to be his children. Now Cathy can become a dancer and Chris can become a doctor like they both wanted to. Cathy becomes very famous and soon goes off to New York with her boyfriend. There they get married, but they always have disagreements and arguments. Because Cathy and Chris have a special relationship, Cathy's husband is jealous and had forbidden Cathy to go see Chris graduate as a valedictorian for medical school. She goes anyway while he is asleep. When she comes back, he is very angry with her and one time while they were dancing, he steps on her feet and breaks her toes. Later while she is in the apartment where they live, she and Chris find out that Julian had died in a gotten hurt very badly in the car accident. Because he thought that he would never be able to dance again, he killed himself. By that time Cathy had found out that she was pregnant. She decides to retire from her ballet currier and goes to live close to where her mother is living to get revenge on her. Carrie goes with them. One time Carrie met her mother on the street and tried to talk to her, but her mother denied ever knowing her. Thinking that no one loved her she poisoned her self so that she could die like her twin brother did from the poisoning that her mother gave to them all. She has her baby boy and becomes a ballet instructor. One time Carrie met her mother on the street and tried to talk to her, but her mother denied ever knowing her. Thinking that no one loved her she poisoned her self so that she could die like her twin brother did from the poisoning that her mother gave to them all. Enraged from what her mother has done for money and for killing Cory, trying to kill them, and essentially killing Carrie as well, she plans on what to do to get revenge on her mother. She gets seductive with her husband, and she soon becomes pregnant with his baby. Then on Christmas she goes to their house where they are having a big party. She tells everyone that she is her mothers daughter. She, her mother, and her husband, and her grandmother go into a room. At first the mother tries to deny everything but soon the truth comes out. She tries to lie that she wasn't trying to kill anyone, just to make them a little sick so that she can take them out of the attic. She becomes insane trying to get out of the mess that she put herself into. Then she runs out of the room and starts a fire. She runs out of there and is safe, but as Bart, the husband, tries to save his wife and mother-in-law, he dies although the mother lives. Now Cathy and Chris live together wither her two sons. They go to see their mother sometimes who pretends to be insane because she thinks that they are going to bring murder charges on her if she stops pretending to be insane.

I will read the next two books, but I do hope that the time doesn't go by as fast as it did in this book. It seemed that in a matter of chapters they were all 15 years older and then it went on for chapters and chapters staying in the same couple of months.

This book did have a lot of details to it that are hard to explain and would not be understood if the first book hadn't been read first. I do recommend this book for mature readers. There is some mature content in it, and I think that the age level should be about 12-13 for mature! readers and maybe 14-15 for not so mature readers, although it is not my place to put an age limit on books.

Overall very good read, and will be reading the whole series.(less)

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Feb 07, 2013 Samantha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What I liked:
-Chris. It seemed like he was the only sensible person in this entire book that I didn’t absolutely hate at some point or another. He had his head on straight and he knew what he wanted in life, even if his sister was what he wanted. I had sympathy for him, and for Carrie later on, but not for Cathy.
-Carrie. Her problems were the only ones I was concerned with throughout this entire book. I could have cared less about Cathy. I wanted to read more about her younger sister. While Cath...more What I liked:
-Chris. It seemed like he was the only sensible person in this entire book that I didn’t absolutely hate at some point or another. He had his head on straight and he knew what he wanted in life, even if his sister was what he wanted. I had sympathy for him, and for Carrie later on, but not for Cathy.
-Carrie. Her problems were the only ones I was concerned with throughout this entire book. I could have cared less about Cathy. I wanted to read more about her younger sister. While Cathy has mainly emotional and mental problems from their captivity and abuse, Carrie has all of that plus physical problems. Her growth is stunted and she’s suffering from depression. (view spoiler)

What I disliked:
-Cathy. She greatly disappointed me in this book. She was driven to do insane non-logical things all in an attempt to get back at her mother. Nothing she does in this book she does for herself. Everything is either to get back at her mother or to prove to herself that she’s better than her mother. It felt to me like she didn’t have an identity in this book beyond the bitter daughter that can’t move on. Chris moved on, but she couldn’t. Plus, Cathy just turned into a slut in this book. Sad but true. You don’t have sex with your mother’s husband to get back at her. That’s just wrong. Cathy was the main reason I disliked this book so much.
-Plot. There wasn’t one other than Cathy living her life and plotting her revenge. There were unbearably long chunks of nothing but Cathy’s day to day activities and vengeful thoughts, and it was so boring. I almost put this book down several times, and it was a miracle I made it to the end.

Overall, this book was pretty disappointing after such an amazing first book in the series. I’m not sure if I would even recommend this book to anyone; I certainly wouldn’t reread it probably ever again. I’ll stick with my memories of the first one. 2.0(less)

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Jan 14, 2013 Gemma Adele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A lot of people seem to be overly critical of this book because it is far fetched. However I am very interested in psychology and a lot of the so called far fetched storylines may be easily explainable when considering how messed up Cathy was because of what happened to her in the attic. I would say that she has a number of personality disorders, possibly a mixture of histrionic, narcissistic and borderline as her behaviours mimic these conditions. For instance her complete self obsession, her s...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Stefanie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I re-read this after getting an insane urge to re-read Flowers in the Attic (originally read the whole series in middle school). On my FITA re-read I discovered VC Andrews is a terrible writer and probably gave me some f*ed up ideas about attraction and sexuality - no surprise there: I think a lot of women had this experience. But even as an adult I could not deny the relentless, twisted appeal the basic story of FITA has, like a soap opera or reality TV.

This book has none of that. It is a long...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am crazy psyched because I had no idea that there were 3 more of these wacko books, so I am going to go find the next one asap.

As a sequel, this was nearly as perverted and warped as the first. First we have the kind doctor who takes in the three POWs. Chris has a mentor now, Cathy can do her ballet, and Carrie can start growing her body to match the size of her head. Oh but what's that, Cathy? You have the hots for the doctor! Of course you do. And where is his sense of morality and the fact...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Roni Steel added it · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned, 2012

It is very very rare that I actually abandon a book, but my god..

I originally read the full Dollanganger series when I was a young teenager, and loved every word. Now, at 26, I've attempted to reread the series. Emphasis on 'attempted'.

Flowers wasn't too bad, but Petals is severely testing my patience - after 10 years of critical reading for various English Lit classes, the overuse of exclamation marks, along with the painfully self-indulgent narrative, I believe I would have more fun bashing my...more

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May 29, 2012 Marissa Alvarez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marissa Alvarez
Period 3
5/26/12
“Petals on the Wind”

Petals on the Wind is the continuation of Flowers in the Attic. Cathy and her siblings finally escape Foxworth Hall and their evil grandmother. They ride a bus to Florida but, their younger sister Carrie is still very weak from the arsenic poisoning and gets really sick on the bus ride. Everyone on the bus is mean and getting impatient with her vomiting on the bus. A really nice “mute” lady approaches them, her name is Henny. She writes down on a...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Dorothea rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is the first sequel to Flowers in the Attic, and I didn't find it quite as compelling. This is probably because it's less single-minded than the original story.

Flowers in the Attic is more unified, more like an Aristotelian drama: it takes place nearly all in the attic, and it's all about the children's being in the attic -- what got them there, what kept them there, what they did there, the horror of being there, and how they escaped.

Now the "flowers" are out of the attic and so the second...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

UGGGGHHHH, Cathy. Cathy is so terrible and manages to drag down this entire book. Almost the entire Flowers in the Attic awesomeness. Does anybody else remember her being this awful?

Cathy, Chris, and Carrie do indeed escape the attic, and somehow get taken in by a kind doctor in SC and his housekeeper. Cathy, after years of studying ballet by herself, manages to get accepted by a ballet school, then a ballet company. She's so talented and I guess we're supposed to cheer for her. Whatever, this i...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Bekah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After re-reading Flowers in the Attic, I was so excited to continue this series. How did the Dollanganger children continue their lives since escaping from a sadistic grandmother and mother? It starts out promising enough- they are "adopted" by a kind doctor named Paul who provides them with love and security. Chris (the elder brother) will get to go to medical school and Cathy (the elder sister) joins a ballet troupe. Carrie, the surviving twin, regains her health after being poisoned by arseni...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying I LOVED Flowers in the Attic. I thought it was brilliant, and when I found out there was another book i was actually really excited!

Ok. Um. What the fuck?

LIke...WTF VC ANDREWS!? What kind of fucked up childhood did you have?

Cathy becomes absolutely DETESTABLE in this book. I literally hate Cathy and everything she represents. Add pedophilia to the list of freaky shit that VC Andrews likes to include in her novels. I was even MORE disgusted by the Paul/Cathy relationship th...more Let me start by saying I LOVED Flowers in the Attic. I thought it was brilliant, and when I found out there was another book i was actually really excited!

Ok. Um. What the fuck?

LIke...WTF VC ANDREWS!? What kind of fucked up childhood did you have?

Cathy becomes absolutely DETESTABLE in this book. I literally hate Cathy and everything she represents. Add pedophilia to the list of freaky shit that VC Andrews likes to include in her novels. I was even MORE disgusted by the Paul/Cathy relationship then I was by her relationship with her own BROTHER! I GODAMN SUPPORTED THE INCEST RELATIONSHIP!

This book just...like i'm being kind by giving it 2 stars, and that's only because it did its job of keeping me interested in finding out what happens. The only character I really, really felt for was Carrie. Oh, Carrie. She is by far my favorite character out of the entire series(view spoiler).

They should really change the name of this book from 'Petals on the Wind' to 'Cathy Fucks Everyone Over.' Instead of taking the time to talk about everything she did, lets just list them. (Warning: spoilers. If you didn't read it, skip past the list. Actually no i'll just stop being lazy and hide it)

(view spoiler)

Good parts of the booK? I was really interested in the end with the Mother, and I love how even when confronted with all this evidence, I as a reader even question her guiltiness. She's so brilliantly evil, and Cathy doesn't give her enough credit. She's brilliant when it comes to manipulating people. Also, Carrie. Just Carrie. Life really wasn't fair to her.

Two good things don't save a book, however. The plot towards the end was too fast for me, and I just felt like everything was happening so fast. I just think that the whole fairytale aspect worked against Andrews this time, and I was really disappointed, because I loved the first one. I'm not even bothering to read the next 2. Fuck you Cathy.(less)

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Dec 08, 2011 sj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: trashy-tuesday

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (Read full post here: http://wp.me/p1Zgyz-5Y)

When we last left the Dollanganger kids, they had escaped from the attic and were on their way south to join the circus - images of themselves performing as trapeze artists dancing in their heads. Because that's completely realistic, right? On the bus south, Carrie starts throwing up all over the place and the bus driver freaks out. The kids are approached by a large, note-writing black lady (we later find out that she writes notes because she's mute)...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Ashley S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to say...after reading the first..i couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. Now after the three remaining kids are free..they're now faced with the question of where they will go. With hardly anything to "their" names...they struggle with this present set back. And suddenly as if fate has decided to help them, they are struck with some luck.
Now they have a guardian and after a while...things seem to change. And as they all grow...Cathy finds herself looking at her new guardian with...more I have to say...after reading the first..i couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. Now after the three remaining kids are free..they're now faced with the question of where they will go. With hardly anything to "their" names...they struggle with this present set back. And suddenly as if fate has decided to help them, they are struck with some luck.
Now they have a guardian and after a while...things seem to change. And as they all grow...Cathy finds herself looking at her new guardian with a new eye. And so starts their steamy relationship...in secrecy...hiding it from Chris and pretty much everyone. But someone else gets into the picture and suddenly Cathy is caught between not only two but three men.
They're all grown now and Cathy is an official ballerina thanks to her guardian and Chris. Her love for her guardian becomes difficult and in one stupid moment...she's fooled and suddenly she's married to Julian, someone who's complicated and someone she doesn't even know if she wants to marry. Chris is confused and angry and hurt...and she doesn't know how to fix him...herself or anyone else in her life. Everything begins to get even more twisted and complicated and suddenly she meets up with her past.
Here again they all...Cathy being the most affected and most cracked...are pushed again on the brink of insanity....but somehow manages to grab onto something before they fall over the edge. Suddenly Julian isn't who Cathy thought he was...I mean she knew he wasn't perfect...but still he gets worse and worse....and she tries to get out but his mother forces her to stay and show him affection...when really all she wants to do is run from him.
When Julian dies...Cathy goes back home to Chris, Carrie and her guardian. She realizes that her guardian (so sorry to keep calling him that..but for the life of me...I can't seem to remember his name) still loves her but he's not getting any younger and so for the sake of one mans dying last wish...she marries him...like she had wanted so long ago. And as his life comes to an end...she finds that her Chris is still there....and what she realizes is even more shocking. Cathy had always dreamed that one day...she would meet her prince...this prince that had always been dancing in the shadows and never showing her his face.......and suddenly he's there in front of her. She had thought it was Julian but she had long ago realized that he definitely wasn't. Her real Prince had always been in front of her....he was Chris.
And then there was the part where she got revenge on her mother and grandmother...those were the moments that made me sit on the edges of my seat...yelling and shouting with Cathy...wanting her to take that revenge and then I realized that she lost another part of herself after that too. But Chris was there...he was always there to keep her safe and take care of her. It seemed like he was the only one who could always bring her back to as normal as she could get.
The saddest part for me in this book was Carrie's death. She had forced herself to eat poisoned doughnuts and had died the way her twin had died...but not before she told Cathy why she had done what she had done. I think Cathy took Carrie's death the hardest...because she and Chris had practically raised Carrie and Cory...and in her mind...Carrie and Cory had been more of her own children rather than her younger siblings.
Now Cathy and Chris are left and what's even more sad is that this is not the end of their story...it does not end with a happily ever after...not even close...(less)

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Mar 25, 2011 Alice Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I am soaking up this series so far like a fat girl on a cupcake. I just couldn't put it down. It's like reading the worst soap, and it is a soap - an over-the-top melodramatic, pornographic, preteen romantic soap. Whenever I find myself thinking - oh, you wouldn't go there! - Andrews did. Of course, this series so far is completely and utter garbage as far as reading materials go; the writing is juvenile (although granted there weren't many real grammatical errors, so that saved her somewhat in...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Oliver rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like Flowers in the Attic, I first read Petals on the Wind, the second in the Dollanganger series, back in middle school. I've been reading it again over the past two weeks, well really more like a quick 5 days! Oh yes, it's good. This one moved faster, was trashier (aka more sex) and had a healthy heaping o' death.

This story picks up where flowers in the attic left off. The story is still told from the perspective of Catherine, the eldest Dollanganger daughter, and details Catherine's career a...more

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Dec 22, 2010 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: VC Andrews Fans

Shelves: girly-books, mass-market, new-york-city, thriller, fiction, series

How I Came To Read This Book: Having just read 'Flowers in the Attic' for book club, a fellow member found 'Petals' in their book collection and lent it to me to continue on with the Dollanganger kids.

The Plot: The book picks up immediately where the last one ended, with the siblings on a bus to join the circus down South. Things take a turn however, when they are blessed with the good fortune of being provided for by a mysterious benefactor. Cathy and Chris both continue the pursuit of their dr...more How I Came To Read This Book: Having just read 'Flowers in the Attic' for book club, a fellow member found 'Petals' in their book collection and lent it to me to continue on with the Dollanganger kids.

The Plot: The book picks up immediately where the last one ended, with the siblings on a bus to join the circus down South. Things take a turn however, when they are blessed with the good fortune of being provided for by a mysterious benefactor. Cathy and Chris both continue the pursuit of their dreams to become a prima ballerina and doctor respectively, and the book spans a decade as they do so. In comparison to the first book, the story is much more Cathy's alone, with her family on the fringes as she strives to be a star dancer, deals with entanglements of the heart, and plots a long-simmering revenge against her mother and grandmother. By the story's end, the body count has been upped, new truths have been revealed, and a potentially stomach-churning ending sets the stage for the next tome in the series.

The Good & The Bad: Having Cathy as the centre of attention has its pros and cons. On one hand, the original bond of the siblings felt a little strained and out of place, especially Chris' UBER creepy attachment to Cathy. In addition, Cathy is a bit of a trainwreck (understandably so) who undertakes pretty ridiculous situations and relationships. Where what happened to her in the house wasn't her choice and gave me a bit more sympathy, the decisions she makes in the real world often made me want to smack her head against a piece of concrete, they were so frustrating. Three words: ho fo sho. On the flip side, Cathy makes the most logical sense as the protagonist, and watching her simmering revenge over the course of the book provided both tension-building satisfaction and unending 'get on with it already' feelings of frustration. Her life has plenty of drama on its own, and as the antagonist to her mother in both books, she provides an interesting hero/villain dichotomy for the reader.

In general, the first book is better because the action here feels quite extreme in comparison to the limited parameters through which Andrews could torture her characters in 'Flowers'. The sky (not the attic) is the limit and all sorts of super soapy action takes place, which makes the book feel a tad scattered and sprawling over time, especially as many of Cathy's dalliances didn't add up to a whole lot in terms of the ending.

If you're someone looking for a resolution to the first book, be prepared to wait it out and see what happens in the Doll's lives before you get any semblance of answers, which even Cathy reveals are potentially half-truths and lies. I wasn't frustrated by the ending per se, but left feeling disturbed, a little confused, and quite skeptical. The set-up for the next book was also super creepy and random in comparison to the seemingly level-headed version of Cathy that is telling us these stories in retrospect. That being said, I do plan to read the rest of the Dollanganger books to see how they play out!

The Bottom Line: An often-sprawling but page-turning entry into the Dollanganger series that provides more questions and heartaches than answers and happy endings.

Anything Memorable?: Super randomly I saw 'Black Swan' this week, right in the midst of reading about Cathy's life in the world of ballet! Fitting.

50-Book Challenge?: Book #55 in 2010. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 01, 2010 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read the VC Andrews Flower in The Attic series as a young teenager. After reading the other reviews I was struck by the fact that so many people had commented that they weren’t allowed to read these books or had to hide them from their parents and/or teachers.

I don’t remember my mother ever having a problem with me reading these books, in fact, I’m sure she must have purchased them for me. As long as I was reading, she was fine with it. I don’t however remember them being quite as scandalous...more I read the VC Andrews Flower in The Attic series as a young teenager. After reading the other reviews I was struck by the fact that so many people had commented that they weren’t allowed to read these books or had to hide them from their parents and/or teachers.

I don’t remember my mother ever having a problem with me reading these books, in fact, I’m sure she must have purchased them for me. As long as I was reading, she was fine with it. I don’t however remember them being quite as scandalous as people are making them out to be. There were certainly some plot twists and turns, and some scandal – but that’s what makes them a good / cheap thrill read. Maybe if I’d had to hide them I would have thought they were far more scandalous.

Here’s what I remember – Flowers in the Attic was far and away the strongest book in the series, but the fact that the story continued into other books was appealing. I was curious to find out what happened to Chris and Cathy and the evil grandmother. The “creep” factor is what kept the pages turning – the number of times Cathy is raped, the incest, the arsenic poisoning, the escape, etc.

Maybe they are really scandalous and I’ve just been tainted by real life for the past decade or so. Back then, you just didn’t hear about kids bringing guns to school or murdering their parents. Back then Michael Jackson wasn’t a child molester, the twin towers were still standing and Bin Laden wasn’t a household name. When I consider it like this I think perhaps now would be the time to reread them, and get lost in the escapism that they offer.

But there’s another part of me that thinks rereading them now would be a big mistake. It doesn’t sound like the writing is all that great – what with overly descriptive paragraphs, and the piles of long flowing golden hair and all. I’m afraid that I’d end up hating them and I’d like to keep VC Andrews as one of my not-so-guilty childhood pleasures. So I’m basing my ratings on what I thought of them back in the early 90’s, as an impressionable tween, who’s biggest ‘real world’ problem was getting out of washing the dishes, or passing a math test.

(less)

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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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Quotes from Petals on the Wind

“I watched the jealousy between them grow, and felt it was none of my fault--only Momma's! As everything wrong in my life was her fault.” — 5 people liked it

“Life offers more than one chance, Cathy, you know that.” — 5 people liked it

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Petals on the Wind (Dollanganger #2)

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