Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A. (1985), Paperback
Description
"They were a perfect family, golden and carefree--until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. Kept on the top floor of their grandmother's vast mansion, their loving mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie realize their survival is at the mercy of their cruel and superstitious grandmother...and this cramped and helpless world may be the only one they ever know."-- From back cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member wendyrey
A chilling, if implausible story of five children/ young adults locked away, by their avaricious mother and cold, god-bothering grand mother, in the attic and one room of a huge house. Child abuse, incest, religious mania, murder and resourceful, brave young people who save themselves (all but one)
A much better book than I expected although it would benefit from losing a hundred pages or so.
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from desperate circumstances.A much better book than I expected although it would benefit from losing a hundred pages or so.
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LibraryThing member LoriHedgpeth
Flowers in the Attic was the first adult fiction series book that I remember reading. It was on the bestseller shelf of every bookstore and most girls in my high school were reading it, so I decided to give it a try. I was hooked from the first page.
Flowers is the story of Cathy, Chris, Cory and
As with most well-intentioned plans, everything goes awry. What was originally going to be just for a few days, a few weeks or a few months turns into three years. The mother changes before her children's eyes - - becoming materialistic, selfish and gradually distancing herself from them. The Grandmother despises them and employs harsh corporal punishment on them simply for existing, and reminds them daily that they were brought about by sin, according to the Bible, and are evil.
Most importantly, Chris and Cathy are allowed to grow up together, with only each other, in a single room. Not surprisingly, they fall in love with each other.
How long will they have to wait for the grandfather to die before they are freed? Will the Grandmother ever love them? Accept them? Why won't their mother just leave, with them? Do they have to inherit the money? What is going to happen to them, if Chris is in love with Cathy?
Flowers is not a masterpiece of literature - - far from it - - nor is it a trashy dime-store novel. The story is engrossing, the main characters endearing. The pain and suffering of the children, particularly Chris and Cathy, and their longings jump off every page. The horror of what greed and materialism can do is shocking.
Where Flowers is the weakest is in the writing. Its not completely shabby but don't open the first page expecting to find Dickens. What you will find is a compelling story, the late 70s/early 80s equivalent of Twilight.
Flowers is a great beach or vacation read. Be warned - - once drawn in, you will be investing in the other books in the series (four not including Flowers).
Flowers is the story of Cathy, Chris, Cory and
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Carrie - - four children living the "perfect" life with their golden parents, until their father is killed in a car accident and, penniless, their mother is forced to return home to the parents that disowned her years ago for marrying the children's father. The twist? The parents, particularly the Grandmother, are bitter, zealously religious and glad that their daughter's husband is dead. While the Grandmother knows about the children, the grandfather apparently does not, and in order for their mother to inherit her family's estate (the monstruous Foxworth Hall) and riches, she must pretend that she is childless. Hence, the plan - - the children will stay in the attic of one wing of the massive Foxworth Hall, in hiding, waiting for the ill grandfather to die and leave their mother everything. As with most well-intentioned plans, everything goes awry. What was originally going to be just for a few days, a few weeks or a few months turns into three years. The mother changes before her children's eyes - - becoming materialistic, selfish and gradually distancing herself from them. The Grandmother despises them and employs harsh corporal punishment on them simply for existing, and reminds them daily that they were brought about by sin, according to the Bible, and are evil.
Most importantly, Chris and Cathy are allowed to grow up together, with only each other, in a single room. Not surprisingly, they fall in love with each other.
How long will they have to wait for the grandfather to die before they are freed? Will the Grandmother ever love them? Accept them? Why won't their mother just leave, with them? Do they have to inherit the money? What is going to happen to them, if Chris is in love with Cathy?
Flowers is not a masterpiece of literature - - far from it - - nor is it a trashy dime-store novel. The story is engrossing, the main characters endearing. The pain and suffering of the children, particularly Chris and Cathy, and their longings jump off every page. The horror of what greed and materialism can do is shocking.
Where Flowers is the weakest is in the writing. Its not completely shabby but don't open the first page expecting to find Dickens. What you will find is a compelling story, the late 70s/early 80s equivalent of Twilight.
Flowers is a great beach or vacation read. Be warned - - once drawn in, you will be investing in the other books in the series (four not including Flowers).
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LibraryThing member AKMamma
I am not rating this, to even admit I read these? I am so ashamed. My mom let me read them because she thought YA Horror was better than the stuff I was reading. I was 12?? Was she insane? I remember finding number three at a gas station at the way down to Portland. I loved the covers so much. All
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the beautiful foil and the peekaboo windows. I coveted them. IN FACT had to buy new copies because I read them so much and they held a prominent place on my bookshelves... so.. ya.. OMG And you all wonder why I am this screwed up? Show Less
LibraryThing member TheIdleWoman
I know a lot of people come to Flowers in the Attic as teenagers and I can imagine that, if I'd done the same, its taboo subject and air of melodrama would have fascinated me. But reading it for the first time as an adult, I'm afraid I found it wanting. The story is simple: after the death of their
It's an interesting concept but for me it was clumsily handled: the prospect of incest between the two older children was flagged virtually from the start, as the narrator adoringly (and disturbingly) fixates on her older brother's intelligence and beauty, and their wicked grandmother hints at the evils of the sexes being left alone together. Not only did I find the plot predictable, which spoiled my enjoyment, but I also felt that the writing was overblown and laboured. The dialogue, especially, sounded implausibly elaborate and artificial in the mouths of characters who were supposed to be children. Indeed, the whole thing felt as if it was less about the children being trapped in the attic, and more an excuse for the titillation of teenage incest. Perhaps that's the price of not having first read this at the impressionable age of thirteen or fourteen.
I'm glad I gave it a go, but I don't have any desire to read the rest of the series; and unfortunately I don't think Virginia Andrews is for me.
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father, four children move with their mother to her parents' house, but because her parents didn't approve of her marriage - and their sick grandfather doesn't even know they exist - they are hidden away in the attic until their mother can persuade her parents to accept them. The two older children do their best to make a game of it for their younger twin siblings - to create a magical world that will blot out the injustice of real life. However, as time passes, they begin to realise that perhaps no one has any intention of releasing them: perhaps it is easier for all the adults simply to keep them out of sight, out of mind. This becomes an even more powerful conviction as they come to understand exactly why their grandparents disapproved of their mother's marriage and the truth about their own births.It's an interesting concept but for me it was clumsily handled: the prospect of incest between the two older children was flagged virtually from the start, as the narrator adoringly (and disturbingly) fixates on her older brother's intelligence and beauty, and their wicked grandmother hints at the evils of the sexes being left alone together. Not only did I find the plot predictable, which spoiled my enjoyment, but I also felt that the writing was overblown and laboured. The dialogue, especially, sounded implausibly elaborate and artificial in the mouths of characters who were supposed to be children. Indeed, the whole thing felt as if it was less about the children being trapped in the attic, and more an excuse for the titillation of teenage incest. Perhaps that's the price of not having first read this at the impressionable age of thirteen or fourteen.
I'm glad I gave it a go, but I don't have any desire to read the rest of the series; and unfortunately I don't think Virginia Andrews is for me.
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LibraryThing member schatzi
Ahhh, this book. Is there any American girl from my generation (I'm 34) who hasn't read this book at some point in their lives, or at least heard enough about it to know the basic plot? I sure haven't met her if she exists.
I first read this book when I was eight years old, and I really thought it
If you've never read the book yourself, there's a very good chance that you have heard about all of the incest in this book. And, yeah, there is a crap ton of incest in this book. The parents of Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie are related - half-uncle and half-niece, to be specific, with their mother's father being the half-brother of their own father. And then there's the creepy relationship between Chris and his mother, which I somehow totally missed in my first reading in this book (to be fair, I was eight). Chris' mom totally manipulates the crap out of him and is very inappropriate with her son to get him to be compliant. And then, of course, there is the relationship between Cathy and Chris,which culminates in Chris raping her. But it wasn't "really" rape according to Cathy, because if she had wanted to stop it, she could have. Umm, okay. I'll just leave that one alone.
And the story really does read like a soap opera.
But I still like it. There, I said it. And yes, even though this book is cheesy and I found myself rolling my eyes sometimes as I read it, I still liked it. And I really want to read the next books in the series, which I have not yet done.
I think it's the horror bits that really grab me the most - to go from four loved, protected, adored children who could do little wrong in the doting eyes of their mother and father, to go to four children who are abandoned, locked away in the attic,and eventually given arsenic to kill them, because their mother loved her fortune and new husband more than she loved her children. The first time I read that, it blew my mind. Now I'm more jaded.
Would I read this book again? Yes, and I would enjoy it. And I won't apologize for that fact. ;)
I first read this book when I was eight years old, and I really thought it
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was the bees knees then. I liked creepy. I liked the horror aspects of being locked in a closet (I have a moderate case of claustrophobia, which persists to this day) and being at the mercy of evil adults (that's actually not too far from my own childhood). I've been meaning to reread this book some day, because I was sure that there were things that had wooshed right over my head when I was reading it at eight, and I finally got around to it.If you've never read the book yourself, there's a very good chance that you have heard about all of the incest in this book. And, yeah, there is a crap ton of incest in this book. The parents of Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie are related - half-uncle and half-niece, to be specific, with their mother's father being the half-brother of their own father. And then there's the creepy relationship between Chris and his mother, which I somehow totally missed in my first reading in this book (to be fair, I was eight). Chris' mom totally manipulates the crap out of him and is very inappropriate with her son to get him to be compliant. And then, of course, there is the relationship between Cathy and Chris,
And the story really does read like a soap opera.
But I still like it. There, I said it. And yes, even though this book is cheesy and I found myself rolling my eyes sometimes as I read it, I still liked it. And I really want to read the next books in the series, which I have not yet done.
I think it's the horror bits that really grab me the most - to go from four loved, protected, adored children who could do little wrong in the doting eyes of their mother and father, to go to four children who are abandoned, locked away in the attic,
Would I read this book again? Yes, and I would enjoy it. And I won't apologize for that fact. ;)
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LibraryThing member moukayedr
I hate to admitt this but I read this one and enjoyed it a lot at the time. I also read all the continued saga. Very unconventional horror stories, with a taboo theme (incest). Although the writing itself is nothing wonderful, the story is addictive.
LibraryThing member br14rahit
A fantastic book that will send chills down your spine, Flowers in the Attic. The book focuses on the desire of money in need of it. The selfishness a person could consume if promised a fortune. A family of four that loved each other very much, turned into a family of three, then five. A tragic
It all started out with a loving, close family Nothing could the way they loved each other. A beloved father and husband got into a dreadful car accident that took his life. He left his no four children with his jobless wife, alone. A helpless woman with four children, two teenagers and two toddlers, in need of money. She had no where else to go, so the decided to stay at her parents. Its normal for a mother to bring her children to their grandparents house. But, not for the Dollangers. Their grandparents didn't even know their grandchildren existed, never mind wanted them to exist. The thing is their mother had done something she wasn't supposed to and her rich parents never forgave her. Their mother and father weren't just related by marriage but also by blood. The only way Their grandfather had forgiven their mother was if she did not have kids. So, they must not known their are children. The only hiding place, the attic. They were promised only a few days, with love, and food. But, their promise was broken, big time.
Flowers in the attic will make the hairs on your back stand up. The thrilling things these four children go through is dreadful and unimaginable. Will they escape? Does any of the die? Does their grandfather find out? You will have to find out all on your own.
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accident happened to the four of them, one girl, one boy, and husband and wife. An accident that will never be forgotten and scar them forever. But, that's not the only thing they will be scared with... The children at least.It all started out with a loving, close family Nothing could the way they loved each other. A beloved father and husband got into a dreadful car accident that took his life. He left his no four children with his jobless wife, alone. A helpless woman with four children, two teenagers and two toddlers, in need of money. She had no where else to go, so the decided to stay at her parents. Its normal for a mother to bring her children to their grandparents house. But, not for the Dollangers. Their grandparents didn't even know their grandchildren existed, never mind wanted them to exist. The thing is their mother had done something she wasn't supposed to and her rich parents never forgave her. Their mother and father weren't just related by marriage but also by blood. The only way Their grandfather had forgiven their mother was if she did not have kids. So, they must not known their are children. The only hiding place, the attic. They were promised only a few days, with love, and food. But, their promise was broken, big time.
Flowers in the attic will make the hairs on your back stand up. The thrilling things these four children go through is dreadful and unimaginable. Will they escape? Does any of the die? Does their grandfather find out? You will have to find out all on your own.
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LibraryThing member ReneeRobinson
I found the book riveting. The description is so well written, I am able to place myself inside the attic with these kids and feel the anguish. I read this book a few time during my years of both Junior High and High School. It is worth the read.
LibraryThing member JHemlock
I read this as a teenager many years ago. It was a sad and enjoyable story. But it is a story that I feel may could be rooted in real life in many corners of our society. That is truly scary. Some writers, you can tell, lived their lives in pain and frustration. Writers who had to write because
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nothing else in the world made sense to them. Writers who have stories to tell but bleed all over the pages as they type. Show Less
LibraryThing member MsBeautiful
I tried to read this book because of all the hype I had heard about it. It completly failed to hold my attention, I ended up reading the end early so that I could move on.
LibraryThing member ct.bergeron
"Flowers in the Attic tells the story of four middle class children who are trying to cope with the death of their father, only to learn that they must leave their past behind to live with their rich grandparents in Virginia. Upon arrival they are forced to live in one room, with only an attic to
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play in, for 3 years, 4 months, and 16 days. The book describes, in detail, the struggles they face with their forgetful, uncaring mother and their religious fanatic grandmother. They also face internal struggles as they mature into adults but have no one but each other." Show Less
LibraryThing member gakgakg
Gooooodddddaaaaammmmnnnnn why is this book sooooooooooooo looooooong?? I finally finished it and I'm glad I did, but what a struggle. Having trouble reading in quarantine. Perhaps it's because this book is so awful?
This book is the gift I'm giving to my sixth-grade self. The current me thinks that
But, on the other hand, there is a young me who's in 6th grade and always wanted to read this book but for some reason didn't do it. And for that girl, this book is the best thing that ever happened to her. She loves how long the book is. She enjoys imagining rich people in mansions dripping with jewels. She bookmarks the pages about getting your period. She is shocked and entranced by the descriptions of the very, very, very, very, very naughty things. If only there were a ghost involved, this book would've been perfect.
Why no ghost????
This book is the gift I'm giving to my sixth-grade self. The current me thinks that
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this book is ridiculous. The details that the narrator notices as a child are ridiculous. The constant referrals to their blonde hair are ridiculous. The mother is ridiculous. The twins are so dumb and so ridiculous. The "golly-good" and "golly-lolly-day" was ridiculous. And the thing with the nutritional blood, oh my lord, was so ridiculous. I think that's where the current me started the motorcycle and got the ramp ready to jump the shark. And I won't even comment on the last 150 pages or so of ridiculousness because -you know- it's not even ridiculous anymore when it becomes a comical, key-whittling shitshow of unbelievable proportions. But, on the other hand, there is a young me who's in 6th grade and always wanted to read this book but for some reason didn't do it. And for that girl, this book is the best thing that ever happened to her. She loves how long the book is. She enjoys imagining rich people in mansions dripping with jewels. She bookmarks the pages about getting your period. She is shocked and entranced by the descriptions of the very, very, very, very, very naughty things. If only there were a ghost involved, this book would've been perfect.
Why no ghost????
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LibraryThing member Jonez
4.0
I have been feeling nostalgic lately, so I grabbed up several used Virginia Andrews books and started on my quest to scratch the 8th-grade itch I have been suffering from.
I have to say of the many many many books I read at that time period in my life, this book stood out so clearly that upon
I have been feeling nostalgic lately, so I grabbed up several used Virginia Andrews books and started on my quest to scratch the 8th-grade itch I have been suffering from.
I have to say of the many many many books I read at that time period in my life, this book stood out so clearly that upon
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re-read I found myself recalling every moment with equal parts either hesitancy and excitement. I may not like all the characters, agree with what happened or even one particular glossed over the moment that I was too fond of (no spoilers here), but the writing is very addicting. The writing isn't without its defects though as it can suffer from awkward dialogue and descriptions (see the description of the father's accident), and is sometimes more tell than show. The subject matter, while very dark, is still incredibly interesting. I can see how this author paved the way for many other similar dark tales that have come since, but nothing quite does it for me as VC does. Surprisingly this holds up. Show Less
LibraryThing member veracity
Oh boy. This gothic pot-boiler was one of my favourites as a teenager. The drama! The angst! The ballet! The attic! The incest!
LibraryThing member MyFathersDragon
I bought this because several people recommended it. It is not my type of story. I generally don’t like horror. I generally don't like fiction with a main focus on child abuse, perhaps because I have a friend who was severely abused.
LibraryThing member ireneattolia
this book, with the incest/rape, the melodrama, the terrible writing, and the ridiculous plot is essentially a soap opera and yet i have the perverse desire to continue the series, which i guess is the entire point of a soap opera.
LibraryThing member mandolin
This was the only book I was forbidden to read as a teenager, and since the new Lifetime movie was coming out this year I decided to finally read it. I'd seen the older movie version with Kristy Swanson and liked it and until recently was not aware of the level of incest in the book. Despite this,
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I found the book quite good. It goes without saying that the book is based on very dark themes (child abuse, death, incest, etc) but it does draw you in. Make no mistakes though, this really is a piece of fluff fiction and nothing more. Show Less
LibraryThing member CarmenMilligan
The Dollanganger series: damaging teenage girls since 1980.
LibraryThing member atreic
I loved this book when I was a teenager (and probably too young to be reading it) and it was still as page turning and gripping as I remembered on a re-read.
Four children's lives are changed forever when their father dies in a road traffic accident. Their mother, unable to support herself, returns
It's a haunting, fascinating book, in that there are such bad things done in such plausible ways. Not the grandmother (although the over the top nightmare punishments of tar in the hair and whippings had their own sick terrors) but their mother, who does start loving them so much, and is just weak and ashamed, and the more ashamed she gets the more she neglects, and lies to herself that she is doing all she can with her rich gifts and her visits. It's heartbreaking, and feels so close to how evil really works in the world
I remembered it as a love story, Cathy and Chris, brother and sister, trapped away from the world... but rereading it as an adult it is a strange twisted and strangled love story, of rape and denial.
But oh, you end up loving them so much, doing the best they can with the hands they've been dealt, bravely decorating the attic, teaching the twins to read, domesticating their mouse, trying to make Christmas presents for their Grandmother, sneaking out onto the roof, surviving the week when they are starved, reading and learning and studying... it is hard not to fall in love with Cathy in her ballerina costume dancing in the sunbeams in the attic.
Four children's lives are changed forever when their father dies in a road traffic accident. Their mother, unable to support herself, returns
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to her parents' house, who disapproved of her marriage. The children are told they have to stay locked in an upstairs room 'just for a few days' while she explains things to her father, and instead, in a stiflingly soft trickle of excuses, they end up there for the next four years.It's a haunting, fascinating book, in that there are such bad things done in such plausible ways. Not the grandmother (although the over the top nightmare punishments of tar in the hair and whippings had their own sick terrors) but their mother, who does start loving them so much, and is just weak and ashamed, and the more ashamed she gets the more she neglects, and lies to herself that she is doing all she can with her rich gifts and her visits. It's heartbreaking, and feels so close to how evil really works in the world
I remembered it as a love story, Cathy and Chris, brother and sister, trapped away from the world... but rereading it as an adult it is a strange twisted and strangled love story, of rape and denial.
But oh, you end up loving them so much, doing the best they can with the hands they've been dealt, bravely decorating the attic, teaching the twins to read, domesticating their mouse, trying to make Christmas presents for their Grandmother, sneaking out onto the roof, surviving the week when they are starved, reading and learning and studying... it is hard not to fall in love with Cathy in her ballerina costume dancing in the sunbeams in the attic.
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LibraryThing member Ayling
Read this as a teenager several times and loved it. I'm not sure I would love it now though, but it had a descriptive, addictive style of writing I think appeals more to young teenage girls.
LibraryThing member Fluffyblue
Very interesting story about a mother who leaves her children with her own mother, in a locked room, so that she can go off and enjoy life. The book develops into a sad story of abuse, incest and ultimately shocking. It is not difficult to imagine the characters as they develop and change because
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of their capitivity and surroundings. The resourcefulness of the children is very believable. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanaMBurnett
I read this back in jounior high and honestly didn't think I'd care for it. Back then, I loved it. The characters were a far step from the Romeo and Juliet types I was used to. When I skim through it now, I see it a little differently, but I still go back and read it on rainy days.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
This was in 200th position in the BBC Big Read Top 200, so once I'd got through this it meant I'd finished my personal reading marathon. And it was a bit of an uphill struggle to start off with; I found it difficult to like or care about the central characters, I didn't feel as though I knew them
The story is reputedly based on something that really happened, which is good really because you certainly couldn't make it up. The grim Granny was really really horrible, surely the same one that poisoned Snow White.
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particularly well. The story is reputedly based on something that really happened, which is good really because you certainly couldn't make it up. The grim Granny was really really horrible, surely the same one that poisoned Snow White.
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LibraryThing member MDifap
The county's board of education decided to remove all school curriculum materials and library books containing any and all "profanity" and "pornography," both concepts ill-defined. The tremendous public outcry made the board backtrack and resolve to review its selection policy. However, after this
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conciliatory decision, and while the review process still inches along, most of the books in Andrews's popular series Flowers in the Attic were removed from the high-school library for "pornographic" content Show Less
LibraryThing member TexasTam
I read this book as a teenager and still remember it to this day. It made my life seem so easy compared to the characters in this book.
Subjects
Awards
Original publication date
1979-11-01
Physical description
416 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
8401490421 / 9788401490422