Flowers of Evil

by Robert Charles

Book by Charles, Robert

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert Charles is a pseudonymn of Robert Charles Smith.

He also writes under the pseudonymn 'Charles Leader'.

His first book as Robert Charles was 'The Faceless Fugitive' (1963) and up to 2010 he had written 33 novels as such with Blood and Sangria (2010) being the last one.

As Charles Leader he first published 'Frontiers of Violence' (1966) and wrote 17 books under that pseudonym up to 1978, the last being 'Kingdom of Darkness' (1978).

Gerry Wolstenholme
September 2010

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little book deeply rooted in the Cold War about mutant (or alien?) plants that thrive on blood! Flowers of Evil is well written, although pretty tame for 1980s horror to be sure. We follow two basic plot lines-- one in the USSR and one largely on an island off the coast of Scotland. In the USSR, a study team is sent to the site of a nuclear disaster (never specified as to what) twenty years after the fact. A strange plant with pretty blue flowers is discovered there, and the team's secretary brings home a couple of them to brighten up her Soviet apartment; she also gives one to her brother who is a deep sea fisherman. In the other plot line, a small family heads to the island so the father can get the research needed to publish a book on migrating birds...

From the cover blurb, I expected a lot more action; something like The Swarm, with humanity under siege from mutant plants, but alas, the 'plant foo' is only found on an isolated island and near the USSR's disaster zone. Neat premise, but no real evil, just plants with a thirst for blood. This was actually a lot more like straight up drama than horror, but in the 80s, horror novels sold well, so hence the marketing. The actual 'plant foo' is well done, but something of an afterthought to the family dynamics on the island. A fun read if you happen upon it, but I would not knock myself out looking for a copy.

[M.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Flowers of Evil to be an interesting and well written novel.

I generally have very little tolerance for excessive “character building” but the 40-50% of this book (that’s interspersed with more interesting activities, not one continuous block) that is more of a family drama than anything else was written well enough to keep me reading and the people throughout were quite real with distinct identities and motivations.

Unfortunately, the title “Flowers of Evil” and subtitle “Their Roots are in Hell” would lead one to believe this is a more aggressive horror novel than it actually is. Some parts were able to build a little tension, but it rapidly became evident that none of the main characters were going to die.

There is a saying in writer’s circles that it’s important to “kill your darlings” and this book is a good example of why. It became evident pretty early on that even the wife who was having an affair was going to be just fine and with none of the main characters at risk, there's not much tension in that area.


Some statistics about the book:
Pages Between Action Taking Place:
Average: 5.3
Max: 15
Minimum: less than 1

Unsuccessful Attacks by Plant
Against Humans: 18
Against Dogs: 1
Against Female Redwing (bird) with a sore wing and a multi-page sob story: 1

More Stats:

Deaths Related to Plant Attacks, but not actually killed by the plants
Wolves Killed by Other Wolves: 3
Seamen Drowned: 5+

Victims Killed by the Plant
Adult Human Males: 2
Elderly Male: 1*
Little Girl: 1
Canary: 1
Kitten: 1*
Dog: 1
Mouse: 1*
Rabbit: 1*
Fish: 1*
Sheep: An Entire Flock
Birds: About 2 metric shit-tonnes of ‘em. (a few were *)

*indicates the death was described. For the ones without an asterisk, we were just told about them or the story "cut away" right before the death occurred.


The writing (use of language) and characterization are both very well done, and this wasn’t a bad book by any means, but if you're looking for graphic, cringe inducing or truly tense horror, this just isn't any of those. If you’re not normally into horror and are looking for something a little scary without getting too visceral, this might appeal to you. Also, if you simply enjoy commercial fiction from the eighties you could certainly do worse than this one.

[Ami Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful to the eye. Deadly to the touch. Their roots are in hell. They are tiny blue flowers, so innocent looking, with slim gossamer tendrils. And then, in the quiet countryside, the nightmare begins. For beneath the exquisite petals rages a hideous thirst... for warm blood! And as each small victim is caught in their crawling death grip, the plants grow larger and stronger, drop by drop.

This book was disappointing. I thought it was just going to be crazy ass flowers taking over everything and eating lots of people. What I got was some flowers that killed lots of pets and wildlife and then, like, a handful of people. In fact, the flower locations all take place in almost barren locations when not a lot of people even live or visit! I'm all for man-eating flowers, but, I want to actually SEE them doing the whole man-eating part! Not eating rabbits and cats! >:( Like I said... disappointing!

It wasn't necessarily a horribly written book, but it wasn't great either.

[Luca Gonella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Classico Urania non d'autore, piuttosto mediocre, con una storia scontata e colpi di scena non particolarmente sorprendenti.

[Christina Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was like a 1960s monster movie. It was took a blood thirsty plant as a monster and went with it. It was really well written and I don’t regret reading it.