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Dollanganger #1-5
Flowers in the Attic / Petals on the Wind (Dollanganger) by V.C. Andrews
Including a free poster of the family tree for the Dollanger Saga, this set features Flowers in the Attic, If There Be Thorns, Petals on the Wind and Seeds of Yesterday.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1979
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3409 people want to read
About the author
V.C. Andrews
370 books9,073 followersBooks published under the following names - Virginia Andrews, V. Andrews, Virginia C. Andrews & V.C. Endrius. Books since her death ghost written by Andrew Neiderman, but still attributed to the V.C. Andrews name
Virginia Cleo Andrews (born Cleo Virginia Andrews) was born June 6, 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia. The youngest child and the only daughter of William Henry Andrews, a career navy man who opened a tool-and-die business after retirement, and Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, a telephone operator. She spent her happy childhood years in Portsmouth, Virginia, living briefly in Rochester, New York. The Andrews family returned to Portsmouth while Virginia was in high school.
While a teenager, Virginia suffered a tragic accident, falling down the stairs at her school and incurred severe back injuries. Arthritis and a failed spinal surgical procedure forced her to spend most of her life on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Virginia excelled in school and, at fifteen, won a scholarship for writing a parody of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. She proudly earned her diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth. After graduation, she nurtured her artistic talent by completing a four-year correspondence art course while living at home with her family.
After William Andrews died in the late 1960s, Virginia helped to support herself and her mother through her extremely successful career as a commercial artist, portrait painter, and fashion illustrator.
Frustrated with the lack of creative satisfaction that her work provided, Virginia sought creative release through writing, which she did in secret. In 1972, she completed her first novel, The Gods of the Green Mountain [sic], a science-fantasy story. It was never published. Between 1972 and 1979, she wrote nine novels and twenty short stories, of which only one was published. "I Slept with My Uncle on My Wedding Night", a short fiction piece, was published in a pulp confession magazine.
Promise gleamed over the horizon for Virginia when she submitted a 290,000-word novel, The Obsessed, to a publishing company. She was told that the story had potential, but needed to be trimmed and spiced up a bit. She drafted a new outline in a single night and added "unspeakable things my mother didn't want me to write about." The ninety-eight-page revision was re-titled Flowers in the Attic and she was paid a $7,500 advance. Her new-generation Gothic novel reached the bestseller lists a mere two weeks after its 1979 paperback publication by Pocket Books.
Petals on the Wind, her sequel to Flowers, was published the next year, earning Virginia a $35,000 advance. The second book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for an unbelievable nineteen weeks (Flowers also returned to the list). These first two novels alone sold over seven million copies in only two years. The third novel of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns, was released in 1981, bringing Virginia a $75,000 advance. It reached No. 2 on many bestseller lists within its first two weeks.
Taking a break from the chronicles of Chris and Cathy Dollanganger, Virginia published her one, and only, stand-alone novel, My Sweet Audrina, in 1982. The book welcomed an immediate success, topping the sales figures of her previous novels. Two years later, a fourth Dollanganger novel was released, Seeds of Yesterday. According to the New York Times, Seeds was the best-selling fiction paperback novel of 1984. Also in 1984, V.C. Andrews was named "Professional Woman of the Year" by the city of Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon Andrews's death in 1986, two final novels—Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts—were published. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V.C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by
Virginia Cleo Andrews (born Cleo Virginia Andrews) was born June 6, 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia. The youngest child and the only daughter of William Henry Andrews, a career navy man who opened a tool-and-die business after retirement, and Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews, a telephone operator. She spent her happy childhood years in Portsmouth, Virginia, living briefly in Rochester, New York. The Andrews family returned to Portsmouth while Virginia was in high school.
While a teenager, Virginia suffered a tragic accident, falling down the stairs at her school and incurred severe back injuries. Arthritis and a failed spinal surgical procedure forced her to spend most of her life on crutches or in a wheelchair.
Virginia excelled in school and, at fifteen, won a scholarship for writing a parody of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. She proudly earned her diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth. After graduation, she nurtured her artistic talent by completing a four-year correspondence art course while living at home with her family.
After William Andrews died in the late 1960s, Virginia helped to support herself and her mother through her extremely successful career as a commercial artist, portrait painter, and fashion illustrator.
Frustrated with the lack of creative satisfaction that her work provided, Virginia sought creative release through writing, which she did in secret. In 1972, she completed her first novel, The Gods of the Green Mountain [sic], a science-fantasy story. It was never published. Between 1972 and 1979, she wrote nine novels and twenty short stories, of which only one was published. "I Slept with My Uncle on My Wedding Night", a short fiction piece, was published in a pulp confession magazine.
Promise gleamed over the horizon for Virginia when she submitted a 290,000-word novel, The Obsessed, to a publishing company. She was told that the story had potential, but needed to be trimmed and spiced up a bit. She drafted a new outline in a single night and added "unspeakable things my mother didn't want me to write about." The ninety-eight-page revision was re-titled Flowers in the Attic and she was paid a $7,500 advance. Her new-generation Gothic novel reached the bestseller lists a mere two weeks after its 1979 paperback publication by Pocket Books.
Petals on the Wind, her sequel to Flowers, was published the next year, earning Virginia a $35,000 advance. The second book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for an unbelievable nineteen weeks (Flowers also returned to the list). These first two novels alone sold over seven million copies in only two years. The third novel of the Dollanganger series, If There Be Thorns, was released in 1981, bringing Virginia a $75,000 advance. It reached No. 2 on many bestseller lists within its first two weeks.
Taking a break from the chronicles of Chris and Cathy Dollanganger, Virginia published her one, and only, stand-alone novel, My Sweet Audrina, in 1982. The book welcomed an immediate success, topping the sales figures of her previous novels. Two years later, a fourth Dollanganger novel was released, Seeds of Yesterday. According to the New York Times, Seeds was the best-selling fiction paperback novel of 1984. Also in 1984, V.C. Andrews was named "Professional Woman of the Year" by the city of Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon Andrews's death in 1986, two final novels—Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts—were published. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V.C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews
June 20, 2008
Did anyone else sneakily read these books in grade school and love every forbidden minute of it?
September 1, 2012
I stumbled upon these books when I was ten or eleven. My poor mother had nooooo idea! I was immediately obsessed with V.C. Andrews, and devoured every series. This one is the best, though. Even now, more than twenty years later, I can remember the mood of the novels, the dread, the longing, the forbidden passions.
Now, since reading these, I have gotten a degree in literature, so I can in no way endorse these as life-changing or intellectually stimulating. But they are perfectly 'what they are' - juicy, scandalous, riveting, horrific nuggets of guilty-pleasure reading.
Now, since reading these, I have gotten a degree in literature, so I can in no way endorse these as life-changing or intellectually stimulating. But they are perfectly 'what they are' - juicy, scandalous, riveting, horrific nuggets of guilty-pleasure reading.
September 24, 2013
Why wasn't Garden of shadows included ?I have written an analysis of the first tow book on the Dollanganger series Fita and Potw read that first. This is the second part of my review. For good measure I included GOS.
***Book 3 -If there be thorns.
The technique Andrews uses here is of a second, third narrator to discredit Cathy in case you didn't get the hint
Bart's transformation into a killer echoing some of their ancestor Malcolm, Catherine, Garland, the second Corinne.
Jory's growing awareness that gives you a closer voice to Chris as a child.
"Try as I might, I resented what they were doing, what they had done, risking scandal, risking ruining my life and Bart's, Cindy's too, and all because one man couldn't find another woman to love. And that one woman must have done something to keep him hopeful and faithful. " Jory (If there be Thorns).
What becomes very apparent here is that the prime antagonist is actually not Corinne but Malcolm. It is a brilliant literary device of not introducing us, the reader overtly to the antagonist, we see merely a glimpse of Malcolm through accounts, the protagonists never meet him. It is just through descriptions from other characters and his diary that we gain insight into Malcolm. His spirit lives on when he makes Corrine realise her sin and turn into killing her children (more about that later), through Cathy's revenge previously now through John Amos Jackson, and then Bart using Malcolm's diary.
Bart's quote "if there be thorns"
"Why was everybody doing bad things to everybody else and calling the excuse "inheritance"
So we can finally state : - prime protagonist is Christopher Sheffield and prime antagonist is Malcolm Foxworth
Why Corinne turns up here will be initially is to take avenge Cathy. To steal her children away from her. Corinne believes Catherine doesn't truly love Christopher, that she seduces Christopher and turns him against Corinne. She believes that Cathy's evil, seductress ways are selfish. she wants to take turn Cathy's sonsw against her as Cathy turned her son against her.
However when Corinne and Cathy are imprisoned in the basement, she realises that Cathy actually is really in love with Chris. And the reason she stole Bart from her mother was to avenge her mother for making her fall in love with a man she couldn't have. That's why Corinne gives her life to save Cathy in the end.
*****Book 5- Garden of Shadows
Notice I changed the order of explanation?!!
"My father always taught me that when something was terribly wrong, there was a reason. And the reason was always hidden. If one wanted to know the truth, one should search for it." "But Olivia" he had cautioned me," when you search the shadows to find that truth, often you find things more horrible, more painful than you would imagine. " Garden of Shadows
We finally meet the primary antagonist, Malcolm.
This book also tells us why Corrinne and the first Christopher's love couldn't be justified. Corinne seduces her uncle to hurt her father Malcolm
Chris's quote "if there be thorns"
"When your father's younger half brother walked into Foxworth Hall at age seventeen, did you immediately seize hold on an inspiration?- the supreme way to punish your father for making you hate yourself. Did you set out to make our father fall in love with you? Did you? Did you hate him in a way too because he looked like Malcolm. I think you did. I think you schemed and plotted to wound your father in the one way that would shatter his ego most, so that it might never recover. And I think you succeeded! You eloped and married the younger half brother he so despised. And you thought you'd won in two ways. You had stung him where it hurt the most. Now you had the power to gain his tremendous fortune through our father!- but it didn't work did it ? I haven't forgotten those days when we lived in Gladstone, when I overhead you pleading with my father to sue, to get what was rightfully his. But our father refused to co-operate. He loved you and married you for what he thought you were, and not for the money you kept dreaming about."
Christopher Garland the fourth (Corinne's first husband) steals his half brother's daughter their love can't be justified, it was a impetuous act, one that had immense ramifications which Cathy and Chris suffered for.
Cathy's quote "Petals on the Wind"
"So when Alicia had a son, you suspected that child was your own
husband's, and that's why you hated our father, and why you sent for him, deceiving him into believing he'd found a good home. And you educated
him and gave him the best of everything so he'd have a taste of the good, rich life and be more hurt and disappointed later on, when you threw him out and left him nothing in your wills. But my father fooled you instead, didn't he? He stole your only daughter, whom you hated too, because her father loved her more than he loved you."
Hint here is that Christopher Garland Dollanganger (Chris and Cathy's dad) researched his background when he left Foxworth Hall.
Finally why Corinne tried to kill them
The point of all this is to give you the answer as to why Corinne killed her children.
Bart's quote "if there be thorns"
"Why was everybody doing bad things to everybody else and calling the excuse "inheritance"
So can using the clues in the book let's build a case for the antagonist, Corinne. What were the intentions behind her actions ?
" Joel can tell us more about our mother when she was young, and what life was like for all of them, and perhaps when we know the details, we will be able to understand how she could betray us, and why the grandfather wanted us dead. There has to be an awful truth hidden back in the past to warp Malcolm's brain so he could override our mother's natural instincts to keep her own children alive." Chris to Cathy (Seeds of Yesterday)
Corrinne finds out that she actually "married" her half brother not her half uncle which was a bigger sin (Malcolm tells her). That's the detail that made her want to kill her own children. Throughout the series it is hinted that Corrinne and Christopher Snr were brother and sister and the true extent is revealed in of this is confirmed in "The Garden of Shadows".
Corrinne was seeing signs of her children suffering hidden inflictions for her sin of marrying brother. The twins didn't grow, and her two older children were becoming sexually attracted to one another. She actually knows this and tries "not to see ". She tries to take away her fears by buying Cathy small girl's clothes. She tries to save her children by killing them rather than living with that realisation similar to Oedipus's mother/wife killing their children when she learns of her sin.
The reason why this revelation of Corrinne and Christopher Snr is hinted rather that explicitly stated in the book, is that it is a clever subterfuge by Andrews to highlight Catherine our prime narrator's inability to comprehend her mother's actions or to find "forgiveness" as demonstrated by the following
"Appealingly Chris gazed into my eyes, making his heart and soul vulnerable for my scorn to injure. "I'd like to hear about our mother's youth, Cathy, so I can understand what made her the way she turned out to be. She wounded us so deeply I feel neither one of us will ever recover until we do understand. I have forgiven her, but I can't forget. I want to understand so I can help you to forgive her . . ."
Garden of Shadows also leaves us with what happened to the first Corinne !
There is a hint in Flowers in the Attic about a woman shoved into the trunks.
She begins to hate her half uncle because he should have know he was actually her brother.
****Book 4- Seeds of Yesterday
The key thing to remember "in mathematics, no matter what the variable is, the axioms remain the same". There is a pattern to this book. That's why the uses and play on the word doppelganger.
This is to round up the series
Joel now takes on the role of Malcolm the primary antagonist through, he gained some insight into the deeds through olivia's diary (25 years later) that's why he returns to get rid of the seeds of incest.
But also to realise there is a pattern in everything. Chris was always waiting for Cathy to become aware of her true self. At the end when he dies, Cathy consciously realises what Chris knew all along. She finally makes sense of it all before she dies she becomes awaken to there is a pattern in everything.
" I saw him racing on his bike yards ahead of me, then slowing down
deliberately so I could catch up and we'd both reach home at the same" Cathy (Petals on the wind). He was merely waiting for her to to catch up.
Chris quote on death Seeds of yesterday
"Life is a gift, and perhaps death is another kind of gift"
Cathy "Seeds of yesterday"
"As I walked on and on alone, but for Chris's spirit, it came to me that there was a pattern in our lives, and nothing that had happened was coincidental."
Cathy finally realises consciously what her brother knew all along !
She finally realises that she did have perfection and with that realisation she finally ascends the stairs to the attic one last time ....
The authors view on death and reincarnation :-
"That dream was to haunt me many a day, pleasantly. It gave me peace.
It gave me knowledge I hadn't had before. People never really died.
They only went on to a better place, to wait a while for their loved
ones to join them. And then once more they went back to the world, in
the same way they had arrived the first time around."
If you haven't guessed it by now this is a microcosm for the human story.
The compelling story of a family's betrayal and heartbreak, love and revenge. The family is actually the whole of humanity. The secrets they learned in the attic ( higher place) is the story of human history. Human beings have the the ability to hurt, kill and destroy (the bad gene) and the only saving grace is our ability to love. The doppelganger pattern.
Mm, the universe is sure strange, I am currently reading a Dean Koontz book and a hour ago came across a single word to sum up my thought - "SUBTEXT" -" the underlying, implicit meaning of the story, which the writer never directly expressed". "-the readers did not need to be consciously aware of the subtext to enjoy a story fully, because if the tale had been told well, they would subconsciously absorb the implicit meaning." I just wish more people could be aware of the subtext in these novels, because this story isn't just good - it is sublime when they fully understand.
There is more always ... But I will leave that up to you.
Hope you enjoyed this :- please if you have more info check out my facebook account Neisha Chetty or catch me on twitter @NeishaChetty.
***Book 3 -If there be thorns.
The technique Andrews uses here is of a second, third narrator to discredit Cathy in case you didn't get the hint
Bart's transformation into a killer echoing some of their ancestor Malcolm, Catherine, Garland, the second Corinne.
Jory's growing awareness that gives you a closer voice to Chris as a child.
"Try as I might, I resented what they were doing, what they had done, risking scandal, risking ruining my life and Bart's, Cindy's too, and all because one man couldn't find another woman to love. And that one woman must have done something to keep him hopeful and faithful. " Jory (If there be Thorns).
What becomes very apparent here is that the prime antagonist is actually not Corinne but Malcolm. It is a brilliant literary device of not introducing us, the reader overtly to the antagonist, we see merely a glimpse of Malcolm through accounts, the protagonists never meet him. It is just through descriptions from other characters and his diary that we gain insight into Malcolm. His spirit lives on when he makes Corrine realise her sin and turn into killing her children (more about that later), through Cathy's revenge previously now through John Amos Jackson, and then Bart using Malcolm's diary.
Bart's quote "if there be thorns"
"Why was everybody doing bad things to everybody else and calling the excuse "inheritance"
So we can finally state : - prime protagonist is Christopher Sheffield and prime antagonist is Malcolm Foxworth
Why Corinne turns up here will be initially is to take avenge Cathy. To steal her children away from her. Corinne believes Catherine doesn't truly love Christopher, that she seduces Christopher and turns him against Corinne. She believes that Cathy's evil, seductress ways are selfish. she wants to take turn Cathy's sonsw against her as Cathy turned her son against her.
However when Corinne and Cathy are imprisoned in the basement, she realises that Cathy actually is really in love with Chris. And the reason she stole Bart from her mother was to avenge her mother for making her fall in love with a man she couldn't have. That's why Corinne gives her life to save Cathy in the end.
*****Book 5- Garden of Shadows
Notice I changed the order of explanation?!!
"My father always taught me that when something was terribly wrong, there was a reason. And the reason was always hidden. If one wanted to know the truth, one should search for it." "But Olivia" he had cautioned me," when you search the shadows to find that truth, often you find things more horrible, more painful than you would imagine. " Garden of Shadows
We finally meet the primary antagonist, Malcolm.
This book also tells us why Corrinne and the first Christopher's love couldn't be justified. Corinne seduces her uncle to hurt her father Malcolm
Chris's quote "if there be thorns"
"When your father's younger half brother walked into Foxworth Hall at age seventeen, did you immediately seize hold on an inspiration?- the supreme way to punish your father for making you hate yourself. Did you set out to make our father fall in love with you? Did you? Did you hate him in a way too because he looked like Malcolm. I think you did. I think you schemed and plotted to wound your father in the one way that would shatter his ego most, so that it might never recover. And I think you succeeded! You eloped and married the younger half brother he so despised. And you thought you'd won in two ways. You had stung him where it hurt the most. Now you had the power to gain his tremendous fortune through our father!- but it didn't work did it ? I haven't forgotten those days when we lived in Gladstone, when I overhead you pleading with my father to sue, to get what was rightfully his. But our father refused to co-operate. He loved you and married you for what he thought you were, and not for the money you kept dreaming about."
Christopher Garland the fourth (Corinne's first husband) steals his half brother's daughter their love can't be justified, it was a impetuous act, one that had immense ramifications which Cathy and Chris suffered for.
Cathy's quote "Petals on the Wind"
"So when Alicia had a son, you suspected that child was your own
husband's, and that's why you hated our father, and why you sent for him, deceiving him into believing he'd found a good home. And you educated
him and gave him the best of everything so he'd have a taste of the good, rich life and be more hurt and disappointed later on, when you threw him out and left him nothing in your wills. But my father fooled you instead, didn't he? He stole your only daughter, whom you hated too, because her father loved her more than he loved you."
Hint here is that Christopher Garland Dollanganger (Chris and Cathy's dad) researched his background when he left Foxworth Hall.
Finally why Corinne tried to kill them
The point of all this is to give you the answer as to why Corinne killed her children.
Bart's quote "if there be thorns"
"Why was everybody doing bad things to everybody else and calling the excuse "inheritance"
So can using the clues in the book let's build a case for the antagonist, Corinne. What were the intentions behind her actions ?
" Joel can tell us more about our mother when she was young, and what life was like for all of them, and perhaps when we know the details, we will be able to understand how she could betray us, and why the grandfather wanted us dead. There has to be an awful truth hidden back in the past to warp Malcolm's brain so he could override our mother's natural instincts to keep her own children alive." Chris to Cathy (Seeds of Yesterday)
Corrinne finds out that she actually "married" her half brother not her half uncle which was a bigger sin (Malcolm tells her). That's the detail that made her want to kill her own children. Throughout the series it is hinted that Corrinne and Christopher Snr were brother and sister and the true extent is revealed in of this is confirmed in "The Garden of Shadows".
Corrinne was seeing signs of her children suffering hidden inflictions for her sin of marrying brother. The twins didn't grow, and her two older children were becoming sexually attracted to one another. She actually knows this and tries "not to see ". She tries to take away her fears by buying Cathy small girl's clothes. She tries to save her children by killing them rather than living with that realisation similar to Oedipus's mother/wife killing their children when she learns of her sin.
The reason why this revelation of Corrinne and Christopher Snr is hinted rather that explicitly stated in the book, is that it is a clever subterfuge by Andrews to highlight Catherine our prime narrator's inability to comprehend her mother's actions or to find "forgiveness" as demonstrated by the following
"Appealingly Chris gazed into my eyes, making his heart and soul vulnerable for my scorn to injure. "I'd like to hear about our mother's youth, Cathy, so I can understand what made her the way she turned out to be. She wounded us so deeply I feel neither one of us will ever recover until we do understand. I have forgiven her, but I can't forget. I want to understand so I can help you to forgive her . . ."
Garden of Shadows also leaves us with what happened to the first Corinne !
There is a hint in Flowers in the Attic about a woman shoved into the trunks.
She begins to hate her half uncle because he should have know he was actually her brother.
****Book 4- Seeds of Yesterday
The key thing to remember "in mathematics, no matter what the variable is, the axioms remain the same". There is a pattern to this book. That's why the uses and play on the word doppelganger.
This is to round up the series
Joel now takes on the role of Malcolm the primary antagonist through, he gained some insight into the deeds through olivia's diary (25 years later) that's why he returns to get rid of the seeds of incest.
But also to realise there is a pattern in everything. Chris was always waiting for Cathy to become aware of her true self. At the end when he dies, Cathy consciously realises what Chris knew all along. She finally makes sense of it all before she dies she becomes awaken to there is a pattern in everything.
" I saw him racing on his bike yards ahead of me, then slowing down
deliberately so I could catch up and we'd both reach home at the same" Cathy (Petals on the wind). He was merely waiting for her to to catch up.
Chris quote on death Seeds of yesterday
"Life is a gift, and perhaps death is another kind of gift"
Cathy "Seeds of yesterday"
"As I walked on and on alone, but for Chris's spirit, it came to me that there was a pattern in our lives, and nothing that had happened was coincidental."
Cathy finally realises consciously what her brother knew all along !
She finally realises that she did have perfection and with that realisation she finally ascends the stairs to the attic one last time ....
The authors view on death and reincarnation :-
"That dream was to haunt me many a day, pleasantly. It gave me peace.
It gave me knowledge I hadn't had before. People never really died.
They only went on to a better place, to wait a while for their loved
ones to join them. And then once more they went back to the world, in
the same way they had arrived the first time around."
If you haven't guessed it by now this is a microcosm for the human story.
The compelling story of a family's betrayal and heartbreak, love and revenge. The family is actually the whole of humanity. The secrets they learned in the attic ( higher place) is the story of human history. Human beings have the the ability to hurt, kill and destroy (the bad gene) and the only saving grace is our ability to love. The doppelganger pattern.
Mm, the universe is sure strange, I am currently reading a Dean Koontz book and a hour ago came across a single word to sum up my thought - "SUBTEXT" -" the underlying, implicit meaning of the story, which the writer never directly expressed". "-the readers did not need to be consciously aware of the subtext to enjoy a story fully, because if the tale had been told well, they would subconsciously absorb the implicit meaning." I just wish more people could be aware of the subtext in these novels, because this story isn't just good - it is sublime when they fully understand.
There is more always ... But I will leave that up to you.
Hope you enjoyed this :- please if you have more info check out my facebook account Neisha Chetty or catch me on twitter @NeishaChetty.
January 5, 2014
I read this book when I was in elementary school and I had no idea it was for adults. I thought is was some type of mystery book but then I realized it was very twisty. I like the whole series and sometimes I forgot that the two lovers were related. They are teenagers trapped in an attic and are forced to grow up in order to take care of there siblings...so I guess the incest would be justified....somewhat.
August 10, 2011
Read these books whilst still in high school and have gone back to read them countless times. At the time I was reading mainly Danielle Steel and this ws something of a shocking read to me then. Something in me was really touched by the characters of Catherine and perhaps Christopher even more. The last book made me cry so hard. Absolutely loved these book.
June 27, 2012
I can't help but love these books so much, out of every book I've read in my life time, these have been the only ones I just can't put down, the drama, the love, the hate, and the passion, the lies, and the truth finally coming out during the prequel. So great, I love the setting, I love the plot, I CRIED when I finished the first four books because I felt like I actually got to know Cathy, and be with her for awhile, I think about these books DAILY, it's such a haunting story, one you can never forget, and one you'll fall passionately in love with, and trust me. These books will keep you up all night just wondering "What's going to happen now!"
July 30, 2015
The flowers refered to in the title of this book are four children,Chris the oldest boy, Cathy the oldest girl, and the twins Corrie and Carie. They are locked in the attic after there Dad is killed by a drunk driver. Their Mom and Grandmother try to kill off the children one by one. I enjoyed this read very much and would recommend it to all.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
October 30, 2017
Es "Dolendžendžeru dzimtas" grāmatas izlasīju ~12 gadu vecumā, kad lasīju visu, kas nebija piesiets. Protams, ka vecumam galīgi neatbilstoša lasāmviela, bet tad man pat prātā nenāca, ka es varētu būt pārāk jauna kādai grāmatai. Tagad atkal piefiksēju šīs grāmatas bibliotēkas plauktos un nodomāju, ka varbūt jāsameklē autores "Kastīlu dzimtas" grāmatas (kas nav vēl lasītas) un jāpamēģina ar nu jau ne tik naivām acīm izlasīt.
P.s. Pameklēju nedaudz informāciju un izrādās, ka tomēr šīs grāmatas tomēr ir paredzētas jauniešiem :D
P.s. Pameklēju nedaudz informāciju un izrādās, ka tomēr šīs grāmatas tomēr ir paredzētas jauniešiem :D
December 1, 2010
Imagine having a great life and having it taken away from you in the snap of a finger. In the book, Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, Cathy, Chris, Cory, and Carries lives are ruined when a tragic car accident kills their father and leaves them with their now widowed mother. Join the journey of four kids trying to stay alive while watching their mother turn on them. You’ll feel their pain, struggle, and lust as you read along.
Chris, Cory, Carrie, and Cathy are four siblings who love there lives. They are not rich or poor but they’re middle class. They have a family who loves them and food on the table. Yes, they have they’re ups and downs, they’re happy and sad moments, but besides that, they’re life is pleasant. Until, there father dies in a tragic car accident. Their mother can’t take care of them alone so they are forced to go live with their rich grandparents with their mother. Their mother is forced to earn the dying grandfathers respect back because he took her out of his will because she married and fell in love with his young cousin. The children are locked in a room struggling for survival because the grandfather can’t know about the kids until he dies because he hates kids now, so they have to be hidden away until he is gone. As the months go by, the mother stops visiting the children and she stops bringing them toys and food. They begin to hate her because she has turned on them and now they have to take care of themselves. Struggling to stay alive and healthy, they learn many hidden secrets and they realize they can trust no one.
Reading this book was a really good idea. I am really happy that I listened to my friend’s advice about finding it. As I read on, I felt as if I was experiencing the characters lives with them. For example, when the two younger kids, the twins, Carrie and Cory, began to cry because there mother hasn’t came in days, the older siblings, Cathy and Chris felt very upset and bad for the two twins. There was such detail that it made understanding their emotions easy. Passion, hurt, struggle, its as if it all happening to you. This whole book was amazing. When the kids father is killed in a car accident, there whole lives turned upside down. This reminded me of how when my grandfather died, mine and my parents world became sad and scary so I understood what they were going through. There is not one thing I would change about it. The author described everything so thoroughly and perfectly that it was hard not to fall for this right away. It was like you were right next to them, feeling there pain and seeing the tears dripping from there eyes once they realize there mother had betrayed them. From a 1 – 5 rating, this book deserves a 5. READ IT!
Chris, Cory, Carrie, and Cathy are four siblings who love there lives. They are not rich or poor but they’re middle class. They have a family who loves them and food on the table. Yes, they have they’re ups and downs, they’re happy and sad moments, but besides that, they’re life is pleasant. Until, there father dies in a tragic car accident. Their mother can’t take care of them alone so they are forced to go live with their rich grandparents with their mother. Their mother is forced to earn the dying grandfathers respect back because he took her out of his will because she married and fell in love with his young cousin. The children are locked in a room struggling for survival because the grandfather can’t know about the kids until he dies because he hates kids now, so they have to be hidden away until he is gone. As the months go by, the mother stops visiting the children and she stops bringing them toys and food. They begin to hate her because she has turned on them and now they have to take care of themselves. Struggling to stay alive and healthy, they learn many hidden secrets and they realize they can trust no one.
Reading this book was a really good idea. I am really happy that I listened to my friend’s advice about finding it. As I read on, I felt as if I was experiencing the characters lives with them. For example, when the two younger kids, the twins, Carrie and Cory, began to cry because there mother hasn’t came in days, the older siblings, Cathy and Chris felt very upset and bad for the two twins. There was such detail that it made understanding their emotions easy. Passion, hurt, struggle, its as if it all happening to you. This whole book was amazing. When the kids father is killed in a car accident, there whole lives turned upside down. This reminded me of how when my grandfather died, mine and my parents world became sad and scary so I understood what they were going through. There is not one thing I would change about it. The author described everything so thoroughly and perfectly that it was hard not to fall for this right away. It was like you were right next to them, feeling there pain and seeing the tears dripping from there eyes once they realize there mother had betrayed them. From a 1 – 5 rating, this book deserves a 5. READ IT!
December 14, 2012
I was griped by the story when I read the first book Flowers in the Attic. After that I had to read the rest of the series. It is not a heart warming tale and shows how dark some religious people's souls are to children by treating them with such indifference. By regarding them as the "Spourn of Satan" and locking them in an attic for years shows how dark it gets. It has a few sub-stories such as the mother and father's relationship. The background to the mother's life and the grandfathers influence on matters. The main story is about the children, their lives before the attic, the relationships and bounds they form in the attic and the affect the attic had on not only their lives but the lives of their offspring.
Some characters are just bad at heart or have no heart while the children are the ones you are rooting for. I gave this four stars because I found the second book slightly long winded but apart from that I would recommend this series of books to everyone. This is a series that I want to read again.
Some characters are just bad at heart or have no heart while the children are the ones you are rooting for. I gave this four stars because I found the second book slightly long winded but apart from that I would recommend this series of books to everyone. This is a series that I want to read again.
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February 21, 2012ok, In flowers in the attic the mother came back to get back into her fathers good graces. The reason being is she had married her uncle. YOU NEED TO READ GARDEN OF SHADOWS! I though it explained everything! Anyway yes she married her uncle but, her mother did not want her father to know about the kids or her would not take the daughter back into the family. the father would have though the children (even though they turned out perfect) were devil's spawn. Don't want to give to much of it away if you are going to read the book. just wanted to keep the story line going.
Good books but, trashy and the poor girl Cathy does not know which man she should love! Poor Chris Can't find anyone who messures up to her and the twins.... well Cory did dye in the end of the first one and if you really want to know what happenend to them all I can tell you but, don't want to spoil it for others.
Good books but, trashy and the poor girl Cathy does not know which man she should love! Poor Chris Can't find anyone who messures up to her and the twins.... well Cory did dye in the end of the first one and if you really want to know what happenend to them all I can tell you but, don't want to spoil it for others.
December 6, 2016
I think I first read this series when I was still in elementary school and I started rereading them in the last week or so. I have to admit that they still fascinate me and the story pulled me right back in again, me being aware of the rumors of the first one being a true story only making it more fascinating to me.
A lot of people complain that the writing isn't very good and the story much of the same over and over (they have a point) but for me it didn't ruin the books the first time and I have to say, it still didn't. Maybe it's nostalgia for me, these are the books that started my love of reading. I'm pretty sure they where the first - of many - that I read. I never had a dirty feeling associated with the books either, my parents had no problem with me reading this... probably because they had no idea what I was reading, pretty sure they created a bigger buzz in the US then it did in my part of the world and even if it did, they would have been glad with me reading, not restricting what I was reading. Anyway i'm getting of topic; the rest of this review will contain spoilers:
I've only reread the first four books, so my review only covers those ones and while I had some problems with the books I still feel like they deserve the four stars I gave them.
A lot of people complain that the writing isn't very good and the story much of the same over and over (they have a point) but for me it didn't ruin the books the first time and I have to say, it still didn't. Maybe it's nostalgia for me, these are the books that started my love of reading. I'm pretty sure they where the first - of many - that I read. I never had a dirty feeling associated with the books either, my parents had no problem with me reading this... probably because they had no idea what I was reading, pretty sure they created a bigger buzz in the US then it did in my part of the world and even if it did, they would have been glad with me reading, not restricting what I was reading. Anyway i'm getting of topic; the rest of this review will contain spoilers:
I've only reread the first four books, so my review only covers those ones and while I had some problems with the books I still feel like they deserve the four stars I gave them.
December 13, 2010
I really enjoyed the switch in perspectives from the boy to the mother, but the boy (Bart) seemed unrealistically disturbing and the contrast to Julian surprising. I guess I just didn't like the story as much.
Im impressed I still remember the names though, seeing as it was a few years ago I read it!
Certainly a memorable book.
Im impressed I still remember the names though, seeing as it was a few years ago I read it!
Certainly a memorable book.
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September 2, 2008I read these in jr. high, which is so screamingly inappropriate I can't even stand it. They still live in my mind as some of the trashiest, kitschiest, most overblown, overdramatic drivel ever written. Therefore, they have a very special place in my heart.
May 5, 2008
Okay...I read these books years ago but they were SO MUCH FUN!!!! May not be the best written, or the best plot but they sure are compelling!
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July 7, 2012I'm a huge VC Andrews fan!! Yes, I realize every single VC Andrews book is the same as every other VC Andrews book...but that's kinda what I like!
April 2, 2015
Christ, these books terrified me and yet I loved them as a YA.
October 10, 2008
I read these books as a teenager but probably should'nt have the subject matter was more adult.
November 25, 2020
The first time I read these books I was 12 years old. I have read them at least four times, the last being when I as 36. I can't say enough how fond I am that V.C. Andrews could come up with such a brilliant story that spans the years of the novels family as well as the readers family. I remember asking my mom when the next book was out and eventually having to wait my turn to get to read the next one. While each character had one specific thing to get us attached to them, they also had a flaw that made us wonder which direction they would turn later on. All the twist and turns, just made me want more and more, I was never disappointed!
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January 23, 2023This was the version we got from the library. My little sister and I had very different reactions to trauma. She loved to read about fucked up shit. The dramatic, the better while I was very much of the avoidance sort.
Except for this book. She said I had to read it and I can still remember thinking "Can this get even worse?!"
The answer was yes. Yes it could.
So I didn't enjoy the reading experience but I can also remember not being able to stop. The book was so damn readable and the drama got me hooked. And I look back fond on the times I would run to her because of some messed up scene and her going "I know, right?!"
Except for this book. She said I had to read it and I can still remember thinking "Can this get even worse?!"
The answer was yes. Yes it could.
So I didn't enjoy the reading experience but I can also remember not being able to stop. The book was so damn readable and the drama got me hooked. And I look back fond on the times I would run to her because of some messed up scene and her going "I know, right?!"
August 21, 2025
I did read this in the middle of secondary school but I can't lie the story and characters were very interesting despite their...obvious flaws. I was shocked and horrified at times but also I loved these books so much and to find out I'm not the only one who secretly enjoyed them as much as me is such a relief! I regret giving away my box set so much because I can't find these books anywhere anymore.
September 23, 2025
I got the book set for my birthday from one my bestfriends. She had explained to me the gist of the series. I’m not sure how I felt hearing about it. But, once I started reading it and following the characters. I couldn’t stop. The character development and heartbreak following this family is encapsulating. Although, at times I wanted to scream through the book and say what the heck are you doing. Anyways, I loved it and thought it wand a great series.
October 1, 2017
I first read Flowers in the Attic as a teenager. I found my mom's copy of it and read it behind her back. I haven't read it again until this year. This time I read the complete saga. I truly enjoyed reading them. I f I was stranded on a deserted island they wouldn't come with me but I would definitely read them again.
April 5, 2020
This was one of my favorite series when I was a kid so I decided to reread them for fun. They did not disappoint, though I may have liked them more from nostalgia than anything else. I feel slightly guilty not given them 5 stars as my inner child is screaming that they are AT LEAST 5 stars if not 5+!! ;)
October 17, 2020
Amazing. I was hooked pretty quickly and that’s unusual for me. Every book got better and better. I wasn’t going to read the last one as I thought it wouldn’t be as good as the others but I was wrong! I picked it back up the other day and it was amazing.
If you’re looking for something with a bit of romance, mystery, thriller and a little disturbing then these are the books for you!
If you’re looking for something with a bit of romance, mystery, thriller and a little disturbing then these are the books for you!
April 8, 2021
Still the best set of books I've ever read.
Read them in order if you can, otherwise you'll be lost with the characters and the story in general.
A true story of love, hate, power, revenge, sadness.
Brilliantly written. I truly did not want any of these books to end.
One of the few books that I can pick up after a few years and read again and again.
Read them in order if you can, otherwise you'll be lost with the characters and the story in general.
A true story of love, hate, power, revenge, sadness.
Brilliantly written. I truly did not want any of these books to end.
One of the few books that I can pick up after a few years and read again and again.
May 16, 2023
Well I couldn’t get through this 2nd book in the series. Honestly, the main characters’ relationship is too much too handle here. The first book - you could look past it due to the setting and plot of the book. But a continuation of it is really uncomfortable. (And I can usually handle a lot re: psychological thrillers!)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2023
Loved this series it was so enthralling. I watched the series' first then read the books and as always, the books were better, but the show was not bad. Very interesting characters and plot. If you have heard of the Flowers in the Attic these do a great job of explaining the story and is very descriptive in many of the character interactions.
February 10, 2024
My favorite and first series finished when I was younger. I highly recommend it, even if it’s just the first book. Explains the extent of what trauma can do, how it can be spread to multiple generations and influence people to do horrific actions. There are many webs and complexities within this family and mansion you don’t want to stop reading so you can find out more.
May 13, 2021
OMG i can't believe these book's are from a true story they had we crying
unreal couldn't put them down every one has to read these book's at least once in their lives xx
my Mum gave me these books to read many years ago to read, the story has never left me
unreal couldn't put them down every one has to read these book's at least once in their lives xx
my Mum gave me these books to read many years ago to read, the story has never left me
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