Stephen King Fans discussion

Discuss Flowers in the Attic here. Please mark all spoilers for those reading along.

Happy New Year! If this line doesn’t sum up the first chapter... “... fate was a grim reaper, never kind, with little respect for who had was loved and needed.” I had forgotten how painful the opening was. Love re-reading this book that I first read 30 something years ago.

I am so excited to read this book again. I lost all of my VC collection in a move when I was in college and this is a perfect excuse to start a new set!

I devoured all of her books in my teens and have not revisited them since. I am looking froward to it. ;-D

i have this on hold from my library. i hope i get it in time to join in.

I was thinking about the Little Women novel due to the movie. As a kid, a lot of girls my age read said novel, and eventually so did I.

Some of these girls also read Flowers in the Attic, which I did not read and had no idea what it was about until a few years. So not an innocent read for kids, haha.

Either way, I am curious, so I'll get a copy (hopefully I don't get any funny looks), and I'll join you peeps in reading this! :D

Oscar wrote: "I was thinking about the Little Women novel due to the movie. As a kid, a lot of girls my age read said novel, and eventually so did I.

Some of these girls also read Flowers in the Attic, which I..."

LOL! Oscar, I don't think you will get any funny looks...you will just be getting a copy for your niece, right? :)

Oscar wrote: "I was thinking about the Little Women novel due to the movie. As a kid, a lot of girls my age read said novel, and eventually so did I.

Some of these girls also read Flowers in the Attic, which I..."

Too funny, Oscar! When I was a teen, I read Little Women, Little Men, and all of the V.C. Andrews I could get my hands on... I was fascinated, hooked by Flowers in the Attic, which I read on my living room with Dio's "The Last in Line" cranking through my Sony Walkman headphones... don't know why this stands out for me, but it does. And no one gave me any funny looks except my mother. LOL!!

Just picked up a copy, though there are several books in line ahead of it. I may have to set one or two aside to get this done in the month.

Interesting timing for this Group read to pop up as I recently picked up this book and the others in the series at a thrift store.
I read these books when I was around 10 years old so when I saw them with the original covers I felt nostalgic and decided to get them. I also got My Sweet Audrina.
These books were probably not very suitable for a 10 year old but they were very popular back in the 80’s so I went through a VC Andrews phase.
I guess I may as well read it now since there’s a group read happening! I’ll start once I finish the book I’m currently reading.

I literally also just got the Dollanganger series and My Sweet Audrina on eBay!! I believe I was about 12 when I read these and also went through that VC Andrews phase. My mom had her Jackie Collins and I had my VC Andrews, lol.

Can't say I've ever had such a fun guilty pleasure as when I read all her early series. Plan to start the trip down memory lane this weekend, if life allows it.

I read all of hers as well! Has anyone read Heaven? I think I remember that one was about a family trying to fiddle with the girls memory to block out some tragic things that happened.

Hi Kandice,
I remember Heaven was the one about the Hillbilly girl named “Heaven”. The one you are thinking of is My Sweet Audrina which was one of the few standalone VC Andrews books not part of a series.
Hi Marlise,
I’m interested to see how these stories hold up after all these years! It’s always interesting to revisit books that I read when I was very young. I notice as I’m revisiting Stephen King’s work that when I find a copy with the original cover it really brings up a lot of other memories for me that have nothing to do with the book. I think there’s also been a remake of the movie adaptation of Flowers In The Attic so I may check that out too.

I read this a couple years ago, but for whatever reason it made much more of an impression on me this time around. I was really struck by Chris and what his experience must have been like. (view spoiler)[I can't imagine trying to raise the twins, and dealing with puberty, and having no one to talk to about it, and having to try to resist channeling his sex drive toward the only semi-appropriate partner. And from reading the summaries of the later books, it looks like he never quite got over Cathy and that relationship affected the path of his entire life. (hide spoiler)]

Ok. I finished it and am collecting my, um, thoughts, ha! I'll wait before I post more here.

And darn it, haha, I now want to read the next book!

Oscar wrote: "Ok. I finished it and am collecting my, um, thoughts, ha! I'll wait before I post more here.

And darn it, haha, I now want to read the next book!"

They are strangely addictive. My friends and I call this kind of book "book crack." You know it isn't good for you, or even written all that well, but then again it must be because you can't stop! Things like this, Twilight, the Fifty Shades books, all fall into the Book Crack category.

I'm up for some Book Crack.

I have a little more to go on Skeleton Crew and I'll start this one. Probably this weekend. Sounds really intriguing.

Love VC Andrews I haven’t read this series since I was maybe 12 years old. There’s new books also in this series I would like to read. This will bring back memories for me. Excited to reread this.

So, question. Do y'all think (view spoiler)[it was inevitable for Cathy and Chris to fall into a sexual/romantic relationship or do you think there are ways they could have prevented that? And do you think Cathy was purposefully ignoring the struggles Chris was having with his attraction to her or did she honestly not know how he was feeling (hide spoiler)]?

Summer wrote: "So, question. Do y'all think [spoilers removed]?"

I think she knew about the attraction but was disgusted at first and ignored it. I felt like throughout the series she was never truly attracted to her brother but was pushed into it by the other characters around her.

I think Chris's attraction could have been prevented if he were allowed to have a normal childhood.

Okay, just started this and am enjoying it so far. I'm doing the audiobook and really love the voice of the narrator. I'm totally new to the book and the story and all the ideas so we'll see how it goes.

Golly Lolly! I was surprised that I enjoyed reading this book again after all these years!
V.C. Andrews books get a lot of criticism, but they were very popular when I was a pre-teen. Looking back, I'm not sure if they were appropriate for that age group, but that's what we were all reading back then.
The critics can go on and on about the bad writing, but I have to say V.C. Andrews knew how to tell a good story. Even after all these years, I was easily drawn into the book and wanted to keep reading. It may not be considered literature, but who cares? It's still a good story and it was nice to revisit it after all these years.
Unfortunately, the movie adaptations were not very good. I just watched the 2014 remake and although Ellen Burstyn was great as the Grandmother, overall the movie was weak.

Elle wrote: "Golly Lolly! I was surprised that I enjoyed reading this book again after all these years!
V.C. Andrews books get a lot of criticism, but they were very popular when I was a pre-teen. Looking back..."

I'm listening to Mena Suvari read the audio book and she does a great job. A good reading can sometimes cover up bad writing, but the writing seems first rate to me. There may be a few overly dramatic outbursts by the twins, and melodramatic nastiness by the grandma but so far so good. I think the mother is a very interesting very flawed character. As far as being inappropriate for the pre-teen age group... haven't gotten there yet.

Like I said guys, Book Crack! ;-)

Started this today. I did not read these when I was younger. I’m enjoying it so far. I’m listening to the audiobook as well.

Rosie_Posie_Reads wrote: "I think she knew about the attraction but was disgusted at first and ignored it. I felt like throughout the series she was never tr..."

Great point, and I think you're right. I watched both the movies after finishing up the book and they were quite different. The first movie filmed but didn't include the entire incest plotline and the second one handled the relationship in more of a romantic than forced way. I'm not quite sure what I think of all that, but it's interesting to see the different things people chose to highlight.

Elle wrote: "Golly Lolly! I was surprised that I enjoyed reading this book again after all these years!
V.C. Andrews books get a lot of criticism, but they were very popular when I was a pre-teen. Looking back..."

this is my first time reading any of these. i love them! i was pulled in right away and haven't lost interest. i don't think i've seen any of the movies from start to finish.
i'm around 60%, Mama just showed back up after being gone for months. i think she was on her honeymoon.

I watched the 1987 movie. Well... I won’t say I liked it. I think they left out too much. I didn’t care about the characters in the movie.

In nearing the end and momma is a cold hearted bitch. I wanted to cry.

Linda wrote: "In nearing the end and momma is a cold hearted bitch. I wanted to cry."

I'm way behind but I could have told you that half way through... or earlier.

I'm about 100 pages in. I enjoy her writing, personally. I think V.C. Andrew's writing had a certain feel and style to it, which was her own. I actually wrote stories in my preteens and tried to emulate her. I wish I'd kept them. I was seriously a bit upset that they continued publishing in her name with a ghost writer after she died. It felt like a betrayal of sorts to me.

I think that the stress of what the children were enduring was what pushed the two eldest over the edge (view spoiler)[to the point where they crossed that line. And once it was crossed, well that was it (hide spoiler)].

I really encourage anyone who is reading this for the first time and loves it, to continue the series. If anyone is up for it maybe we could do a buddy read of Book 2 Petals on the Wind next month?

Linda wrote: "In nearing the end and momma is a cold hearted bitch. I wanted to cry."

I'm so curious about her mother and the timeline of the decisions she made. (view spoiler)[At what point did she figure out the caveats in the will? When did she decide to poison the kids and holy hell, why did it take so long? Did Daddy's lawyer legit not notice she was buying a lot of kids' clothes and toys? And randomly, what was up with the swan bed? That was such a random detail that got a lot of airtime. (hide spoiler)]

I would love to read the buddy read discussion for Petals on the Wind, because from what Wikipedia says it sounds BONKERS.

I’d like to join that too.

Okay awesome! So we will start on February 1st!

Sounds good to me.

I wouldn't mind revisiting the series.

I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying this story! I'll continue with the group and read Petals on The Wind in February.
The paperbacks I recently picked up 2nd hand have the original cover art, but I seem to remember my original copies back in the day would open to reveal a larger creepy painting expanding on the snapshot that shows on the front cover. For example Flowers in the Attic showed Cathy in a cutout of the window and opened to show Christoper and the twins with her in the Attic. Does anyone remember this?

Elle, yes those are the ones I had as well!

I've created a separate topic under the Buddy Reads discussion folder for us for Petals on the Wind

I’m so excited to continue the series! I wish I could find those creepy covers now! I had the whole set once upon a time.

I remember that style of covers. The Mayfair Witch trilogy used them as well.

I also had those with the cutout on the front and the full painting on the inside. I loved that trend in the 80s and 90s. I wish they would start doing that again. The covers don't wear as well, but they are usually really beautiful.

King did it with Misery.

Okay. I just finished, and enjoyed and suffered through this one. Maybe the last person who should read this book is someone's grandfather. But wow, as a father of girls and grandfather of a little girl I wanted to seek out that mean SOB and put an end to him. Gramma too. I can see that for a teen girl, even in the most loving of families, this is still a microcosm of what it's like to be a teen, when you really can't trust anyone, and don't really know what your parents are up to or why they're away so much of the time.

Good news for me, I had a loving sister who made me sort of her heroic big brother figure, and that was a wonderful feeling. So, I could identify with Chris a little bit. We still feel that way about each other, BTW, even though we're now thousands of miles apart and only see each other every few years.

Anyway, special kudos for Mena Suvari who did a fabulous job reading the audiobook. As for reading Petals in the Wind... I'll have to see how long it takes me to recover from this experience before I can commit.

Finally put up my review of FLOWERS. Check it out.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just finished. I was surprised at how many details I remembered from reading this when I was younger. It's been maybe 20 years since the last time? I enjoyed it perhaps even more this time around.

Here's an interesting post I found with a letter from V.C. Andrews implying this story wasn't completely fictional...

http://www.completevca.com/bio_truest...

I just noticed that there are a bunch of “newer” books added to the original Flowers in the Attic series and I’m a little TOO excited about them. BUT first, I’m finishing The Stand.