Review - Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I read this...
Guess I was in a mood for something really disturbing...

So because there isn't much of a plot i'll give it to you, the book centers around 4 brothers and sisters – Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory. Carrie and Cory are twins. They all live a happy life with their parents. They are all blond and beautiful, but that all changes when their father is killed in a car crash. Their mother can't support the children, so she decides to pack them up and move in with her rich parents, that the children have never met before.

So they arrive at the mansion, and the children are informed that their grandfather does not know they exist yet, and they need to hide in a locked room until their mother can reveal the news to grandfather. She makes it sound like it will only be for a few days, but it goes on for ages. And only the grandmother knows they exist (she brings them food every morning, but calls them "devils spawn").

Time drags on and within the room, the children have access to the attic, where they can run and play and make noise. In an effort to keep the twins happy, Cathy and Chris begin to put up paper flower decorations as if trying to convince the twins it is not an attic but a beautiful garden.

The confinement in the attic continues on. The mother continues telling the children she needs just a little longer, and the time between her visits begins to stretch out.

What I thought of it:

Flowers in the attic was freakishly disturbing, but not that bad. There are tonnes of references to sex and sexuality, but their mostly a young girl’s dreams of romantic love and sexuality – so not that bad. It wasn't the writing that hooked me in, because the writing is terrible but the plot. The story grabbed from the start and I couldn't stop reading. I recommend it, overall it's probably worth reading.


View all my reviews