Flowers in the Attic Book Review
- naomilisashippen
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
Rereading this phenomenal bestseller 40 years on
It's hard to believe that it's 40 years since the breakaway bestselling novel by V.C. Andrews was as much a part of our lives as Princess Diana and the supermodel gang. It was impossible to walk through a supermarket or department store without the haunting covers of her spellbinding, gothic stories looking down on you.
I recently reread Flowers in the Attic, the first book in the generational saga, and it held as much fascination for me now as it did all those years ago. Read my review of this fascinating story, published in Story Lamp Reviews on Medium.
In the 1980s, Flowers in the Attic dominated the bestseller lists and was a ubiquitous presence in bookstores, supermarkets, and the bookshelves of women everywhere. Worn copies were passed hand to hand with scandalised whispers, and the promise of entering a world of gothic mystery, glittering wealth, and sexual taboo.
Flowers in the Attic is the story of the four Dollanganger children, who return to the ancestral home of their mother, following the death of their father. Dubbed the Dresden Dolls by their admiring and envious neighbours, the family had been known for their porcelain good looks and seemingly perfect lives, until a freak car accident took the life of their adored and devoted father.
Without the means to support her brood, devastated mother, Corrine, decides to mend fences with her estranged parents and throw herself on their mercy. Corrine had not seen them since her marriage to her late husband, and her children had been unaware of their existence.
Corrine breaks the news to her children that the family has been living beyond their means, and without a breadwinner at the helm, is going to lose their home and everything in it. She packs all four children up in the middle of the night, and without a word of goodbye to the community they were so much a part of, sets off on a moonlight flit that will change their lives forever.
This journey marks the end of the secure and happy life the children had known in their idyllic suburban neighbourhood, and the beginning of the strange and nightmarish existence that their lives would become. While the infant twins, Carrie and Cory, are too young to understand, their pre-pubescent brother and sister are expected to behave like mature and stoic adults and adapt to their new circumstances.
Still reeling from their father’s death, their mother springs the news on them that they are a part of an obscenely wealthy lineage, and that their real name is not Dollanganger, but Foxworth. When the elder children ask for explanations about why they have never had contact with their grandparents, or the reason for the change of surname, their mother becomes agitated and defensive and shuts their questions down. She promises them that they are going to enjoy a life of unimaginable wealth and privilege, there’s just one catch: they must hide their existence from their dying grandfather.
The children arrive at the imposing mansion of their grandparents under cover of night, only to be bundled up the stairs to the attic rooms of a disused wing. The children are to remain here, hidden from the outside world, until their mother can convince their grandfather to write her back into his will. He disinherited her many years ago for a transgression that she won’t reveal to her children. She convinces them that she was always his firm favourite, and it won’t take long to inveigle herself back into his good graces.
Their long-lost grandmother is there to greet them on arrival but is less than welcoming. She makes it clear she regards the children as a blight on humanity, though the source of her disdain towards the angelic, blonde-haired children is a mystery.
Like many puritanical people, Grandma is obsessed with sex. She sets down strict rules for the children, even the little ones, on the way they dress and relate to each other. She demands that the boys and girls have as little contact as possible, despite their enforced proximity, and makes veiled accusations about “evil” and “sin.”
“God sees everything,” is her constant refrain.
The grandmother’s worst fears eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As Chris and Cathy grow into adolescence, their natural curiosity and growing sexual awareness take hold, and without any other options available, they turn to each other. Shut in the attic for their formative years, they begin an intense and obsessive sexual relationship that lasts a lifetime, with the consequences affecting so many other lives around them.
Flowers in the Attic is the first book in the Dollanganger family saga, which plays out through the decades. V.C. Andrews creates a spellbinding world of secrets, obsession, and betrayal that unravels in a myriad of shocking and unexpected ways.
On rereading this novel, I can appreciate the beauty of V.C. Andrews’ prose, and the diversity of her characters. Their personalities, priorities, and world views differ so dramatically from one another that conflict and tension are inevitable.
While Cathy and Chris are the central characters, my main fascination lies with both mother Corrine and grandmother Olivia. Their cruelty and negligence towards the children are unfathomable, and their overriding self-interest flies in the face of societal expectations that women are nurturers above all else.
I listened to the audio version of Flowers in the Attic, wonderfully narrated by Mena Sauvari, and watched the Lifetime series on Binge. I look forward to reading the prequel to Flowers in the Attic, Garden of Shadows, but was disappointed I could not access the Lifetime series through my streaming services.
If you love gothic family sagas set in the American south, where outward gentility hides simmering atavistic desires, you’re going to love the Dollanganger series, starting with the Flowers in the Attic.
Published in Story Lamp Reviews on Medium.
Flowers in the Attic — The Beginning
The first book in the Flowers in the Attic Saga spans generations of a wealthy, mysterious family and the secrets they keep.
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The Flowers in the Attic Saga
(Boxed Set) Flowers in the Attic/Petals on the Wind; If There Be Thorns/Seeds of Yesterday; Garden of Shadows (Dollanganger)
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