26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Horror Continues With..., April 23, 2005
Somehow, this book is even creepier than Flowers in the Attic. It's not as good, but it's a very entertaining read. After the abuse that the surviving Foxworth children suffered, readers will want to know if they can ever lead a normal life. It's a good examination of how a family might deal with the legacy of abuse if they've finally escaped from the perpetrators. Will they try to forgive and continue with their lives? Will they become obsessed with revenge? Or will they find themselves completely incapable of continuing with their lives because they were utterly emotionally destroyed?
Each of the children deals with the trauma in different ways. While Chris appears to have recovered the best, his obsession with his own sister is the most startling and enduring result of his isolation during the "Attic" years. He does not "give up" waiting for his sister to respond to him romantically. Predictably, Carrie, who never really had a chance to enjoy life on the "outside", and who lost her twin at such a young age, is the most drastically scarred of the children and her story is the saddest and most tragic. She remains emotionally and physically stunted.
For her, Cathy, and Chris, we remain riveted to the story and want to know what happens, because we suffered with them in "Flowers" and cried for little Cory. Now we want to know what happens to them even if a lot of the plot and secondary characters are boring and one-dimensional. I liked Henny,the warm nurse who cannot speak; even if one literary critic suggested the large black woman was reminiscent of "Aunt Jemima", I don't think that's fair. I think Andrews wrote her as a sensitive and intelligent woman, and including her gave us some respite from everyone in the story having "flaxen hair and cerulean eyes".
Much weaker characters are Paul, who we are supposed to like because he takes in Chris, Cathy, and Carrie, but it's hard to like someone because he took in a beautiful fifteen year old girl who was orphaned out of the goodness of his own heart. I'm sorry, but the affair between him and Cathy was somehow even worse than that between Chris and Cathy, and very exploitive. The abandoned Cathy's gratitude toward Paul for taking in her and her siblings is something she feels she must repay sexually and Paul is ok with that despite being more than twice her age, rewarding the teenager with negligees etc. I'm not sure if Andrews wants us to find this exploitive or if we're supposed to sympathize with Paul. Her Ballet life is also an unwelcome diversion as are Julian and his mother. You can't figure out why someone as strong as Cathy, and as willful, would waste time with the abusive Julian, whose arrogance is ridiculous.
The real center of the story, which make sense because she was the focal center of "Flowers" and the narrator of these two books, is Cathy's plans to resolve past injustices committed against her. She is mad with plans of revenge, which is understandable since Corrine, after what she did to Cory and then Carrie, is enjoying the life of luxury that was more important to her than her own children.
This is the most thrilling aspect of the story and what we're reading it for, and these are the best scenes of the book. Everyone who read "Flowers" will enjoy when Cathy has an opportunity to confront her grandmother and mother. The best scene in the book is undoubtedly when Cathy, who is in her late twenties (Corrine was in her mid-thirties when this happened) dresses exactly as her mother did for the Christmas ball and looks, not surprisingly considering the lack of diversity in the Foxworth gene pool, every bit the double of her mother several years earlier.
There are those at the party who saw Corrine years prior and immediately realize that something is terribly wrong when Cathy appears in that most dramatic scene, a great guilty pleasure. The ending is very haunting and sets the stage for the next book, suggesting the "legacy of evil" cannot be overcome.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rather disappointing..., August 25, 2003
"Flowers in the Attic" was my first step into this genre, and I found it one of the best books I've read. I looked to "Petals on the Wind" with great anticipation, but a short ways in, my enjoyment nearly flatlined.
Bad points of the story:
The story jumps around a bit too much, and what there is of the story seems to be too many people trying to get into Cathy's tutu. It seems half the time she's sobbing, a word used a bit too often throughout the book. And if she's not sobbing, someone is gripping her to them and telling her how exquisitely beautiful she is and that she belongs to him. Another annoying habit in the story is the placing of an exclamation mark behind Chris' name, as if Cathy is surprised her brother actually shows up. Chris himself doesn't seem to have much personality outside of studying and trying to convince his sister that his love for her isn't wrong, and if it is, oh well. Through some pieces of the story you have to wonder if Cathy left her brain in the attic. At one point I was so disappointed in Catherine, I really didn't want to finish the story, as she thought to herself "Life seemed to me nothing without a man." Lastly, I felt there was excess character killing, with eight deaths (that I counted) throughout the story.
Good points of the story:
Carrie gets some more attention in the story, but it's mostly bittersweet. The only real redeeming part of the story was settled in the last fifty or so pages, with an excellent revenge set loose on the mother and grandmother. Which almost makes the rest of the story worth reading.
In conclusion:
Between "I sobbed.", "You're beautiful. You belong to me!" and "Chris!", the author manages to create a mildly entertaining story. But if I had it to do over again, I would have stopped at "Flowers in the Attic" and let my prior image of Cathy's character be.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Winds of change rock the Dollanganger kids, August 11, 2005
Sequels are a tough nut to crack. Especially when the original source material is as revered as Flowers In The Attic. And yet, with Petals On The Wind, V.C. Andrews achieved the near-impossible. Despite the sequel being completely different from the work which came before, it retains the same spirit and tone.
Chris, Cathy and Carrie have finally escaped the horrors of the attic... and yet life will not be simple for them, as the attic has left a harsh impression upon them. Chris finds it impossible to move beyond the unholy love born in the attic. Cathy burns with a desire for revenge against those who took so much from her. And Carrie... well, let's just say the fates aren't kind to poor Carrie.
As with most of the early works by VC Andrews, the tone is most definitely gothic. The descriptions are lush and lavish, and lust often permiates the air... especially whenever nubile young Cathy, our narrator, begins speaking of her sensual exploits. To say that Cathy has a well-defined sense of self and sensuality would be an understatement, to be certain!
Perhaps the best reason to read Petals On The Wind is to finally know the answer to the age-old question any good book (aka Flowers In The Attic) leaves the reader asking: What happened next?
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