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37 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible Debut; One of a Kind, September 26, 2001
By A Customer
Flowers in the Attic is about four children (Chris, Cathy, Cory, Carrie) who are locked away in their grandparent's northern room and attic to secure their mother's (Corrine) chance at inheriting her dying father's fortune. You see, her father's will states Corrine must not have had any children from her first marriage (which recently ended when Corrine's husband died in a car accident, leaving them penniless and heartbroken), or she would be disinherited. The reason for the grandfather's disdain of Corrine's marriage: Corrine had eloped with her half-uncle (who is actually not her half-uncle; read Garden of Shadows and you'll find out who he really is). Now, the grandparents are highly religious people and they believe any children that would result from that marriage would surely be deformed and evil. Therefore, Corrine creates a plan to hide her children "safely" away in her parent's enormous mansion (Foxworth Hall)--with the help of the grandmother--and sets out to win back her father's love and acceptance and, in short, his money.The book is told from the point of view of Cathy Dollanganger, who is probably one of my favorite heroines in all of V. C. Andrews' books. She is a strong, smart 12-year-old whose main focus is to become a world-famous ballerina. Her older brother Chris is more intellectual and eventually wants to become a doctor. They are tolerant, at first, of being kept in a room with no sun or friends, but the days soon begin to drag on and still no word of their grandfather's death. Yet they hold on for their mother and try to rationalize their sacrifice of freedom for those millions of dollars. Before long, the abuse starts: the grandmother's cruel punishments begin with whippings and escalates to starvation. The children have nobody to turn to since they've been alienated from the world and even their mother has grown more absent from their lives, too busy traveling all over Europe and flirting with a man who will eventually become her second husband. So, they turn to each other instead for solace, which soon becomes complicated when Chris and Cathy hit puberty and start experiencing unsettling yearnings for each other. This attraction is obvious to the grandmother and gives her more reason to punish the grandchildren she believes are the spawn of Satan. By the end of the book, one of the Dollanganger children dies from food poisoning and the remaining three promise to somehow escape Foxworth Hall. Also, the mystery of who poisoned the children's food is discovered--and it's not who you would immediately assume. Flowers in the Attic is V. C. Andrews' first and most popular book. It's also the first in the Dollanganger series; Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows follow. The book was later made into a movie in 1987 and starred Kristy Swanson, Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, and Jeb Stuart Adams. V. C. Andrews even had a small cameo as the window washer/maid. The movie isn't exactly like the book (which is true for most movie adaptations), but it's still one of my favorite movies. I strongly recommend anyone who read the book to see the movie, if not to at least say you have seen and read both. If you saw the movie without reading Flowers in the Attic, you'll probably like the book much better. There are more things that are revealed in the book that were excluded from the movie, like several intimate moments between Cathy and Chris, which weren't included for obvious reasons. Plus, the ending of the movie is very different from the book. It would have been nice if it had ended appropriately so a possible sequel could have been made. In short, I loved Flowers in the Attic and I would recommend it to anyone who can read. There are certain topics, such as incest and child abuse, which might be offensive to more sensitive readers, but for those that it doesn't offend: definitely find a copy of this book and read it.
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