Book Review: Flowers in the Attic

“We lived in the attic,

Christopher, Cory, Carrie, and me.  

Now there are only three.” 

― V.C. Andrews, 

Flowers in the Attic

Information:  Written by V.C. Andrews (Virgina Andrews). Published in 1979, with 340-400 pages (depending on the edition) and split into two parts. 

In part 1 we have a prologue and 12 chapters with the verse (only the first two lines are used):

What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator.
    Does a clay pot argue with its maker?
Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying,
    ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’
Does the pot exclaim,
    ‘How clumsy can you be?’  

Isaiah 45:9

In part 2 we have 10 chapters with the verse (again, only the first two lines are used):

Until the day breaks
    and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved,
    and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
    on the rugged hills.  

Song of Solomon 2:17

Synopsis:  

Chris, Cathy, Carrie and Cory are the four children of Corrine and Christopher Dollanganger.  They have a happy American life; a father who travels and brings home gifts for the family, a dutiful and beautiful stay-at-home mother. All in a fairly nice home and neighborhood.  Chris is lovingly called the future doctor (the brains of the family), Cathy wants to be a dancer, and Carrie and Cory are three and a half year old twins who just like to play.

When their father dies and their mother has to sell everything to pay their debts, it seems like the end of the world.  But mother has been sending letters to her parents – grandparents the kids didn’t know about – and tells the children that they will be moving to live there.  However, the mother was written out of her dying father’s will.  She must win back his love to get the money to shower her children with a lifetime of happiness.  The catch?  The grandfather doesn’t know he has grandchildren.  The mother decides to hide them in a room (connected to the attic, hence the title) until A) she wins over his love and gets back in the will or B) the grandfather dies.

The room the children sleep in has a closet which also holds the stairs to the attic, Chris (14 years old), Cathy (twelve), and the twins (3.5) wait for mother.  But the mother’s visits become fewer until she stops visiting them completely.

“Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden.  Blond, beautiful, innocent, struggling to stay alive….” – V.C. Andrews (her synopsis of Flowers in the Attic)

Pros:

V. C. Andrews wrote Flowers in the Attic in 1979, and the story takes place in the mid to late 1950s (Wikipedia say 1957 but I didn’t see that anywhere in the book).  So you see this “American Dream” idea play out with the stay-at-home mom, who is beautiful and the hard working, handsome, dad.  The children are bright and obedient and everything seems perfect.  Until the father dies and life becomes more realistic.

It becomes a type of horror in which we meet a religious fanatic grandmother who believes the children are “the devil’s issue” and has a willow switch (whip) to threaten them with punishment.  The children are locked up in a room, cut off from other children, sunlight and schooling.  Cathy thinks they should forget waiting for the grandfather to die and try to escape but Chris believes in his mother and trusts her.

This book is a tale of horror, of being locked in a room with only an attic to play in and make paper flowers to make it look like a garden.  It’s told through the point of view of Cathy and is truly a story of survival.  You keep turning the page wondering if mother is going to visit, if grandmother will catch them doing something “sinful” or if the maids will catch the children hiding in the room when the go upstairs to clean the unlocked rooms.

Chris and Cathy become like parents to the twins and even try to be their teachers.  It’s heartfelt how much they take care of each other and the love they have.  Cathy is there for the twins every day and even lets them call her momma from time to time.  And the first time the mother comes to visit –after a long period of not visiting – they act as if they don’t know her and hide behind Cathy.  It’s a scene that is both tender and sad, to see a sister being a better mother than the real one.

Cons:

Purple prose is everywhere (which is ironic given the title.  And for those who don’t know, purple prose is flowery writing: i.e. the yellow sun glowed like an orange in summer after the rain).  I had to skip some parts because that’s all there was.  There’s also an irritating problem with Cathy and her expressions “good golly” or “golly lolly”.  If I had a drink for every time she said it, I would be drunk before part two.  Yeah, the book is in two parts.  Part one is about the first year, and the second jumps so it’s been like two and a half years.  Wow, Andrews, you took a big jump; however that is less of a con and more of a fact.

So you need to know that Cathy was twelve and Chris was fourteen when they entered the attic.  By part two they are fourteen and seventeen.  Hello puberty.  If you think living with your siblings (if you have any) was painful during that time, try sharing a room, an attic, and one bathroom with them.  And that’s it.  You may be able to guess the issue here, but I’ll spell it out.  Some incestuous stuff goes down.  If you’re not into it you may want to skip this book.

Aside from the purple prose and incestuous relationships, there’s also the issue of Electra/Oedipus complexes.  What’s that?  Electra complex is when a girl sees her father as the most wonderful, beautiful, idealistic man, lover and husband in the world.  And she wants to have a man just like him (or as Freud would say, have sex with her father).  Same goes for an Oedipus complex for Chris.  He loves his mother sooo much, calling her his “goddess” and forgiving her for not visiting them as often as she used to. He wants to marry a woman like her.   Ultimately, he becomes angry with his mother when he learns she’s remarried and takes his frustrations out on Cathy. 

By the way, you get over dramatic (soap opera like) episodes between characters.  Because of this, Flowers in the Attic (or anything by V.C. Andrews) could be defined as a trashy soap opera that just gets ridiculous as it goes on.

Final verdict:

I read this book in less than a week.  I found this book when I watched the 1980s movie one day.  I saw that it was based on a book and decided to get it from the library.  Long story short, I had a few problems (see cons) but by the end of the book I was on the edge of tears.  I think V.C. Andrews could have developed the characters more, but for the underlining psychological issues I think it was perfect.  Flowers in the Attic is placed in fiction, but it is confusing as to what genre.  Horror tends to be the number one, but I feel that Gothic (a combination of horror and romance, or horromance) is more accurate.  The imagery of the location (an attic and small room in a mansion in the country) and the characters are both aesthetic and obscene. 

Final verdict?  Trashy novel or not, I think you should read it (unless the incest bothers you). Obviously it didn’t bother me and I look forward to reading more by V.C. Andrews.