Flowers in the Attic

A horror of all horrors in V.C. Andrews’ book, Flowers in the Attic.  Imagine the most perfect family of all, four children, the last two being born twins.  Great looking family, successful Dad and a homemaker Mom who adore each other.  On the night of Dad’s birthday party the police arrive with the news that the Father has died in an automobile accident, and then the real nightmare begins.  The mother continues to live life extravagantly, but eventually needs to leave their home and go back to her roots, the multi-millionaire family who disowned her, why?  Because she had married her father’s step-brother!  What happens next is one of the most bizarre twisted tales I have ever read, truly!  Mother (Corrine) brings the four kids to her parent’s mansion, in the hopes that the mother can persuade her father to place her back in the will, to inherit all of the money she could possibly need to take care of her children (including Cathy and Christopher), but one catch, she needs to hide the fact that her marriage produced four children.    Only Corrine’s mother, the nasty “witch” grandmother, knows of the sinful ways and the children whom she refers to as “coming from the devil.”  And so Corrine hides the children in the attic of the mansion as she tries to persuade her dying father to make her the sole heir of his fortune.  The story continues with the four children locked in the attic and the potential for more inappropriate sexual relationships to occur between the two older children.  Grandmother keeps close eyes on the children and of course, history will repeat itself.  The sins of our fathers repeat in our children. Wow… there is a lot in this one, and most of it is bizarre, twisted, and unexpected.  I found the story pretty hard to comprehend and pretty disturbing, though did keep me, the reader, engaged throughout.  Hard to see this as a favorite book, but hey, we all like different “thrillers” huh?  The concept and storyline were ok, but not a top ten for me, for sure.   Those who like psychological thrillers, this one just might be for you.  Oh yeah. Learned there is a prequel and a follow-up to the middle book.  I’d say, take a pass, there is a movie version of it from what I am told.