Flowers In The Attic – Virginia Andrews

READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Suzy

Four siblings are locked in an attic in the childhood home of their mother after the death of their father. The children are told they will only have to remain there until their estranged grandfather forgives his daughter for running away to marry their father. He is ailing and she tells the children when he dies he will leave his sprawling estate to her.

However, years pass and the children begin to doubt their mother’s story and  begin searching for a way to escape. The older two, Cathy and Chris take on the role of parents to the younger twins. However this role playing takes a sinister turn and Flowers in the Attic becomes a dark story of greed, incest and abuse.

“I love you,” was his reply. “I make myself keep on loving you, despite what you do. I’ve got to love you. We all have to love you, and believe in you, and think you are looking out for our best interests. But look at us, Momma, and really see us.”

❖ “I can’t believe I put everyone through reading this book.  LADIES, I APOLOGISE. I chose it for bookclub as a throwback to high school where we all loved it. Re-reading it as an adult I can only say this book is really quite horrible. There are three other books that follow on from it, and having read the synopsis of those I can assure people that things don’t get better. We were so starved as teenagers for information about sex that we coveted a book about incest and abuse?? Bloody hell.” – Suzy

❖ “I read this as a teenager and thought it was great. But re-reading at this stage of my life, I struggle to think how anyone could stomach this story. It is a horrific tale of abuse. Yes sure there have been other stories of abuse that are still good reads, but I feel like this book had a reputation as a romantic, forbidden love type tale rather than a redemptive story about surviving abuse. This narrative seems to relish the fact the brother was forcing himself on his sister. Ugh. Disgusting. But also I read to the very end and then googled the plot for the sequel! (hoping to find they were all living a normal life but no there is just more abuse and incest.) It does make me wonder what is it with this book that has been so grotesquely appealing over the years.” – Rachel

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Published 1979
Simon & Schuster
400 pages