dollanganger series.

Flowers in the Attic is a 1979 novel by V.C. Andrews, and I am totally freaking out about it. Both my mother and grandmother read this first installment of the series years ago, and for some reason my grandmother decided to randomly begin the second book, Petals on the Wind, and when they were talking about it, I felt like I was missing out, so here we are.

Two beautiful blonde parents fell in love, got married, and had four beautiful blonde children. Their lives were pretty blissful; there was so much love and plenty to go around for everyone. Until the unthinkable happened. Chris, the father, got into a horrific car accident and died, leaving behind his extremely unprepared wife, Corrine, adolescents Christopher and Cathy and four-year-old twins Carrie and Cory. They had a lot of debt, so Corrine was forced to contact her parents who lived in Virginia whom she had a major falling out with when she married Chris. When she finally heard back from her mother, she told the children that their lives were going to change for the better under the current circumstances. For her parents were filthy rich and lived in a huge house. And Corrine had every intention of winning back her ill father’s affections so that she could inherit everything. So that THEY could inherit everything. The children believed in their mother, they trusted her to make the right decision, and off they went. Things started getting stranger and stranger as Cathy narrated their journey to Virginia, and how they were ushered in the grand mansion in the middle of the night, given one room with a bathroom attached, where they were expected to stay, and not come out. Their mother assured them that everything would be fine, but the next morning their evil grandmother came in with a basket full of food, a long list of rules, and locking the door behind her, giving the four children the impression that they wouldn’t be leaving that small room, for a long, long time.

This novel is very much a psychological thriller, although the author did allude to some of the awfulness that came about, I never actually expected it to happen! I never dreamed that…okay wait; I’m going to stop talking now.