Saturday, February 21, 2009

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Title: Flowers in the Attic
Author: VC Andrews
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Reading Level: Adult, 16+
Publication Date: April 1993
Pages: 400
Amazon Page

Rating: B
Plot - 15/20
Characters - 15/20
Writing - 15/20
Originality - 19/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 8/10
Total: 82/100

Summary:
Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden.

Blond, beautiful, innocent little secrets, struggling to stay alive.

Flowers In the Attic

The four Dollanganger children had such perfect lives -- a beautiful mother, a doting father, a lovely home. Then Daddy was killed in a car accident, and Momma could no longer support the family. So she began writing letters to her parents, her millionaire parents, whom the children had never heard of before.

Momma tells the children all about their rich grandparents, and how Chris and Cathy and the twins will live like princes and princesses in their grandparents' fancy mansion. The children are only too delighted by the prospect. But there are a few things that Momma hasn't told them.

She hasn't told them that their grandmother considers them "devil's spawn" who should never have been born. She hasn't told them that she has to hide them from their grandfather if she wants to inherit his fortune. She hasn't told them that they are to be locked away in an abandoned wing of the house with only the dark, airless attic to play in. But, Momma promises, it's only for a few days....

Then the days stretch into months, and the months into years. Desperately isolated, terrified of their grandmother, and increasingly convinced that their mother no longer cares about them, Chris and Cathy become all things to the twins and to each other. They cling to their love as their only hope, their only strength -- a love that is almost stronger than death.

Review:
I don't really know . . . This book was so . . . out there. How can I possible give it a review?

I won't. I think I'll just list a few things.
  1. The writing was average, not good, not bad. I don't really know. It was interesting. I can't really describe my feelings on it.
  2. The characters really weren't that well developed. I thought they were really, just . . . ugh. I just, I just don't know about this novel.
  3. I like it, I really did. It's just, weird.
  4. I sometimes felt uncomfortable reading this novel, especially reading it during school if you get my gist. Some of it was disgusting, some demented, and some gross.
  5. It was completely unrealistic. Well, I'd like to believe that there aren't people with these sick psychotic minds out there. (Yeah, you Carol.)
  6. But, oddly, there's just this sense of . . . I don't know. I can't think of the right word. I'll let you finish that sentence.
  7. With all that said, I also read the plot summaries, and you will never, never, see me reading the rest of the series. Ugh.
So there you have it. Not much, but it was hard. I read this almost a month ago to let me think about it and I still am unsure about it as I was the night I finished it. Oh, and sorry for the millions of 'I don't know' in the list.

6 comments:

  1. This book was so bad but so good at the same time. xDD

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  2. Hahaha well the rest of the series isn't that hot, except for the prequel (Garden of Shadows) which I love love love. The books are pure, unapologetic trash, in that they're meant to be devoured and not necessarily judged for good characters or realism. That's why when I write about them I don't do it in a reviewer format. This series (and maybe just FITA itself) is the heaviest it gets in VCA-ville. The other series try for melodrama and crazy surprises, but they really only succeed in camp and unintentional hilarity (and a lot of eye rolls). In that sense you'll probably enjoy one of the other series better.

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  3. Haha, I don't have a psychotic mind! Yan does though. :D

    ReplyDelete

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