Flowers in the attic is a fictionised version of a true story. Real children who struggled to survive under the most unendurable circumstances. Basically a horror story!
A young wife, Corrine, is suddenly widowed, and left with four children. She is totally unskilled for any type of work, and deeply in dept. Her home and all she and her family has is repossessed. However...... she has one solace. She is the sole heir to a tremendous fortune, if she can decieve her dying father, and never let him know she is the mother of four children whom he would inevitably despise.
And so the four children are imprisioned in the upstairs room of a huge mansion, with the attic as thier playground. The two older children are christopher aged 12 and cathy aged 10. The younger two are twins aged 5 when the go to live upstairs. Without sunlight cory and carrie cannot grow proplerly. And as the months pass, thier lives become an endurance test to outlive the grandfather who stays dying on the first floor. But the months turn into years and still the old grandfather lives on. Thier mother whom they adore remarries and gradually forgets about her children so with a great deal of nobility, cathy and chris become parents to thier brother and sister, they struggle to keep themselves sane, decent and honourable, but they are tested time and time again as they reach adolescence.
When the children agreed to go upstairs and be as quite as mice, they were under the impression that it would be for a short period of time and it would be a game, an adventure. But the reality creeped in as time went on. thier grandfather may live for many years, thier granmother hated them more than thier grandfather, thier mother cared more for money than for her children, and they were never going to leave the attic, alive.
And so when death comes to the attic and takes little cory, they make a pact to escape thier prison.
I was unable to put this book down. It is a thriller, tear jerker, horror story and it is laced with incest, murder and passions all rolled into one fabulous book. This is the first book in the dollanganger series and the beginning of a unforgettable saga.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Harsh insight into selfish, selfless, obsessive & paranoid behaviour; affects and effects. Disadvantages: Interesting story, dreadfully written. Sorry! Monotonously repetitive, packed with cliches - not my 'cup-of-tea' at all.
Advantages: Continuing the monumental Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind is a formidable sequel that is definitely worth picking up and reading through the night! Disadvantages: Cathy's strange ability to ruin everyone who loves her. You may well get annoyed with her!
Advantages: You won't be able to stop reading, gripping, great plot, beautiful imagery. Disadvantages: You won't be able to stop reading, could find Cathy's decisions a bit frustrating at times.
Advantages: A horrwing yet compelling read, almost as good as the first book in the series Disadvantages: Some parts of the story didn't flow well, can be upsetting
very helpful by (90%):
helpful by (10%):
