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Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic

GothicHorror
Pages
508
Published
1979
Language
English

Synopsis

The four Dollanganger children — Cathy, Christopher, and the twins Cory and Carrie — grow up in a picture-perfect, loving home, until their father's sudden death leaves the family destitute. Their mother, Corrine, has a plan: return to her estranged, fabulously wealthy parents' Virginia mansion, win back her dying father's fortune, and give her children the life they deserve. There is only one condition. The old man must never learn that the children exist.

So the children are hidden away in a locked upstairs room, with access only to a dusty attic, promised it will be for just a few days. Days become weeks, weeks become years. Their mother's visits grow rarer and colder, their fanatically religious grandmother crueler, and the older siblings, Cathy and Chris, are left to raise the twins and protect one another in a shrinking, poisoned world — as the bond between them deepens into something forbidden.

A phenomenon on publication in 1979 and a fixture of teenage reading ever since, V. C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic is the first Dollanganger novel: a lurid, gothic tale of imprisonment, betrayal, and family monstrousness that has haunted and scandalized readers for decades.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

DarkTenseMelancholicGrittyAtmosphericCreepy
SurvivalBetrayalForbidden LoveComing of AgeFamily Saga

Genres

Gothic Horror Psychological Thriller Literary Fiction Drama Classics

About the author

V
V.C. Andrews

V. C. Andrews - vcandrewsbooks.com Cleo Virginia Andrews, better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist. She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Andrews died of breast cancer at the age of 63. Andrews' novels combine Gothic horror and family saga, revolving around family secrets and forbidden love, and sometimes include a rags-to-riches story.Wikipedia Born:Cleo Virginia Andrews, Jun 6, 1923, Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. Died:Dec 19, 1986, Virginia Beach, Vi...

Characters

Cathy DollangangerProtagonist

The narrator, a spirited girl who dreams of being a ballerina while imprisoned with her siblings.

Christopher Dollanganger Jr.Protagonist

Cathy's older brother, fourteen when the children are locked away. He keeps the four of them alive and studies to become a doctor like their father, and his bond with Cathy turns into the novel's central taboo.

Corrine FoxworthAntagonist
Cory DollangangerSupporting

The younger of the four-year-old Dollanganger twins, a quiet, musical child who never adjusts to life in the locked room.

Carrie DollangangerSupporting

Cory's twin sister, four years old when the children are hidden away, raised almost entirely by her older siblings in a single room.

All characters in Flowers in the Attic

Frequently asked questions

  • In what order should I read the Dollanganger series?

    Publication order is the usual recommendation: Flowers in the Attic (1979), Petals on the Wind (1980), If There Be Thorns (1981), Seeds of Yesterday (1984), and Garden of Shadows (1987). The last of those is a prequel telling the story of the grandparents, Olivia and Malcolm Foxworth, so it is best read after the four books whose events it explains rather than first.

  • Is Flowers in the Attic suitable for younger readers?

    It is catalogued here for an adult audience, despite the enormous teenage readership it has had since 1979. The novel turns on the prolonged confinement and abuse of children and includes incest, a non-consensual sexual encounter between the two older siblings, the death of a child by poisoning, and the death of a parent. Readers who use content warnings should check them before starting.

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