Date Finished: 3/4/2013
Rated: Five out of Five
Format: Paperback
Series: Yes
Owned: Owned
I read this book a few years back after talking to my mum (who was reading another Virginia Andrews book at the time) that I was bored of reading all my book over and over again. She suggested Flowers in the Attic as she had already read them. I remember saying it didn't sound like something I would read but I gave it a go and found that I loved it.
The story is based around four children, Cathy, Chris, Carrie and Cory, who live through a tragic event of loosing their father at a young age (the twins, Carrie and Cory were only about four at the time) and because their mother who had no life skills (set in the 1950's where women were just starting to gain skills for themselves so woman born earlier tended to be housewives) wrote to her mother time and time again to see if the five of them could live with them (she had not seen her parents for fifteen years due to an argument that had lasted so long.) She explained to the children that her parents where insanely rich and lived in a huge house. Eventually she got a reply and the five of them had to leave as soon as possible. The children pondered over the fact of living in such a big, grand house and what they would do with the money once her mother had gained the fortune after being written back into to her fathers will.
Once at the big house the children soon found out that life in the house wouldn't be as simple as they thought it would be. They were to live in a single room with and ensuite bathroom with a staircase to and attic. Their mother and grandmother explained the rules and why they were to stay in this room until their grandfather died (he didn't know about the four children she had given birth to) Promises were made to the children that once she was written back not her fathers will, she would let them out.
Time went on and months turned into years and their mother came to visit them less frequently and we soon learnt that she had remarried. Their mother broke all her promises and soon a strange addition to their daily picnic basket of meals came, four doughnuts. They didn't think much of it until Cory became ill and had to be taken to hospital were another tragedy happened. It soon got to the point that the two eldest had to go steal money from their mother and new stepfather to escape and once they had then the world was theirs.
I enjoyed this book as I do time and time again and it is a book that I can read so many times and not get bored of it. The controversial taboo of incest ran throughout the book as their mother and father had been uncle and niece and then while locked in the room, Chris and Cathy began to have feelings for one another and things happened. Throughout the book I kept thinking how awful it must have been to be them four children and how desperate their mother must have been to gain her fathers fortune (turns out her father added a clause onto her part of the will claiming if it was found that she had children from her firs marriage or had children thereafter, then all the money and things purchased with the money would be taken from her, thus the poison on the doughnuts)
This book is the first of a series of four books which I have read and will be re-reading in the future. I give this book Five out of Five.
The story is based around four children, Cathy, Chris, Carrie and Cory, who live through a tragic event of loosing their father at a young age (the twins, Carrie and Cory were only about four at the time) and because their mother who had no life skills (set in the 1950's where women were just starting to gain skills for themselves so woman born earlier tended to be housewives) wrote to her mother time and time again to see if the five of them could live with them (she had not seen her parents for fifteen years due to an argument that had lasted so long.) She explained to the children that her parents where insanely rich and lived in a huge house. Eventually she got a reply and the five of them had to leave as soon as possible. The children pondered over the fact of living in such a big, grand house and what they would do with the money once her mother had gained the fortune after being written back into to her fathers will.
Once at the big house the children soon found out that life in the house wouldn't be as simple as they thought it would be. They were to live in a single room with and ensuite bathroom with a staircase to and attic. Their mother and grandmother explained the rules and why they were to stay in this room until their grandfather died (he didn't know about the four children she had given birth to) Promises were made to the children that once she was written back not her fathers will, she would let them out.
Time went on and months turned into years and their mother came to visit them less frequently and we soon learnt that she had remarried. Their mother broke all her promises and soon a strange addition to their daily picnic basket of meals came, four doughnuts. They didn't think much of it until Cory became ill and had to be taken to hospital were another tragedy happened. It soon got to the point that the two eldest had to go steal money from their mother and new stepfather to escape and once they had then the world was theirs.
I enjoyed this book as I do time and time again and it is a book that I can read so many times and not get bored of it. The controversial taboo of incest ran throughout the book as their mother and father had been uncle and niece and then while locked in the room, Chris and Cathy began to have feelings for one another and things happened. Throughout the book I kept thinking how awful it must have been to be them four children and how desperate their mother must have been to gain her fathers fortune (turns out her father added a clause onto her part of the will claiming if it was found that she had children from her firs marriage or had children thereafter, then all the money and things purchased with the money would be taken from her, thus the poison on the doughnuts)
This book is the first of a series of four books which I have read and will be re-reading in the future. I give this book Five out of Five.
