Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
| Amazon Price | New from | Used from |
|
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — | — |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
| Paperback, Aug. 2 2005 | $14.54 | — | — |
|
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry" | $37.50 | $14.48 |
- Read with our free app
-
Audiobook
$0.00 - 12 Used from $17.26
- 10 Used from $14.48 4 New from $37.50
- 2 New from $57.81
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Popular Highlights in this book
It was the eyes. The secret of love was in the eyes, the way one person looked at another, the way eyes communicated and spoke when the lips never moved.Highlighted by 1,046 Kindle readers- If you don’t set your goals firmly in mind, and strive always to reach them, then you never do.Highlighted by 691 Kindle readers
- “Love doesn’t always come when you want it to. Sometimes it just happens, despite your will.”Highlighted by 390 Kindle readers
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Reviews with images
Submit a report
A few common reasons customers report reviews:
- Harassment, profanity
- Spam, advertisement, promotions
- Given in exchange for cash, discounts
When we get your report, we'll check if the review meets our Community guidelines. If it doesn't, we'll remove it.
Sorry, there was an error
Please try again later.
Top reviews from other countries
Jennie
Perhaps it's the fact that I read it again when I was much older . . .
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2015Verified Purchase
NZLisaM
‘We lived in the attic, Christopher, Cory, Carrie, and me.’
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020Verified Purchase
NZLisaM
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020
Corinne tells her children, Chris (14), Cathy (12), Cory and Carrie (5), that she needs a day or two to prepare her father to meet them. She informs them their Grandfather is dying, and that once she wins back his affections, she will inherit everything and they will be rich. But in the interim they must remain quiet and hidden, locked in a back bedroom on the second floor their Grandmother has prepared for them, with access to the attic via a staircase in the closet, to use as a playroom. But a day turns into a week, then a month, and then years pass. Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie have long ago stopped caring about the Grandfather and the money. All they want it their freedom.
First published in 1979, set in the late 1950’s, Flowers in the Attic, and it's three sequels, Petals on the Wind (1980), If There Be Thorns (1981), Seeds of Yesterday (1984), and the prequel, Garden of Shadows (1986) have been favourites of mine for over thirty years. Part horror, family saga and drama, forbidden romance, coming of age and gothic tale, Flowers in the Attic is the troubling story of love, loss, abuse, secrets, lies, and betrayal.
Cathy is the sole first-person narrator, and we experience every injustice and shocking revelation as she, along with her brothers and sister, do. As a pre-teen I found Cathy’s thoughts, hopes and dreams, teen angst, body image issues, and mood swings to be very relatable, and as an adult reader my heart ached for her and her siblings and their suffering, and I admired Cathy's strength of character, and her caring nature. Chris, Cory, and Carrie were just as compelling, all with their own unique personality traits, and I loved them all. The Grandmother and Corinne's behaviour and actions, particularly the latter’s selfishness and motivations, held a particular horrified fascination on this read through. How could any mother cast her children aside like this one did?
A prominent theme is the end of innocence. The consequences of being isolated and shut away drastically affect the children's physical, mental, emotional, and social development, as well as alter the course of their lives. Cathy and Chris are forced to grow up fast, taking on adult roles of surrogate parents and teachers to their younger siblings – sacrificing their own childhood to care for them. They do everything in their power to minimise the twins suffering, keeping them busy and entertained, making their tiny living space as comforting and homely as possible, and protect them from the worst of the horrors that surround them.
For Chris and Cathy, teenagers on the cusp of manhood and womanhood, experiencing puberty in close quarters, acting the part of mother and father, causes them to become dangerously close, and develop sexual feelings for one another. The combination of the dark shadow of their recently learned family history hanging over them, and their fanatically religious Grandmother constantly reminding them that they are wicked, spawned from the Devil, evil from the moment of conception, and that it's only a matter of time until they succumb to their sinful lust contributes to this. Bored, starved of love, education, peer-to-peer contact, and adolescent milestones, it made sense that they become drawn to one another in an inappropriate way. It did contain a certain amount of the ick factor, but to be honest I think it helped that I don't have any brothers, and my overwhelming emotion back then, and now, were sadness for both Cathy and Chris.
Flowers in the Attic had elements of dark fairy tale. Cathy, with her long flowing blonde hair, is reminiscent of Rapunzel or a princess, locked up in a dark tower. The Grandmother is cruel, strict, cold, and severe looking, and controls their behaviour and environment through corporal punishment deprivation, judgement, authority, and humiliation. The mere thought of her strikes fear in the children and she is the embodiment of the hag, the old woman, and the witch of fairytale lore. Their mother is beautiful, helpless, weak-willed, and spoiled, showering them with gifts, but the longer they are kept in the attic the less connected she feels to them. The children possess doll-like features, are collectively called the Dresden dolls, their surname is Dollanganger, and Cathy is a talented ballerina who envisions her future stage name as Catherine Doll. The imposing Foxworth Hall has all the gothic trappings – creepy, shadowy, gloomy, depressing, and cut off from civilisation.
In my opinion Flowers in the Attic remains a must read. If you’ve never read it then what are you waiting for? If, like me, you devoured it when you were young, then I'm telling you now it deserves a re-read. I’m undoubtedly bias, because I read it for the first time when I was eleven, and wasn't scarred for life, but I still think it is suitable for a YA audience, the POV is a young person after all, and my local library agrees with me, and has it shelved accordingly. I look forward to picking up Petals on the Wind later this year, when the 40th Anniversary edition is released.
Images in this review
miss K. Rogers
Years give you perspective!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2023Verified Purchase
Sweetestmoondust
An interesting story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2023Verified Purchase
Kindle Customer Paula
Emotional roller-coaster with attitude
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2023Verified Purchase
