Flowers in the Attic is a macabre but brilliantly written novel. It follows the life of the beautiful Dollanganger family. When Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie’s father dies unexpectedly, life as they knew it takes a venomous twist and they find themselves close to the brink of insanity - and death. The four children are led by their seemingly kind and loving mother to the mansion of her parents, who are evidently very wealthy. Upon arrival, the innocent children are forced into brutal conditions, being restricted to the claustrophobic attic, with only the malicious grandmother as communication to the outer world. The children naively believe their mother’s promises that they will soon be let out of the attic, after she reconciles with her father who disowned her years ago for marrying her half-uncle (of similar age to her). However as days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, the children are forced to come to terms with the horrifying reality that they might never be let out of the attic after all, unless they do something about the situation they are stuck in.

Flowers in the Attic in my opinion is a rather traumatic story about family betrayal and also touches on the controversial topics of incest and child abuse. The children are deceived by the person who should care about them the most - their mother. Whilst they are stuck in an attic, and their health slowly deteriorates, she is out in the sun playing tennis and eating caviar with the rich and the famous.

I really enjoyed the book though as it is a dark and compelling read with a powerful ending that leaves you thinking about the book, even after the last page. When I read the book I experienced many different emotions: at times I was laughing, conversely at other times I was angered or sad. I think it is rare to bring so many emotions into one book so this is a positive aspect of the novel. It is told from the perspective of Cathy, the second oldest child. First person makes the story more exciting and easier to relate to as well as gripping since we get to dwell inside Cathy’s mind and understand her as a person rather than just a character on the page!

I also like this book because one message that repeats itself throughout the story is that money can not buy you anything, for although the mother buys many toys and clothes for her four children, and despite the fact that they enjoy their gifts for some time, after a while, they begin to tire of material gains and realise that what they really need, they don’t have - love and care from their heartless mother.

I wouldn’t class Flowers in the Attic as of the horror genre but it is certainly a dark and rather twisted read! I guess one negative aspect of the book is that the plot seems to be quite unrealistic and there are some loose strings left untied at the end of the book but I think that this leaves space for the reader’s own interpretation. I would recommend it to anyone aged thirteen and above as some of the ideas in the book are a bit complex but it is an excellent book for many people: romance-lovers, horror or thriller fanatics, or just people who fancy a change from cheesy story lines and want to opt for a reading book with a more interesting - and controversial - plot.

Flowers in the Attic is the first book in the Dollanganger Series, the sequel being Petals on the Wind.

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