OMG, the book "Flowers in the Attic" is going to be 30 years old this year

[LynneSin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_in_the_Attic

I remember when the book first came out and everyone in my school would read it. I continued to read all the VC Andrew books well into my 30s (the quality of the books went downhill after the death of VC Andrews).

[Aristus]

1. I only read the "Flowers" books because my sisters was fascinated by them.

V.C. Andrews was a mediocre writer, at best. Her prose was far too ornate, gothic and melodramatic for me. But there were times when it was effective. Her languid, dreamlike narrative was haunting, in every sense of the word.

Andrews belongs in the same category as Edgar Rice Burroughs. That of a bad writer with some good story-telling instincts.

[LynneSin]

3. The stuff actually written by her was pretty decent

She did 4 out of 5 of the Dollanger Series (the Flowers in the Attic group) and the first 2 or 3 of the Casteel family.

After that the books became too predictable: Young girl comes from poverty to find out she has some connection to an extremely wealthy family and along the way may or may not have had a crush on a family member - either someone she knew to be family or someone she discovered was family after she discovered her wealthy relatives.

First book is usually about her life in poverty, she's a good girl dispite her background including some trashy relatives, she dates someone outside of of her class-level and somehow that person connects her to her extremely wealthy relatives.

Second book is when she is connected to her real relatives where she discovers life is not that much greener on the otherside, she can't date her first crush since she is related to him and somehow she develops a crush on someone she once thought was her brother but turns out he was never related to her. Usually she overcomes some great obstacle to escape from one of her horrid relatives that has done all they can to get rid of our heroine.

Third Book is when the heroine hits college or life after school. Usually she marries her first crush (if he is not related) or someone she thought was her brother. Someone from her past comes back to make her life miserable and of course she has a child, probably out of wedlock.

Forth Book someone happens to our heroine that she is killed very early in the book and that story now becomes that of her daughter, who faces some tragedies from the family members who are taking care of her.

Fifth Book is always the prequel. There we find out what happened to this fucked up convuleted family before we hit the timeline of the first book. We find out the grandmother was mean because she was told she wasn't pretty enough, smart enough and dog-gone it people probably won't like her.

[XemaSab]

5. You forgot the part where she gets raped

and the part where even though she's pretty and talented, she is somehow treated as an outcast by the dumpy assholes around her.

[LynneSin]

6. Forgot about that

First herione was a star ballarina
Second one wanted to be a teacher
3rd one could sing
4th one was an artist
5th one was a 'fiddler'

after that I don't remember.

[MountainLaurel]

8. I always wondered what happened to Andrews

That she always wrote such seriously fucked up books. Did she marry someone she later discovered to be her brother, or what?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. My mom wouldn't let me read those books. In English class, I got assigned to read

Joyce Carol Oates by the teacher who assumed I read V.C. Andrews like everyone else and would enjoy those books as well. (Which I really didn't. Too freaky for me.)

[applegrove]

4. I didn't really like the book. My cousin lent it too me.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

7. I read the first three

Loved them.

[proteus_lives]

9. I love that book, so creepy.

The movie isn't half-bad either.