Raise your hand if you read the V.C. Andrews Dollanganger series as a teen… Yep, me too. Although I am a little shocked that I did seeing that if it is racy in 2014 it must have been highly controversial in 1989. I assume my parents let me read it since I didn’t do anything that wasn’t explicitly allowed (seriously!). I think this series was probably the equivalent of Hunger Games for us gals raised in the ‘80’s.
If you aren’t familiar with the series, here’s what Goodreads has to say about the first book – Flowers in the Attic:
Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror! It wasn’t that she didn’t love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake–a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father. So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic. Just for a little while. But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work–children who–one by one–must be destroyed….’Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent. Struggling to stay alive….”
Petals on the Wind picks up the story directly after their escape from the attic without one of their siblings who has died. If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday continue to tell their story, but the focus shifts to Cathy’s children Jory and Bart after a mysterious woman and her butler move in next door and start inviting Bart over, turning him into a monster. Garden of Shadows is a prequel that tells the story of the grandparents, Olivia and Malcolm Foxworth. And the children’s parents, Corrienne Foxworth, and Christopher Foxworth Dollanganger.
Anyhoo, I haven’t thought about those illicit and tawdry books in what seems like a lifetime, until I came across the made-for-tv movies on Lifetime Monday night. I was completely enraptured. Like… brushed my teeth sitting on my bed kind of couldn’t look away kind of hooked. Honey, who had never even heard of the books, just kept shaking his head and asking WHAT I was watching. He didn’t get even an iota into them.
I almost never read something twice, but I am strongly considering picking these up for the summer. And maybe I’ll be able to eat burgers and fries and flit around in a tiny bikini all summer like when I was thirteen too. :-)
xoxo
Oh this post brings back memories! And yes, I really wonder if my parents had a clue as to what the books were about!!! Had no idea they were made in to made for tv movies. Would be fun to read them again.
I was allowed to read them also. I don't think I could pick these up again. To disturbing. It's difficult for me to read anything about child suffering or crazy mothers, now that I am a mother
I do agree!!!
I read them, too, and I am not honestly sure that I knew at the time what all was really happening in those books until I, too, read about them just recently in conjunction with the movie coming out. I'm not so sure I could reread them, now. Keep us posted if you do!
I've never even heard of them – I'll have to check them out!
I was disturbed when I read them in the 80s and knew that my parents had to have no idea what they were about! But, the commercials on Lifetime right now for the shows are even insane to me. They are so racy! I have turned into a prude! Can't Lifetime just play Golden Girls all day long instead?
Soooooop disturbing, yet I read every. single. one. It's like a train wreck! I'm sure my mother had no clue what they were about! Thanks for the stroll down 80's fiction lane:)
After seeing the movie earlier this year, I reread the whole series. It was so fun and trashy. Such a break from reality and made me feel like the best mama ever compared to Corrine. You should totally read again.
I was hooked too when I saw it on lifetime! I hadn't thought about those books in forever!
Oh, girl….I was all about some Cathy, Cory, Julian, and Bart! As a mom, I am horrified that I read them when I was in seventh grade though! I watched the movie when it came out on Lifetime this winter and must admit that I couldn't wait for Petals on the Wind!
Natalie
Oh- I read those books when I was a very young Mom! They were fascinating and just a bit "shocking" to me back then. I didn't know they were on TV! Seriously? They made them into a movie after all these years? OMGosh- that must have been somthing to see. x0 Diana
LOVE them! Watched "Petals" yesterday but missed the end so dang it, guess I'll just have to catch a repeat! ;0)
Well! I had no idea just what those books were about! But now I want to watch the movies on Lifetime too!
Glad those books didnt warp you!
Love,Marme