My dad gave me this book when i was a kid, and i stupidly assumed he had read it also. When i started asking him about the incest in this book he said, "The f
@@hannahleigh6152 Yo!!! He once got me a paperback of Lets go Play at the Adams with the cover ripped off. And he got me We have always lived in the castle because it had two girls on the cover.
@@luisacc88 Naw he just dropped off the books. He wasn't trying to hear about any of it. Later when we watched Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, The Boys and Shogun together he was suprised I knew the entire plot already.
IDK op, but I can imagine, drawing from my own experiences, empathizing with a character's tragic story, and wanting to honor the character's will to go on. I can think of many characters that affected me like that, Dolores Haze (Lolita) for instance, whom I always wanted to save and give back independence and agency. Maybe your mother related to those characters, and they help bond her to you and give her strength to be the mother you need 🤷🏼♀️
Corrine is the true villain of that story, not Olivia. Yeah, Olivia was horrific, but she was always that way. Corrine was their mother and she tossed them aside for her own comfort and luxury.
Reading the other stories yeah the grandmother had reasons for being harsh/crazy but the mother had no reason to treat her kids like that other than greed.
Exactly, I was completely blindsided. When finding out at the end of the story that it was Corrine’s idea to give them the powdered donuts. I remember reading it again to make sure that I had read it correctly. It sends chills down to my bone to this day. And I read it back when I was nine years old.
@@jenniferwellman5311 As many times as I’ve read the books, I still get shocked when that info is revealed. I’m a mom and grandma, and I cannot imagine EVER doing such things to my babies or anyone else’s.
The genre of this book is gothic horror, and the story is horrific. When people hear "horror" today, they think about jump scares, gore, a killer on the loose, bogyman out to get them. They don't think about the softer side of horror that seeps into your mind with each new page, as things you first thought were almost normal begin to be terrifying the more you think about it. That itch on the back of your neck because you know somewhere deep down what you're reading isn't entertainment and yet you keep turning each page. Due to what "horror" tends to mean in today's media, as in something that is upfront scary, if you tell someone who has never heard of or read these books "This is a horror book" and they start reading it, they are likely to be very confused.
@@luulusoul Though I do agree, but was it called gothic horror before "psychological thriller"? It seems like that new label is totally squashing the old one. (At least in movies moreso than literature, for instance Hereditary and The Babadook could skirt gothic horror if the aspect of possession weren't brought into either story.)
@bersabrie im honestly not sure. In the case of flowers in the Attic though, while definitely psychological I would hesitate to call it a thriller. Psychological horror maybe?
This book connected HARD with very late Boomers/very early GenX’ers when it first came out. One reason is because the horrors the Dollangangers experienced were super-exaggerated versions of actual traumas that real-life kids were going through, and which society wouldn’t let them talk about. Parental verbal abuse (you weren’t abused if you weren’t being beaten!), religious abuse, sexual abuse within families, and gaslighting of kids by adults were rampant. These books served as a primal scream for traumatized kids who didn’t realize how traumatized they were. (And we’ll get to another form of trauma in Book 2 - grooming and molesting of tweens/young teens by grown men).
Reading this actually hurt. It makes so much sense. Kids should be able to have access to darker media, even if just for the sense of catharsis, to work through traumas in a healthy way.
And back then even beating wasn't considered abuse. Unless you did serious visible damage, nobody cared. I think that's why so many of us back then did connect to it. The beatings and the starvation were familiar to me and it was really validating to read about it in a book
@@rosesleeps I disagree if it’s one this level. Not every child is abused and children shouldn’t be traumatized by this so that a smaller group of kids can have catharsis. There are healthier ways to help children than exposing them to something this intense too early. Age appropriate horror does and should exist.
I love that we all got exposed to Flowers in the Attic way too soon. I'm convinced everyone finds it secondhand in middle school, like some weird thing that beckons to you until you pick it up. It is beyond your understanding but it pulls you in anyway. I got many V.C. Andrews books from my second cousin before her family moved. She did not want to deal with packing and lugging them. Flowers in the Attic got picked up by me first. I was probably 11. It definitely has some staying power in your brain, too. I think of it every time I eat a powdered donut now.
My mom gave it to me because she loved the series 🙈 I’m pretty sure she gave it to me when I was 10? Idk what that says about her or our relationship 😅
@@MaryLoveJane My grandmother was starting me on Stephen King books about then lol. I love when parents give their kids (nearly) unrestricted access to books, my drive to read probably would have been killed if my parents restricted what I was reading too much. I don't think they restricted it at all, honestly. Reading books a little too old for me never hurt me any. I am (mostly) okay. And the reasons I'm not okay are unrelated to the books I read as a pre-teen and teenager. To me it seems like your mom had something she loved and saw that maybe you'd love it too and you guys would be able to bond over it. I know that's what it was with my grandmother. And I think that's very sweet, even if the book of choice is a little screwed up
One of the most tragic scenes for me is when Chris and Cathy manage to get outside and go swimming before the escape. Like, they’re OUT they can GO, but the twins are still up there. And despite the physical similarities, Chris and Cathy are not their parents, they are not going to leave those babies behind. Reading about them climbing back up and into that house is always heartbreaking
@@vilwarin5635 it’s within the first year of being locked up, so long before the starving and malnourishment. Corrine told the kids about a pond the night they fled to Foxworth Hall and one night in summer Cathy and Chris scale down the mansion wall from the roof to go find it.
fun fact about VC Andrews: a ghostwriter continued to use her name after she died. It's disputed how much of the prequel for this series was actually written by her, and there's a weird spinoff series that has a book (with a ghostwriter still using her name) published as recently as 2020. Nothing says horror more than a dead author still "writing" books! I also read the original four books WAYYY too young, actually on recommendation of my mother who liked them lol.
I lost interest in VC Andrews books a long time ago. They got progressively worse after she passed away. They were just silly and didn't have the horror.
The ghost writer was hired to finish the Casteel Family series after VC Andrew’s passed away. The Dollanger series was all her and most of the Casteel series.
That is exactly when I started reading V. C. Andrews' books! In the 8th grade! I was turned onto them by a friend of mine even though I had seen the Flowers in the Attic movie many times as a child in the 80s. I was hooked and read every V. C. Andrews book after that throughout high school.
"To hear the twins cry for food put scars on my soul I would wear for the rest of my life." Those poor babies. The absolute nightmare of seeing your little brother and sister cry and beg for food. And knowing that right downstairs is a huge kitchen overflowing with all sorts of fine, healthy food. The unbearable mental torment of that. This is 100% a horror story. I've always thought that. I liked the sequels but they never get as horrific as the first book.
My abusive parent absolutely loved this book as I was growing up. I'm not sure if it was because they could tell themself they were such a good parent for being so much better, or because they got some vicarious enjoyment from the cruelty
Or it’s just an excellent gothic horror series that a large number of people love. It’s really not as deep as someone enjoying the suffering when that’s a staple of gothic horror and if it was about the suffering there’s a million other books to choose from that are far far worse
The real tragedy of FitA is Ms. Andrews herself. She was a bright popular teen suffered a crippling fall and botched surgery and had to leave school. Her mother was very protective and frankly ashamed of her disability and kept her hidden away, her house and porch became her whole world. Despite this, she completed a four year college course and was a successful illustrator before writing FitA. Her mother remained a controlling, yet loving and protective, force in her life throughout her success, and travelled with her on junkets. She was very proud of her. V.C. was an incredible woman. I enjoyed your video (my first!) and subscribed.
one detail i never forget is that she said she finished flowers in the attic in two weeks. TWO WEEKS!!!! as a writer, even in the moments i’m on a vyvanse-fueled tear, i could only dream of that kind of thing
I read somewhere that when she was in the hospital, she had a crush on one of the doctors and they were talking and he said he had spent some time with his siblings in the attic of a wealthy family member and she just went from there. The editors were the ones who told her to spice it up a little, so she added....that scene.
The amount of people that see two characters with romantic feelings for each other and immediately assume the story is a romance and they're supposed to root for them is baffling. Like, you know this is sick and wrong and instead of thinking "Maybe the author is trying depict something sick and wrong to provoke disgust in the audience." they somehow land on "The author is trying to convince their audience to not be disgusted by this sick and wrong thing!" It honestly scares me sometimes.
I read this in my late 20s and I think I wiped most of it from my memory involuntarily. I clicked on this video because I vaguely remembered reading it back when. I don't know how I did it either. I got them from the library so I won't be re-reading them. I don't plan on watching any of the subsequent videos, either, but it might happen anyway. Sigh.
at that age, it's just fiction. it's just a story on the page. it's not until you get a liile older and realize the realities of the world we live in that it starts to hit a little too close to home.
So, um, after I watched this video I found out that Flowers in the Attic had a 1987 adaptation. Where they crash the mom's wedding confront her in front of everybody, then Kathy proceeds to push her off a roof while trying to force her to eat the poisoned food. She is hanged by her own wedding dress. Also Chris Knocked the grandmother out while they're escaping. Just hits her over the head. I don't normally like when a movie deviates this much from The source material, but in this particular case I have to forgive them. It's like they finished the book and were like, no these people have to pay. XD
I saw "Flowers in the Attic" in the theater (I was about 15 or 16). I'd read the book years before that--along with the rest of the series. Those books were addictive page-turners; I couldn't stop. I have to say, the movie ending WAS very satisfying to an angry teenage girl who feels like the whole world is sometimes the enemy. Who doesn't love sweet, sweet revenge?
Did you get to watch it or just read the plot? It used to be here on YT. Also I think it’s on Tubi (free movie app without subscription or a credit card or anything) If you or anyone else wants, I’ll drop a link (just don’t get it removed, it’s still under copyright but the poster isn’t making any money off it, so that falls within the copyright restrictions on the original movie) 🍿 🎥 Get your popcorn, it’s really good! Also, on Lifetime there’s a mini series on every single book of this series. Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, Garden of Shadows, Seeds of Yesterday etc.. That’s also really good. It’s so full of drama and decadence - unapologetic. Not always 100% true to the books but, that’s why books are so good! They don’t need to confine a story to a time limit or production restrictions.
I loved this. These books have some ridiculously purple prose and are obviously super melodramatic, but you know what? I frickin' love Cathy and think she's a genuinely fascinating character. I love how vengeful she is throughout the series and that VCA is not interested in worrying about if she's "relatable" or "likeable". She is filled with rage and resentment and it's AWESOME. So I love seeing people who look at the series past just "tee hee, incest, stained mattress". One other thing you touched on that I always felt was SO important to the series that gets overlooked a lot was Chris and Corinne's relationship. It was honestly some of the most twisted and interesting stuff in the books for me. How much longer it took Chris to turn on Corinne in comparison to when Cathy did, Cathy's low-key jealousy/competitiveness with her mom that never truly goes away, the way Chris' love for Cathy is because he almost sees her as the idealized version of his mom, Corinne finally breaking in Petals on the Wind when she sees Chris again. But that's for your next vid. Can't wait.
I completely agree! I loved the fact that Cathy never gave up her plans for revenge even though she followed her dream to be a ballerina & it was fascinating to see how the trauma affected the kids in different ways.. like the basket of food that Cathy kept under her bed later on in Paul's house & how she was drawn to the narcissistic dancer, Julian. And the mother / son relationship between Chris & Corrine was so realistic. I think that's what made VCA such a talented writer. How she created that bond between them much like Cathy & her father.. how Cathy noticed that her mother used her sex appeal & motherly love to on Chris so he wouldn't turn against her. Do you remember what Chris told Cathy when she complained about him going to visit Corrine in the mental institution after she had a nervous breakdown? He said the day he turns his back on his own mother would be the day he turned his back on all women, including Cathy. Wow!
@@Muirmaiden oh, for sure. I think Corrine always saw Cathy as tougher and smarter than her. And as much as she lashed out at Cathy for not having faith in her like Chris did, Corinne knows Cathy is 100% right not to trust her. Hell, I even think Olivia figures out eventually that Cathy is so much more than Corinne ever was. There's an almost grudging respect from her when Cathy slaps her mom and tells her she'll make her pay if Cory dies.
I was put in a mental hospital at 17, and my mom gave me this book to read while I was there for two months, I loved it so much. I would read it from the light under the closed door in my room coming from the hallway (had to mostly read at night because I had therapy and homework all day.). I finished it in two days and begged my mom to bring me more, so she brought me My Sweet Audrina and Dawn. I loved these books so much because they got me through some rough times. My aunt got me the first printings of hardbacks of the first 3 Dollanganger books from a flea market when I came home
@@JackieSkellington yes I have seen it but I'm a little scared to read it. I tried to read the flowers in the Attic sequels/new books and they were just, just really bad, and not even in an entertaining way. Just boring. Is the sequel for Audrina ok? I kind of stopped reading the ghostwritten things but I am open minded.
As a society we are heading down a very dangerous path. Censorship is creeping in helped with fear mongering of books. V.C. Andrew's books are a great example of how fear of content is assisting the process. Some folks just can't understand that reading about something will not automatically make a behavior appear. Yes there's incest and violence in these books but most people recognize that it's a work of fiction. Of course these things happen in real life. I'm pretty sure bad things happened before books came along.
I agree with you in part but I must point out that the show 13 Reasons Why ended up causing a string of suicides so yes media can affect people and it’s a valid concern. This conversation is far more nuanced than most make it out to be.
@@ab-gail anything can cause suicide or other behaviors. Its part of humanity. However blaming a book or movie or music for behaviors is a slippery slope. Someone can say harmful words to someone and later that person harms himself. Do we charge the person who talked crap with murder? There will always be those blame media for bad behavior but as a society we have to decide if that means we censor or not. Im opposed to censorship as that introduces too dangerous elements. Perhaps we should augment our public schools curriculum to teach critic thinking skills and emotional health.
@@ab-gail Look I hate people who think "censorship" is the biggest "danger" in a society where mass murder is on the news every day but 13 Reasons Why pushed already-suicidal people over the edge, it didn't _make_ them suicidal in the first place. "My kid killed themself after watching a tv show!!!" is just people refusing to admit they ignored and downplayed mental health issues until it was too late. Same with "Jaws caused shark killings!" when people already hated sharks and already hunted them; it just popularized the already existing problem. "Nuance" isn't a magic word to shield criticism.
@@ab-gail but again it's NOT the fault of the show or the theme, these people wanted already die, they was already suicidal, the show was explicit and that was their mistake, but again it's NOT like they said "see it's good, it's cool"
what i find interesting is that Catherine and Chris probably wouldn't have "fallen in love" if not for the abuse and the constant repressing of their sexual feelings that are normal and part of their development into puberty. it's almost as if Olivia caused the incest by trying to repress it, cycles of abuse and whatnot yadda yadda yadda
I grew up as an only child, with a mom who loved (and still does) all kinds of books. She and my dad still have 6-8 10 foot bookshelves in their house. Anyway, I was an early reader (lots of alone time with parents who worked all the time), and my mom had told me at one point very early in my life that I could read any book I wanted to read that was on the shelves. I read every Stephen King book by the time I was 10 years old, but what did I read first?? NINE AND A HALF WEEKS, AT LIKE SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS OLD PEOPLE. And now I’m a clinical psychologist 🤓
This book and story fuel me with so much anger. It's one of those stories where I wish I could reach into in and hurt the bad people, to protect the innocents with all my power.
I know a lot of people consider this series to be trashy, but honestly, the psychology behind each of the characters was what always fascinated me and kept me reading. Also, the funny way in which I stumbled upon the series (at 12 years old ofc lol), was that my mom used to watch the movie with me, and one day I found a copy of the novel for sale at the library lol
It definitely is. It reminds me of soap operas- they're seen as trashy but when you look at the characters, they have a lot of layers and connections. That's how soap operas last so long. I always wished this book would get a soap opera adaptation😂
Owning and devouring every single vc andrews book I could find between the ages of 11-12 was probably terrible for my development but i am so happy I am not alone 🤣 even as an adult and recognizing how depraved this series is I still am captivated by it.
@@Cerinaya yeah I think the 80s movie ends with the kids confronting the mom. I might have been too young to pick up on some of the subtext. Like, if it's in the movie, I had no idea Christopher the dad was the mom's uncle. It could also be due to the fact that whenever I saw this movie, it was already in progress on TV. 😆 I had no idea there was a newer movie.
Holy crap you took this Gen Xer right back to 1986 when I read these books without my mom knowing. They were so disturbing and awful yet captivating. I remember being just desperate to know how it would all end (sadly of course).
Wow. A friend gave me Flowers In The Attic at outdoor school back in 6th grade, over 30 years ago. I absolutely devoured it and that set me on my V.C. Andrew's obsession for the next 2-3 years. I would reread FITA and every time would get so angry and heartbroken over Cory's death and Corrine's response to it. Thanks for doing this summary, I will tune in for the whole series.
The way this immediately caught my eye I remember watching the movie rendition and I think I mentioned it to my mom and she gasped because she grew up when Flowers in the Attic was originally published
Well, she is a survivor, a rescuer, and in our immature emotional state, we cheer on her vengeful need for retribution to those who ruined her “perfect” childhood family
I’ve had people try to debate me why I can stomach flowers in the attic but not Colleen Hoover . I’d easily say VC knows her books are horror while Colleen is romance and marketed and generally known as such . Also V.C Andrews, not her ghost writer, has amazing prose especially in my sweet Audrina “time was as relevant as the truth. Mmmmm
I remember as a kid reading this book and I don’t think the movie was out yet, but the suspense was so intense when their escapes happened and almost got caught. My heart would be racing. Unfortunately after I completed this series and discovered many many typos in the future books, I learned the ghost writer had a pretty bad editor. lol. But I did feel that he did a good job with VC Andrew’s other series he created from her incomplete writings her family discovered. Her own childhood life was hard. My childhood before I read the flowers in the attic which was the first book of hers I read, was chaotic and filled with turmoil. I felt that I could relate to Cathy very much.
FITA hadn't been published when I was ten, so I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' that year. Ah, a great work of classical literature... which included discussions of rape and incest, actual child abuse, attempted murder of kids, parental imprisonment of a son, drug addiction, an attempted lynching, and systemic racism... Umm... so explain to me again why 'Flowers in the Attic' is such a horrible book. 🤨🤔
I read the books as a teenager. My grandmother collected all of V.C. Andrews books. I'm disabled from birth and I didn't realize until later that V.C. Andrews also became disabled sometime before adulthood. There's a lot of allegory for living with a disability in her novels. FITA is no exception. As a disabled person, you're isolated a lot of the time. The only people you really interact with are your caregivers. Historically, we were institutionalized often in horrific conditions. School was a luxury only for able-bodied kids. I found the kids relatable for those reasons. Additionally, Oliva's comment about them looking normal brings the Ugly Laws to mind. We were not to be seen and the idea was not to bring discomfort to or offend the sensibilities of able-bodied people.
Two things: 1. I hate that the SA was written in, it was so out of character for Chris and doesn’t align with who he is for the rest of the series I think it was a poor writing choice. 2. Given how evil Olivia was I didn’t understand why she bothered feeding them at all.
i can’t remember a lot of things from being a kid but i very clearly remember finding this book series when i was 11 or 12 and how it scarred my innocent little mind but i still couldn’t put them down. even to this day, there is something about them where i still come back to this series every once in awhile.
I did a book report on 'Flowers in the Attic' and 'Petals on the Wind' when I was 12. My teacher was super supportive of it, and so I thought it was OK! I felt very respected by that teacher. Also, my lord, was this video pure comfort food. Thank you. I can't believe something so simple can be so perfect.
Stole this book from my aunts V.C. collection and read it when I was 11. As a kid who had been molested and emotionally abused it struck several chords and was probably a key step in my early life toward identifying and healing my trauma. Maybe I should give it a reread.
I have yet to see in a movie of this book the swan bed and baby bed as I imagined it in my 13 year old head and again as an adult. Nothing has come close.
My mom read these when she was 12 and had me watch the movie when I was the same age. I have no idea why. But man, if she'd waited a couple more years I might have been able to decipher some of this metaphor! You're an excellent analyst.
I believe that they were leaving from the train station in Charlottesville Va. It was rumored that VC Andrews got the idea for the story from a doctor friend that worked at the University of Virginia hospital. He said that in the middle of the night he was brought a sick child from a well to do old money family that no one knew existed. He could tell that the child had rarely if ever had been outside. He wondered if there was some scandal involved in why the child had been hidden away and VC created Flowers in the Attic as a possible explanation. Of course this is just a rumor.
My mother let me watch this movie when I was a kid, and it quickly became one of my favourite movies to watch. She ended up regretting it when the school called the police and CPS on her one day because of this movie! It was early in my fourth grade year and one of my writing assignments was to write a story about what we did over summer break. I didnt do much during break so I decided to write my own rendition of flowers in the attic, starring myself as the main character 😂 Just be aware, if your kid is a budding writer, pay close attention to the content they're watching 😅
I remember reading Flowers in the Attic back in the 70’s when I was in high school. For some reason I do remember hearing that some people didn’t want young people to read it. I have always read and my parents never paid much attention to what I was reading. I did have parents that were inattentive, verbally & physically abusive but not to this extent. Back in the 60’s 70’s spanking or slapping was the norm so when you got older when hitting with their hands didn’t hurt they started using a paddle or and hard object.
Same! As a book starved kid who loved to read, I devoured anything I could get my hands on. My family are not readers, so I was the quiet bookworm reading the most salacious trash 😂 the good one!
I was an avid reader when I was younger, I still am, but for reasons, reading was pretty much all I did. I was really upset one weekend when my local library ran out of books to read, I'd just read everything from the kids' section, then YA, then adult fiction and then all the nonfiction. My Nan took pity on me and said that I could read through her mini library and I eventually found The Dollanganger series and devoured it, I absolutely loved it at probably a far too young an age. I've come back to it time and again as I've aged and love the gothic horror melodrama more and more every time I reread the inherited copies of all four books my Nan made sure would go to a place they were appreciated. I later found out she made that specification because all four books are first editions but like me, she thought books should be read and enjoyed not collected untouched until they can turn a profit.
I absolutely love Flowers in the Attic, never finished the sequels tho. But going in knowing NOTHING besides just finding it in a 2nd hand shop I can’t say I was disappointed 😂 fantastic gothic horror atmosphere
It very much is a horror series- gothic horror is one of my favorite genres, but this series, admittedly, is more tragic than anything, and is a major example on the cycle of abuse and pain. Thanks for talking about this series, as heavy as the books can be.
We had only the first three Dollanganger books in in the school library. Used to read them on the bus home and it was the first time I ever cried to book series. The one scene that will always stick with me is Christopher feeding his siblings his blood so they don't starve. I'll be looking forward to seeing your coverage on the next books ^^
Was a big bookworm as a kid - it was an escape from my terrible homelife - but my mother and I still went out to barnes and noble sometimes. I pointed the book out, because it had a cover that looked interesting, and my mother immediately was like "oh yeah, I read that as a teen! It was messed up. The movie was even worse." She ended up buying it for me because I was into messed up/morbid things. I was 12.
Revisiting this after If There Be Thorns, that "they never go home again" hit like a truck. Like I just sat there with my hand over my chest for a second. Ow. Well done.
I wasn't allowed to read Stephen King because it was "low-brow garbage," but I managed to get these books past my parents somehow and positively devoured them 😂
I was 12 when my sister gave me a copy of Heaven. After that I was hooked. I found out that my Grandma read all the books and gave her copies to my cousin. All of these books actually initiated my healing journey from the generational traumas my family faced. I broke the chains!
The “books that you read way too young that shook you to your core” thing is so real. Mine was Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles and it started when I read IWTV at like… twelve lol.
Nah, I’m Gen Z and I found Go Ask Alice when I was in primary school! (In hindsight I was much too young to read that lol). I re-read it a few years ago and it’s still as creepy
This video was so well done. The series has always been under appreciated by my perception, and you did a phenomenal job putting the significance of the children's trauma into words. The story is too often brushed off as an incest romance, and no one digs any deeper or acknowledges any of the overarching themes of the story itself.
I found Flowers in the attic the exact same way. I was at the thrift store with my dad and stumbled upon it, my dad never denied me a book. I was blown away by it, not that any 10 year old should be reading that 😂. He didn’t know, so it introduced me to her works and I love her.
This is hard story for me to deal with, because I was abused by my biological grandfather for wetting the bed. I was six, and it was all done in the name of JESUS! I was evil and wicked a deserved it (or so I was told). I had a bedwetting demon in me. My grandfather's wife (NOT my grandmother) would then pull out the Bible and read Proverbs 23:13-14. I'm 54 now, and am still haunted by that monster. Growing up I was exposed to so much horrific religiosity, it is a miracle I believe in God at all. There is more truth and true horror in 'Flowers in the Attic' than in anything written by Stephen King (except maybe the "The Library Policeman').
I was interested in these way too young but I only read them in my late 20s! The relationship between Chris and Cathy is textbook trauma bonding. Plus I'm hoping that you get to the Whitefern series.
@@liulur right the textbook definition is between abused and abuser, but more recently online (and maybe irl too) has been used to describe people who bond due to shared trauma from the same abusive source
My older sister gave me her entire VCA collection when I was 13/14. My first one was My Sweet Audrina but I would eventually read all of the Dollanganger, Casteel, Landry, and Culter series. This is a great analysis! I look forward to your videos on the other books in the series, especially Petals lol
I can’t imagine that as anything but a walking simulator, & a very limited one cause you’d be playing as probably Cathy with her siblings trapped in the attic.
Epic battle mode where you can battle as either Chris or Cathy vs Olivia armed with a hairbrush. DLC skin would be a Joan Crawford skin for Olivia complete with wire hanger.
i love vc andrews and relate deeply to some of the stuff she writes about and she personally dealt with in life. i think so many people forget about her disability that marked her pretty young. as someone who survived a pretty terrible illness in my teens and was bound to bed and limited personal space for weeks and months on end, so many people don't get how quickly a place of comfort can become a cruel prison. taking away the generational trauma and incest that the books deal with, the idea of homely, family space as monstrous is so reflective of andrews' and my lived experience. interesting ly, it's interesting how many of the authors who use motives of a house as a prison/living breathing monster are women, bound to be homemakers and housewives but never homemakers. if anyone has other southern gothic/gothic stories where the house itself becomes a living breathing being or monster i would love to get some recommended.
I read this entire series back in the 90s and I agree with you! This is not a forbidden romance… this is a very epic tragedy of a family full of very dark and evil secrets. In romantic tales, even in forbidden ones the readers tend to root for the couple, cheer them on, etc. In this series nobody is cheering for Cathy and Christopher. It’s so sick and twisted it is disturbing. Even to this day you feel like taking a shower after reading it.
my mom LOVED these books when she was younger and got them all for me at a resale shop when i was maybe 13 lmao. she definitely did not reread them before or there's no way she would have let me at them.
I remember when I was a kid this series was THE housewife read. ALL the women were reading these books. Go to the beach? Every mother had one in their hands. Go to your friends house? Their mom had the series on a shelf in a livingroom end table/knickknack cabinet next to porcelain unicorns, kittens, and angels. My own mother? Had them all and read them voraciously and yes, they were kept in an end table shelf. Next to her Stephen King.
I mean is a tragedy that's true, it was also a self-fulfilling prophecy of the generational trauma. I think Chris and Cathy had they not been forced into that attic, by their mom and grandma, this would have never happened, because they didn't have these thoughts about each other before. So I always kind of blamed Corinne and Olivia for what they did to their family and what they put these children through.
Corrine is more of a villain than Olivia is! Olivia is cruel & sadistic no doubt but she never hides who exactly she is. To Olivia she is absolutely justified in her twisted behavior! Corrine was selfish, thoughtless, & cruel in a way that is much worse! She does it with kindness and caring as her mask! Corrine like her own mother I don’t believe ever really loved any of her children! I think they were just things to her! Corrine again like her own mother was jealous of her daughter Kathy and the special relationship Kathy had with her father! Perhaps she felt that he would fall for Kathy since incest isn’t an issue for him?! Just like I believe that Martin was with Corrine growing up! Maybe a little inappropriate?
This book series is absolutely my biggest special interest. I have ready every single book in the series at least twice. Even the spin offs, prequels, and sequels. Really excited to see someone talking about these books
Back in the day, adults didn't monitor kids reading material very well. These books were in my high school library. I also read a ton of Harold Robbins and he scarred me for life, as did all the rapey pirate books. I still remember reading The Lonely Lady and Goodbye Jeanette. They were brutal. Adults just didn't pay attention. Thirteen year old girls don't need to be reading that stuff. They don't even understand most of it and it can confuse them in ways that stick with them because they don't process it well. That being said, if you're an adult, read whatever you like. There's a place for books like that. It's just not in a kid's hands.
This series is forever my favorite. I first read Flowers in the Attic at age 12, way back in 1990. I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve read it and the entire series. I love ALL of VC Andrew’s original works. I only wish I could have met the woman. I wish she’d lived longer. Brilliant author and storyteller. This woman inspired me to become a writer and that’s what I am today. ❤
It's affirming to learn I'm not the only one who read this series when I was WAY too young for this stuff! As long as I was quiet and had my head in a book, my family assumed everything was fine ... little did they know. 😄
My mother convinced me that the book was written based on the author's life. That she was trapped in the attic with her brother and it was all a true story. So she believes the author is a sick person for doing the things kathy did in the book. I have stopped trusting her on books and life, obviously.
I absolutely love V.C Andrews! I’m 48 and discovered Flowers in the Attic, when I was 11! I read all her books! I also began reading Danielle Steele! GenXer’s just rolled that way! Lol
I definitely read Flowers in the Attic too young 😭 (didn’t we all?). As a teenager, the shock value of the incestuous plot line distracted me from the true horrors of the story. Re-visiting the book in my mid-twenties felt like I was not only reading it for the first time, but this time, with new eyes (and a new brain!). V.C Andrew’s prose style cannot be under estimated, as I felt I was living each and every dreaded day with the children up in that attic. I cried bitterly when it was revealed that they had spent their first entire year in the attic, and felt sick to my stomach after the 2+ weeks of starvation. I could feel the suffocating heat of the summer months, and the bitter cold of the winter up in that uninsulated room. As a teen, I’d finished the book believing the grandmother was a wicked witch. As an adult, it was so clear from the start that it was their own mother. I decided to go ahead and read the rest of books in the Dollanganger series and I must say, Cathy really disappointed me. While every story can’t have a morally sound ending, Cathy allowed her need for revenge against her mother to ruin her own life! (Seduced her adopted father Dr Paul, married a twisted soul and endured an abusive marriage, seduced her mother’s husband, and all in all ended up with two kids with dead fathers!). She had such a promising life ahead of her and allowed revenge take even more away from her. She’s the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. She didn’t end up victorious, just worse off! I was rooting for Cathy so hard because she’d endured so much, but book 2 was just filled with one bad decision after the next. Revenge really trapped her. The last two books are just narrations of the effects of all her bad decisions and how in the end, no one wins if you don’t heal your heart.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the books but have watched some of the films (what I could stomach) because my mother loved those books and anything VC Andrews! Thank you for the thorough analysis and walkthrough it helped me understand the book that much more until I’m ready to read it for myself.
I remember your original videos about flowers in the attic! I was super bummed that they disappeared and I didn't remember your channel name. Glad to see you're back and redoing the videos! (I did like the old ones tho). "All the men in Cassies life are trash!" Still lives rent free in my head.
One of my 8th grade teachers gave it to me to read and told me it was her favorite book. Like ma'am, why are you giving this to a 14 year old?! Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and ask her what the hell she was thinking, but in retrospect I suspect she believed I was being abused at home and was hoping I'd find comfort in it. My mom about lost her mind when she saw me reading it but she doesn't believe in taking books away so she let me finish it.
I was a huge big time rush fan and James was my favorite member so when the Seeds of Yesterday movie came out I watched it just for him, not knowing anything about the series and to say I was shook was an understatement
I can't remember how young I was, definitely early primary school age, when my abusive mother told me this was her favourite book, discribed it too me in detail and followed that by lamenting about how much she wished we had an attic. I often wondered if she saw it as a cheet sheet on how to abuse your kids and get away with in.
A week ago this video got recommended to me on my feed and without clicking on it, I got intrigued. I saved it for later, and read the first book in a week and i can't wait to start the others. Im kida obsessed now with it, so thank you for the video..?
This was the first book I read as a child going into adulthood. I was hooked from the start. It lead me into being an avid reader my whole life. Absolutely amazing series.
My dad gave me this book when i was a kid, and i stupidly assumed he had read it also. When i started asking him about the incest in this book he said, "The f
Why on earth would you give your kid a book you've never read? 😵💫
@@hannahleigh6152 Yo!!! He once got me a paperback of Lets go Play at the Adams with the cover ripped off. And he got me We have always lived in the castle because it had two girls on the cover.
omg did you explain it? what was his reaction when he realized what the book was actually about??
@@luisacc88 Naw he just dropped off the books. He wasn't trying to hear about any of it. Later when we watched Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, The Boys and Shogun together he was suprised I knew the entire plot already.
Bad Dad lol my mom also bought me this book from a thrift store. She thought it was another RL Stine or young adult horror
The tragedy of flowers in the attic was that it was my moms favorite book at one point and she named me and my brother Katherine and Christopher
what kind of mental process did she went through choosing those two for a namesake it is fucking insane?? hope you & your bro are okay i guess???
WHATTTT??????!???!??
IDK op, but I can imagine, drawing from my own experiences, empathizing with a character's tragic story, and wanting to honor the character's will to go on.
I can think of many characters that affected me like that, Dolores Haze (Lolita) for instance, whom I always wanted to save and give back independence and agency.
Maybe your mother related to those characters, and they help bond her to you and give her strength to be the mother you need 🤷🏼♀️
My sister named her kid Jory..
I can somewhat relate. I was named for the character in the Thorn Birds who had an affair with her priest.
Corrine is the true villain of that story, not Olivia. Yeah, Olivia was horrific, but she was always that way. Corrine was their mother and she tossed them aside for her own comfort and luxury.
Reading the other stories yeah the grandmother had reasons for being harsh/crazy but the mother had no reason to treat her kids like that other than greed.
@@Cerinaya Exactly!
Not to mention that Corrine caused their suffering. She could have helped them but didn't.
Exactly, I was completely blindsided. When finding out at the end of the story that it was Corrine’s idea to give them the powdered donuts. I remember reading it again to make sure that I had read it correctly. It sends chills down to my bone to this day. And I read it back when I was nine years old.
@@jenniferwellman5311 As many times as I’ve read the books, I still get shocked when that info is revealed. I’m a mom and grandma, and I cannot imagine EVER doing such things to my babies or anyone else’s.
Flowers in the Attic IS gothic horror, you don’t need to build a case for that, it’s always been considered a horror story
I hate when people claim a popular, commonly known fact as a niche opinion
@@user-sr3hi2vu1x right, like the cover of the books even says it’s a horror book.
The genre of this book is gothic horror, and the story is horrific. When people hear "horror" today, they think about jump scares, gore, a killer on the loose, bogyman out to get them. They don't think about the softer side of horror that seeps into your mind with each new page, as things you first thought were almost normal begin to be terrifying the more you think about it. That itch on the back of your neck because you know somewhere deep down what you're reading isn't entertainment and yet you keep turning each page.
Due to what "horror" tends to mean in today's media, as in something that is upfront scary, if you tell someone who has never heard of or read these books "This is a horror book" and they start reading it, they are likely to be very confused.
@@luulusoul Though I do agree, but was it called gothic horror before "psychological thriller"? It seems like that new label is totally squashing the old one. (At least in movies moreso than literature, for instance Hereditary and The Babadook could skirt gothic horror if the aspect of possession weren't brought into either story.)
@bersabrie im honestly not sure. In the case of flowers in the Attic though, while definitely psychological I would hesitate to call it a thriller. Psychological horror maybe?
This book connected HARD with very late Boomers/very early GenX’ers when it first came out. One reason is because the horrors the Dollangangers experienced were super-exaggerated versions of actual traumas that real-life kids were going through, and which society wouldn’t let them talk about. Parental verbal abuse (you weren’t abused if you weren’t being beaten!), religious abuse, sexual abuse within families, and gaslighting of kids by adults were rampant. These books served as a primal scream for traumatized kids who didn’t realize how traumatized they were. (And we’ll get to another form of trauma in Book 2 - grooming and molesting of tweens/young teens by grown men).
Yes. This.
Reading this actually hurt. It makes so much sense. Kids should be able to have access to darker media, even if just for the sense of catharsis, to work through traumas in a healthy way.
@@rosesleeps Yes, this too. Heh.
And back then even beating wasn't considered abuse. Unless you did serious visible damage, nobody cared.
I think that's why so many of us back then did connect to it.
The beatings and the starvation were familiar to me and it was really validating to read about it in a book
@@rosesleeps I disagree if it’s one this level. Not every child is abused and children shouldn’t be traumatized by this so that a smaller group of kids can have catharsis. There are healthier ways to help children than exposing them to something this intense too early. Age appropriate horror does and should exist.
Read the books when i was 11. Honestly its so validating to know its a universal experience to read these waay before it was appropriate
Oh yes! 🤣🤣🤣
You'd be surprised. The books were especially popular among young teenage girls. So there are more like us than you think!
Yeah I’m remembering how it was just casually in the preteen section of my library- like here ya go- time to learn about these traumatic things…
I was 10. 😂😂😂 My mother thought they were appropriate. 😅
Same
I love that we all got exposed to Flowers in the Attic way too soon. I'm convinced everyone finds it secondhand in middle school, like some weird thing that beckons to you until you pick it up. It is beyond your understanding but it pulls you in anyway.
I got many V.C. Andrews books from my second cousin before her family moved. She did not want to deal with packing and lugging them. Flowers in the Attic got picked up by me first. I was probably 11. It definitely has some staying power in your brain, too. I think of it every time I eat a powdered donut now.
Yes about the powdered donut!!!
Yes😂
My mom gave it to me because she loved the series 🙈
I’m pretty sure she gave it to me when I was 10? Idk what that says about her or our relationship 😅
@@MaryLoveJane My grandmother was starting me on Stephen King books about then lol. I love when parents give their kids (nearly) unrestricted access to books, my drive to read probably would have been killed if my parents restricted what I was reading too much. I don't think they restricted it at all, honestly.
Reading books a little too old for me never hurt me any. I am (mostly) okay. And the reasons I'm not okay are unrelated to the books I read as a pre-teen and teenager.
To me it seems like your mom had something she loved and saw that maybe you'd love it too and you guys would be able to bond over it. I know that's what it was with my grandmother. And I think that's very sweet, even if the book of choice is a little screwed up
Shew I watched it on lifetime with my mom when I was like 10 for movie night
One of the most tragic scenes for me is when Chris and Cathy manage to get outside and go swimming before the escape. Like, they’re OUT they can GO, but the twins are still up there. And despite the physical similarities, Chris and Cathy are not their parents, they are not going to leave those babies behind. Reading about them climbing back up and into that house is always heartbreaking
I haven't read the book, how do they explain that they can go out but at the same time they are starving? Can't they steal food?
@@vilwarin5635 it’s within the first year of being locked up, so long before the starving and malnourishment. Corrine told the kids about a pond the night they fled to Foxworth Hall and one night in summer Cathy and Chris scale down the mansion wall from the roof to go find it.
fun fact about VC Andrews: a ghostwriter continued to use her name after she died. It's disputed how much of the prequel for this series was actually written by her, and there's a weird spinoff series that has a book (with a ghostwriter still using her name) published as recently as 2020. Nothing says horror more than a dead author still "writing" books! I also read the original four books WAYYY too young, actually on recommendation of my mother who liked them lol.
There are far more books written while VC is dead than when she was alive.
the ghostwriter was a terrible writer, nothing like V.C. After she died "her" books weren't good anymore imo
Ive read the new series which takes place before FITA....it sucks
I lost interest in VC Andrews books a long time ago. They got progressively worse after she passed away. They were just silly and didn't have the horror.
The ghost writer was hired to finish the Casteel Family series after VC Andrew’s passed away. The Dollanger series was all her and most of the Casteel series.
Reading Flowers In the Attic is an 8th grade right of passage as far as I’m concerned.
That is exactly when I started reading V. C. Andrews' books! In the 8th grade! I was turned onto them by a friend of mine even though I had seen the Flowers in the Attic movie many times as a child in the 80s. I was hooked and read every V. C. Andrews book after that throughout high school.
I first read it in the 4th grade when my best friend showed me the book on the school bus 😭
This book made me write a whole play about kids coping with death.
It was the paper flower garden that got me.
❤
"To hear the twins cry for food put scars on my soul I would wear for the rest of my life." Those poor babies. The absolute nightmare of seeing your little brother and sister cry and beg for food. And knowing that right downstairs is a huge kitchen overflowing with all sorts of fine, healthy food. The unbearable mental torment of that. This is 100% a horror story. I've always thought that. I liked the sequels but they never get as horrific as the first book.
I never ever forgave Corinne for what happened to Cory.
"We lived in the attic,Christopher,Cory,Carrie and me,now there are only 3"....
For all of the children because they were damaged by this . But the grandmother was a huge player in this as well as the mother .
Powdered donuts never felt the same about these
Yeah the mother was cold as ice, once she made her choice of riches.
Late reply but in the spin off series written by her estates hired ghost writer Cory survives.
I think it’s diaries of Christopher: secret brother
My abusive parent absolutely loved this book as I was growing up. I'm not sure if it was because they could tell themself they were such a good parent for being so much better, or because they got some vicarious enjoyment from the cruelty
Or it’s just an excellent gothic horror series that a large number of people love. It’s really not as deep as someone enjoying the suffering when that’s a staple of gothic horror and if it was about the suffering there’s a million other books to choose from that are far far worse
🙏♥️🙏
Omg! That explains why my mother likes them.
Most likely, the former if the parent in question is your mother.
This book was my mother's favorite as well, and she was abusive
The real tragedy of FitA is Ms. Andrews herself. She was a bright popular teen suffered a crippling fall and botched surgery and had to leave school. Her mother was very protective and frankly ashamed of her disability and kept her hidden away, her house and porch became her whole world. Despite this, she completed a four year college course and was a successful illustrator before writing FitA. Her mother remained a controlling, yet loving and protective, force in her life throughout her success, and travelled with her on junkets. She was very proud of her. V.C. was an incredible woman. I enjoyed your video (my first!) and subscribed.
one detail i never forget is that she said she finished flowers in the attic in two weeks.
TWO WEEKS!!!!
as a writer, even in the moments i’m on a vyvanse-fueled tear, i could only dream of that kind of thing
I read somewhere that when she was in the hospital, she had a crush on one of the doctors and they were talking and he said he had spent some time with his siblings in the attic of a wealthy family member and she just went from there. The editors were the ones who told her to spice it up a little, so she added....that scene.
The amount of people that see two characters with romantic feelings for each other and immediately assume the story is a romance and they're supposed to root for them is baffling. Like, you know this is sick and wrong and instead of thinking "Maybe the author is trying depict something sick and wrong to provoke disgust in the audience." they somehow land on "The author is trying to convince their audience to not be disgusted by this sick and wrong thing!"
It honestly scares me sometimes.
I am 30 and re-reading Flowers in the Attic had me feeling physically ill at some points. I have no idea how I did it when I was a teen.
I read this in my late 20s and I think I wiped most of it from my memory involuntarily. I clicked on this video because I vaguely remembered reading it back when. I don't know how I did it either. I got them from the library so I won't be re-reading them. I don't plan on watching any of the subsequent videos, either, but it might happen anyway. Sigh.
There is a lot I read between 12 and 30 that I actually have no idea why I liked any of it so much. Like...wtf was wrong with me?!
All I remember of reading it as a tween was like wtaf was I reading. I never went any deeper any the first book.
the full weight of the horrific subject matter hadn't hit you yet
at that age, it's just fiction. it's just a story on the page. it's not until you get a liile older and realize the realities of the world we live in that it starts to hit a little too close to home.
So, um, after I watched this video I found out that Flowers in the Attic had a 1987 adaptation.
Where they crash the mom's wedding confront her in front of everybody, then Kathy proceeds to push her off a roof while trying to force her to eat the poisoned food.
She is hanged by her own wedding dress.
Also Chris Knocked the grandmother out while they're escaping. Just hits her over the head.
I don't normally like when a movie deviates this much from The source material, but in this particular case I have to forgive them. It's like they finished the book and were like, no these people have to pay. XD
But that long game revenge is so much better!
I saw "Flowers in the Attic" in the theater (I was about 15 or 16). I'd read the book years before that--along with the rest of the series. Those books were addictive page-turners; I couldn't stop. I have to say, the movie ending WAS very satisfying to an angry teenage girl who feels like the whole world is sometimes the enemy. Who doesn't love sweet, sweet revenge?
Did you get to watch it or just read the plot? It used to be here on YT. Also I think it’s on Tubi (free movie app without subscription or a credit card or anything) If you or anyone else wants, I’ll drop a link (just don’t get it removed, it’s still under copyright but the poster isn’t making any money off it, so that falls within the copyright restrictions on the original movie) 🍿 🎥 Get your popcorn, it’s really good!
Also, on Lifetime there’s a mini series on every single book of this series. Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, Garden of Shadows, Seeds of Yesterday etc.. That’s also really good. It’s so full of drama and decadence - unapologetic. Not always 100% true to the books but, that’s why books are so good! They don’t need to confine a story to a time limit or production restrictions.
@@-Reagan I watched it, I've also seen the one the ones from 2014 and 2015 I just watched them over the last couple of days.
It’s also on UA-cam for free right now.
My mom got me into this series. Later in life I realized she matched Corinne’s narcissism and…parenting tactics
My grandmother got me into it, and you just made me think about some things. Lol
That is beat per beat what my experience with this series was too. Wild.
Mines to she literally had all vc Andrew books I was hooked lol 😂
I was way too young but it was drama for days
I loved this. These books have some ridiculously purple prose and are obviously super melodramatic, but you know what? I frickin' love Cathy and think she's a genuinely fascinating character. I love how vengeful she is throughout the series and that VCA is not interested in worrying about if she's "relatable" or "likeable". She is filled with rage and resentment and it's AWESOME. So I love seeing people who look at the series past just "tee hee, incest, stained mattress".
One other thing you touched on that I always felt was SO important to the series that gets overlooked a lot was Chris and Corinne's relationship. It was honestly some of the most twisted and interesting stuff in the books for me. How much longer it took Chris to turn on Corinne in comparison to when Cathy did, Cathy's low-key jealousy/competitiveness with her mom that never truly goes away, the way Chris' love for Cathy is because he almost sees her as the idealized version of his mom, Corinne finally breaking in Petals on the Wind when she sees Chris again. But that's for your next vid. Can't wait.
I completely agree! I loved the fact that Cathy never gave up her plans for revenge even though she followed her dream to be a ballerina & it was fascinating to see how the trauma affected the kids in different ways.. like the basket of food that Cathy kept under her bed later on in Paul's house & how she was drawn to the narcissistic dancer, Julian. And the mother / son relationship between Chris & Corrine was so realistic. I think that's what made VCA such a talented writer. How she created that bond between them much like Cathy & her father.. how Cathy noticed that her mother used her sex appeal & motherly love to on Chris so he wouldn't turn against her. Do you remember what Chris told Cathy when she complained about him going to visit Corrine in the mental institution after she had a nervous breakdown? He said the day he turns his back on his own mother would be the day he turned his back on all women, including Cathy. Wow!
Corrine was jealous of Cathy as well, during the time when she became a mother figure to the twins and she and Chris became uh, close.
@@Muirmaiden oh, for sure. I think Corrine always saw Cathy as tougher and smarter than her. And as much as she lashed out at Cathy for not having faith in her like Chris did, Corinne knows Cathy is 100% right not to trust her. Hell, I even think Olivia figures out eventually that Cathy is so much more than Corinne ever was. There's an almost grudging respect from her when Cathy slaps her mom and tells her she'll make her pay if Cory dies.
I was put in a mental hospital at 17, and my mom gave me this book to read while I was there for two months, I loved it so much. I would read it from the light under the closed door in my room coming from the hallway (had to mostly read at night because I had therapy and homework all day.). I finished it in two days and begged my mom to bring me more, so she brought me My Sweet Audrina and Dawn. I loved these books so much because they got me through some rough times. My aunt got me the first printings of hardbacks of the first 3 Dollanganger books from a flea market when I came home
Did you know of the sequel to "My Sweet Audrina?"
@@JackieSkellington yes I have seen it but I'm a little scared to read it. I tried to read the flowers in the Attic sequels/new books and they were just, just really bad, and not even in an entertaining way. Just boring. Is the sequel for Audrina ok? I kind of stopped reading the ghostwritten things but I am open minded.
@@AislingBlack I thought it was good, an unexpected twist, no spoilers!
I lived My Sweet Audrina!!
@@wplants9793 wasn't that nuts? Convincing your daughter she's not the one traumatized, it was your sister...
As a society we are heading down a very dangerous path. Censorship is creeping in helped with fear mongering of books. V.C. Andrew's books are a great example of how fear of content is assisting the process. Some folks just can't understand that reading about something will not automatically make a behavior appear. Yes there's incest and violence in these books but most people recognize that it's a work of fiction. Of course these things happen in real life. I'm pretty sure bad things happened before books came along.
I agree with you in part but I must point out that the show 13 Reasons Why ended up causing a string of suicides so yes media can affect people and it’s a valid concern. This conversation is far more nuanced than most make it out to be.
@@ab-gail anything can cause suicide or other behaviors. Its part of humanity. However blaming a book or movie or music for behaviors is a slippery slope. Someone can say harmful words to someone and later that person harms himself. Do we charge the person who talked crap with murder? There will always be those blame media for bad behavior but as a society we have to decide if that means we censor or not. Im opposed to censorship as that introduces too dangerous elements. Perhaps we should augment our public schools curriculum to teach critic thinking skills and emotional health.
@@ab-gail Look I hate people who think "censorship" is the biggest "danger" in a society where mass murder is on the news every day but 13 Reasons Why pushed already-suicidal people over the edge, it didn't _make_ them suicidal in the first place. "My kid killed themself after watching a tv show!!!" is just people refusing to admit they ignored and downplayed mental health issues until it was too late. Same with "Jaws caused shark killings!" when people already hated sharks and already hunted them; it just popularized the already existing problem. "Nuance" isn't a magic word to shield criticism.
@@ab-gail but again it's NOT the fault of the show or the theme, these people wanted already die, they was already suicidal, the show was explicit and that was their mistake, but again it's NOT like they said "see it's good, it's cool"
Thank you, well said
what i find interesting is that Catherine and Chris probably wouldn't have "fallen in love" if not for the abuse and the constant repressing of their sexual feelings that are normal and part of their development into puberty. it's almost as if Olivia caused the incest by trying to repress it, cycles of abuse and whatnot yadda yadda yadda
I grew up as an only child, with a mom who loved (and still does) all kinds of books. She and my dad still have 6-8 10 foot bookshelves in their house. Anyway, I was an early reader (lots of alone time with parents who worked all the time), and my mom had told me at one point very early in my life that I could read any book I wanted to read that was on the shelves.
I read every Stephen King book by the time I was 10 years old, but what did I read first??
NINE AND A HALF WEEKS, AT LIKE SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS OLD PEOPLE.
And now I’m a clinical psychologist 🤓
The gift of books!❤
😂😂😂❤
@@DrCatterBox I read “It” at like ten as well! I was very confused by a lot of it and thought the bl@w j@bs Pennywise kept offering was a hairdo 💇♀️
i read the lovely bones at age 11 lmao. got in huge trouble for it when my mom found out too
Domestic horror that steps up past Shirley Jackson.
Yes! Thank you ! I once said that to someone and the person was like “Jackson is a classic” okay?? And Andrews is insane 😭 don’t test them
This book and story fuel me with so much anger. It's one of those stories where I wish I could reach into in and hurt the bad people, to protect the innocents with all my power.
I know a lot of people consider this series to be trashy, but honestly, the psychology behind each of the characters was what always fascinated me and kept me reading.
Also, the funny way in which I stumbled upon the series (at 12 years old ofc lol), was that my mom used to watch the movie with me, and one day I found a copy of the novel for sale at the library lol
It definitely is. It reminds me of soap operas- they're seen as trashy but when you look at the characters, they have a lot of layers and connections. That's how soap operas last so long.
I always wished this book would get a soap opera adaptation😂
Aah, the eternal childhood classic…😊
Owning and devouring every single vc andrews book I could find between the ages of 11-12 was probably terrible for my development but i am so happy I am not alone 🤣 even as an adult and recognizing how depraved this series is I still am captivated by it.
Watch the lifetime series as well; Also there was a mini series on the grandmother and her youth
somehow the seonghwa pfp makes sense here
@@fantasmaghoulical loll really?🤣
I've never read the books, but I saw the movie as a kid and it was definitely a mind fuck. I can't imagine seeing this story as a romance.
Same. I started watching it on TV part way through and I WAS NOT prepared. Went in totally blind and I was probably like 14 at the time lol
There are two movies. The older one changed a whole lot from the books. I watched that one and read the books and was very shocked.
@@Cerinaya yeah I think the 80s movie ends with the kids confronting the mom. I might have been too young to pick up on some of the subtext. Like, if it's in the movie, I had no idea Christopher the dad was the mom's uncle. It could also be due to the fact that whenever I saw this movie, it was already in progress on TV. 😆 I had no idea there was a newer movie.
@@sarahhirsch8919 Yeah it's like a mini series that doesn't sugarcoat or change as much.
Both movies really weirded me out, so it's no surprise that I barely remember reading the books.
Holy crap you took this Gen Xer right back to 1986 when I read these books without my mom knowing. They were so disturbing and awful yet captivating. I remember being just desperate to know how it would all end (sadly of course).
Totally relate
Wow. A friend gave me Flowers In The Attic at outdoor school back in 6th grade, over 30 years ago. I absolutely devoured it and that set me on my V.C. Andrew's obsession for the next 2-3 years. I would reread FITA and every time would get so angry and heartbroken over Cory's death and Corrine's response to it. Thanks for doing this summary, I will tune in for the whole series.
I suppose technically it’s a haunted house… of sorts…
The way this immediately caught my eye I remember watching the movie rendition and I think I mentioned it to my mom and she gasped because she grew up when Flowers in the Attic was originally published
I’m constantly intrigued by these discussions as a survivor who finds this type of media cathartic
I wanted to be Catherine so badly. Only as an adult do I realize how bizarre that is.
Me too, theough all the books ... eek !!!
Well, she is a survivor, a rescuer, and in our immature emotional state, we cheer on her vengeful need for retribution to those who ruined her “perfect” childhood family
I’ve had people try to debate me why I can stomach flowers in the attic but not Colleen Hoover . I’d easily say VC knows her books are horror while Colleen is romance and marketed and generally known as such . Also V.C Andrews, not her ghost writer, has amazing prose especially in my sweet Audrina “time was as relevant as the truth. Mmmmm
I remember as a kid reading this book and I don’t think the movie was out yet, but the suspense was so intense when their escapes happened and almost got caught. My heart would be racing.
Unfortunately after I completed this series and discovered many many typos in the future books, I learned the ghost writer had a pretty bad editor. lol. But I did feel that he did a good job with VC Andrew’s other series he created from her incomplete writings her family discovered.
Her own childhood life was hard.
My childhood before I read the flowers in the attic which was the first book of hers I read, was chaotic and filled with turmoil. I felt that I could relate to Cathy very much.
I read all of VC Andrews the summer I turned 10. Obsessed. I will never understand why.
same!
FITA hadn't been published when I was ten, so I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' that year. Ah, a great work of classical literature... which included discussions of rape and incest, actual child abuse, attempted murder of kids, parental imprisonment of a son, drug addiction, an attempted lynching, and systemic racism...
Umm... so explain to me again why 'Flowers in the Attic' is such a horrible book. 🤨🤔
I read the books as a teenager. My grandmother collected all of V.C. Andrews books. I'm disabled from birth and I didn't realize until later that V.C. Andrews also became disabled sometime before adulthood. There's a lot of allegory for living with a disability in her novels. FITA is no exception. As a disabled person, you're isolated a lot of the time. The only people you really interact with are your caregivers. Historically, we were institutionalized often in horrific conditions. School was a luxury only for able-bodied kids.
I found the kids relatable for those reasons. Additionally, Oliva's comment about them looking normal brings the Ugly Laws to mind. We were not to be seen and the idea was not to bring discomfort to or offend the sensibilities of able-bodied people.
Two things:
1. I hate that the SA was written in, it was so out of character for Chris and doesn’t align with who he is for the rest of the series I think it was a poor writing choice.
2. Given how evil Olivia was I didn’t understand why she bothered feeding them at all.
i can’t remember a lot of things from being a kid but i very clearly remember finding this book series when i was 11 or 12 and how it scarred my innocent little mind but i still couldn’t put them down. even to this day, there is something about them where i still come back to this series every once in awhile.
It was years before I ate another powdered donut.
They still give me an icky feeling tbh
Nothing will stop me from powdered donuts... unless delivered by a scary old lady on a tray
The mouse part is so tragic to me for some reason 😭 poor Cory what an undeserving ending
I did a book report on 'Flowers in the Attic' and 'Petals on the Wind' when I was 12. My teacher was super supportive of it, and so I thought it was OK! I felt very respected by that teacher. Also, my lord, was this video pure comfort food. Thank you. I can't believe something so simple can be so perfect.
Stole this book from my aunts V.C. collection and read it when I was 11. As a kid who had been molested and emotionally abused it struck several chords and was probably a key step in my early life toward identifying and healing my trauma. Maybe I should give it a reread.
I have yet to see in a movie of this book the swan bed and baby bed as I imagined it in my 13 year old head and again as an adult. Nothing has come close.
My mom read these when she was 12 and had me watch the movie when I was the same age. I have no idea why. But man, if she'd waited a couple more years I might have been able to decipher some of this metaphor! You're an excellent analyst.
I believe that they were leaving from the train station in Charlottesville Va. It was rumored that VC Andrews got the idea for the story from a doctor friend that worked at the University of Virginia hospital. He said that in the middle of the night he was brought a sick child from a well to do old money family that no one knew existed. He could tell that the child had rarely if ever had been outside. He wondered if there was some scandal involved in why the child had been hidden away and VC created Flowers in the Attic as a possible explanation. Of course this is just a rumor.
My mother let me watch this movie when I was a kid, and it quickly became one of my favourite movies to watch. She ended up regretting it when the school called the police and CPS on her one day because of this movie!
It was early in my fourth grade year and one of my writing assignments was to write a story about what we did over summer break. I didnt do much during break so I decided to write my own rendition of flowers in the attic, starring myself as the main character 😂
Just be aware, if your kid is a budding writer, pay close attention to the content they're watching 😅
This is 100% a melodramatic gothic horror. It is horrific and shocking
I remember reading Flowers in the Attic back in the 70’s when I was in high school. For some reason I do remember hearing that some people didn’t want young people to read it. I have always read and my parents never paid much attention to what I was reading. I did have parents that were inattentive, verbally & physically abusive but not to this extent. Back in the 60’s 70’s spanking or slapping was the norm so when you got older when hitting with their hands didn’t hurt they started using a paddle or and hard object.
My Dads girlfriend gave them to me and told me she liked them when she was my age, when I was in the 8th grade.
Not me in the way back of our station wagon in 1989 reading this and my parents… “good for her she’s finally ready a book! “😂
Same! As a book starved kid who loved to read, I devoured anything I could get my hands on. My family are not readers, so I was the quiet bookworm reading the most salacious trash 😂 the good one!
I was an avid reader when I was younger, I still am, but for reasons, reading was pretty much all I did.
I was really upset one weekend when my local library ran out of books to read, I'd just read everything from the kids' section, then YA, then adult fiction and then all the nonfiction.
My Nan took pity on me and said that I could read through her mini library and I eventually found The Dollanganger series and devoured it, I absolutely loved it at probably a far too young an age.
I've come back to it time and again as I've aged and love the gothic horror melodrama more and more every time I reread the inherited copies of all four books my Nan made sure would go to a place they were appreciated.
I later found out she made that specification because all four books are first editions but like me, she thought books should be read and enjoyed not collected untouched until they can turn a profit.
*sighs*
*adds to kindle TBR*
Bro 😂
Welcome😂 I also read them as an adult, but you'll feel like a teen again.
I absolutely love Flowers in the Attic, never finished the sequels tho. But going in knowing NOTHING besides just finding it in a 2nd hand shop I can’t say I was disappointed 😂 fantastic gothic horror atmosphere
It very much is a horror series- gothic horror is one of my favorite genres, but this series, admittedly, is more tragic than anything, and is a major example on the cycle of abuse and pain. Thanks for talking about this series, as heavy as the books can be.
We had only the first three Dollanganger books in in the school library. Used to read them on the bus home and it was the first time I ever cried to book series. The one scene that will always stick with me is Christopher feeding his siblings his blood so they don't starve. I'll be looking forward to seeing your coverage on the next books ^^
Was a big bookworm as a kid - it was an escape from my terrible homelife - but my mother and I still went out to barnes and noble sometimes. I pointed the book out, because it had a cover that looked interesting, and my mother immediately was like "oh yeah, I read that as a teen! It was messed up. The movie was even worse." She ended up buying it for me because I was into messed up/morbid things. I was 12.
Yep, I read these books when I was 13 haha. Now I wanna re-read the series. Really enjoyed reliving it with this video!
Revisiting this after If There Be Thorns, that "they never go home again" hit like a truck. Like I just sat there with my hand over my chest for a second. Ow. Well done.
I wasn't allowed to read Stephen King because it was "low-brow garbage," but I managed to get these books past my parents somehow and positively devoured them 😂
I was 12 when my sister gave me a copy of Heaven. After that I was hooked. I found out that my Grandma read all the books and gave her copies to my cousin. All of these books actually initiated my healing journey from the generational traumas my family faced. I broke the chains!
Read it when I was 11. Got it at the grocery store with my mom. I thought it was a spooky story. Way over my head!!
The “books that you read way too young that shook you to your core” thing is so real. Mine was Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles and it started when I read IWTV at like… twelve lol.
Who here remember's Go Ask Alice? You will have to be an older Gen X.
Nah, I’m Gen Z and I found Go Ask Alice when I was in primary school! (In hindsight I was much too young to read that lol). I re-read it a few years ago and it’s still as creepy
@@daraudobong7195 😂
@@daraudobong7195 ❤️
This video was so well done. The series has always been under appreciated by my perception, and you did a phenomenal job putting the significance of the children's trauma into words. The story is too often brushed off as an incest romance, and no one digs any deeper or acknowledges any of the overarching themes of the story itself.
I found Flowers in the attic the exact same way. I was at the thrift store with my dad and stumbled upon it, my dad never denied me a book. I was blown away by it, not that any 10 year old should be reading that 😂. He didn’t know, so it introduced me to her works and I love her.
This is hard story for me to deal with, because I was abused by my biological grandfather for wetting the bed. I was six, and it was all done in the name of JESUS! I was evil and wicked a deserved it (or so I was told). I had a bedwetting demon in me. My grandfather's wife (NOT my grandmother) would then pull out the Bible and read Proverbs 23:13-14. I'm 54 now, and am still haunted by that monster. Growing up I was exposed to so much horrific religiosity, it is a miracle I believe in God at all. There is more truth and true horror in 'Flowers in the Attic' than in anything written by Stephen King (except maybe the "The Library Policeman').
I was interested in these way too young but I only read them in my late 20s! The relationship between Chris and Cathy is textbook trauma bonding. Plus I'm hoping that you get to the Whitefern series.
I thought trauma bonding ocurrs between the abused and the abuser?
@@liul That's Stockholm syndrome
@@liulur right
the textbook definition is between abused and abuser, but more recently online (and maybe irl too) has been used to describe people who bond due to shared trauma from the same abusive source
@@ashleightompkins3200That's a synonym for trauma bonds...
My older sister gave me her entire VCA collection when I was 13/14. My first one was My Sweet Audrina but I would eventually read all of the Dollanganger, Casteel, Landry, and Culter series. This is a great analysis! I look forward to your videos on the other books in the series, especially Petals lol
I read all those ones too!
I would love for this book to be transformed into a video game, like silent Hill or resident evil
Oh my godddddd thatd be so cool
I can’t imagine that as anything but a walking simulator, & a very limited one cause you’d be playing as probably Cathy with her siblings trapped in the attic.
@@TheEverGrowingRosey-333 I like story based walking simulators. It can be very creative if done right imo
@@RougeRey oh I thought you wanted it like Silent Hill or Resident Evil? How would you try to be creative with it as a walking simulator?
Epic battle mode where you can battle as either Chris or Cathy vs Olivia armed with a hairbrush. DLC skin would be a Joan Crawford skin for Olivia complete with wire hanger.
Thank you for breaking it down and reminding people it's NOT a romance lol
i love vc andrews and relate deeply to some of the stuff she writes about and she personally dealt with in life.
i think so many people forget about her disability that marked her pretty young. as someone who survived a pretty terrible illness in my teens and was bound to bed and limited personal space for weeks and months on end, so many people don't get how quickly a place of comfort can become a cruel prison.
taking away the generational trauma and incest that the books deal with, the idea of homely, family space as monstrous is so reflective of andrews' and my lived experience.
interesting ly, it's interesting how many of the authors who use motives of a house as a prison/living breathing monster are women, bound to be homemakers and housewives but never homemakers.
if anyone has other southern gothic/gothic stories where the house itself becomes a living breathing being or monster i would love to get some recommended.
was hooked on these as a teen
33:31 We needed the levity of the wig revelation, haha
I read this entire series back in the 90s and I agree with you! This is not a forbidden romance… this is a very epic tragedy of a family full of very dark and evil secrets. In romantic tales, even in forbidden ones the readers tend to root for the couple, cheer them on, etc. In this series nobody is cheering for Cathy and Christopher. It’s so sick and twisted it is disturbing. Even to this day you feel like taking a shower after reading it.
my mom LOVED these books when she was younger and got them all for me at a resale shop when i was maybe 13 lmao. she definitely did not reread them before or there's no way she would have let me at them.
I remember when I was a kid this series was THE housewife read. ALL the women were reading these books. Go to the beach? Every mother had one in their hands. Go to your friends house? Their mom had the series on a shelf in a livingroom end table/knickknack cabinet next to porcelain unicorns, kittens, and angels. My own mother? Had them all and read them voraciously and yes, they were kept in an end table shelf. Next to her Stephen King.
I read the series while I was deployed. I remember being excited to read after my 12 hr shift
Glad to see I’m not the only one that read this book at 10-11 years old lol 🌈🦋🌈
I mean is a tragedy that's true, it was also a self-fulfilling prophecy of the generational trauma. I think Chris and Cathy had they not been forced into that attic, by their mom and grandma, this would have never happened, because they didn't have these thoughts about each other before. So I always kind of blamed Corinne and Olivia for what they did to their family and what they put these children through.
Corrine is more of a villain than Olivia is! Olivia is cruel & sadistic no doubt but she never hides who exactly she is. To Olivia she is absolutely justified in her twisted behavior! Corrine was selfish, thoughtless, & cruel in a way that is much worse! She does it with kindness and caring as her mask!
Corrine like her own mother I don’t believe ever really loved any of her children! I think they were just things to her! Corrine again like her own mother was jealous of her daughter Kathy and the special relationship Kathy had with her father! Perhaps she felt that he would fall for Kathy since incest isn’t an issue for him?! Just like I believe that Martin was with Corrine growing up! Maybe a little inappropriate?
This book series is absolutely my biggest special interest. I have ready every single book in the series at least twice. Even the spin offs, prequels, and sequels. Really excited to see someone talking about these books
Back in the day, adults didn't monitor kids reading material very well. These books were in my high school library. I also read a ton of Harold Robbins and he scarred me for life, as did all the rapey pirate books. I still remember reading The Lonely Lady and Goodbye Jeanette. They were brutal. Adults just didn't pay attention. Thirteen year old girls don't need to be reading that stuff. They don't even understand most of it and it can confuse them in ways that stick with them because they don't process it well. That being said, if you're an adult, read whatever you like. There's a place for books like that. It's just not in a kid's hands.
This series is forever my favorite. I first read Flowers in the Attic at age 12, way back in 1990. I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve read it and the entire series. I love ALL of VC Andrew’s original works. I only wish I could have met the woman. I wish she’d lived longer. Brilliant author and storyteller. This woman inspired me to become a writer and that’s what I am today. ❤
It's affirming to learn I'm not the only one who read this series when I was WAY too young for this stuff! As long as I was quiet and had my head in a book, my family assumed everything was fine ... little did they know. 😄
My mother convinced me that the book was written based on the author's life. That she was trapped in the attic with her brother and it was all a true story. So she believes the author is a sick person for doing the things kathy did in the book. I have stopped trusting her on books and life, obviously.
Initially, it was marketed as based on a true story (IDK about autobiographical, but true). It isn't true.
I absolutely love V.C Andrews! I’m 48 and discovered Flowers in the Attic, when I was 11! I read all her books! I also began reading Danielle Steele! GenXer’s just rolled that way! Lol
I definitely read Flowers in the Attic too young 😭 (didn’t we all?). As a teenager, the shock value of the incestuous plot line distracted me from the true horrors of the story. Re-visiting the book in my mid-twenties felt like I was not only reading it for the first time, but this time, with new eyes (and a new brain!). V.C Andrew’s prose style cannot be under estimated, as I felt I was living each and every dreaded day with the children up in that attic. I cried bitterly when it was revealed that they had spent their first entire year in the attic, and felt sick to my stomach after the 2+ weeks of starvation. I could feel the suffocating heat of the summer months, and the bitter cold of the winter up in that uninsulated room. As a teen, I’d finished the book believing the grandmother was a wicked witch. As an adult, it was so clear from the start that it was their own mother.
I decided to go ahead and read the rest of books in the Dollanganger series and I must say, Cathy really disappointed me. While every story can’t have a morally sound ending, Cathy allowed her need for revenge against her mother to ruin her own life! (Seduced her adopted father Dr Paul, married a twisted soul and endured an abusive marriage, seduced her mother’s husband, and all in all ended up with two kids with dead fathers!). She had such a promising life ahead of her and allowed revenge take even more away from her. She’s the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. She didn’t end up victorious, just worse off! I was rooting for Cathy so hard because she’d endured so much, but book 2 was just filled with one bad decision after the next. Revenge really trapped her. The last two books are just narrations of the effects of all her bad decisions and how in the end, no one wins if you don’t heal your heart.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the books but have watched some of the films (what I could stomach) because my mother loved those books and anything VC Andrews! Thank you for the thorough analysis and walkthrough it helped me understand the book that much more until I’m ready to read it for myself.
I remember your original videos about flowers in the attic! I was super bummed that they disappeared and I didn't remember your channel name. Glad to see you're back and redoing the videos! (I did like the old ones tho).
"All the men in Cassies life are trash!" Still lives rent free in my head.
One of my 8th grade teachers gave it to me to read and told me it was her favorite book. Like ma'am, why are you giving this to a 14 year old?! Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and ask her what the hell she was thinking, but in retrospect I suspect she believed I was being abused at home and was hoping I'd find comfort in it. My mom about lost her mind when she saw me reading it but she doesn't believe in taking books away so she let me finish it.
I was a huge big time rush fan and James was my favorite member so when the Seeds of Yesterday movie came out I watched it just for him, not knowing anything about the series and to say I was shook was an understatement
I can't remember how young I was, definitely early primary school age, when my abusive mother told me this was her favourite book, discribed it too me in detail and followed that by lamenting about how much she wished we had an attic. I often wondered if she saw it as a cheet sheet on how to abuse your kids and get away with in.
Wow that is scary. So glad she didn't have an attic!
So glad I’m not the only one! I found them in my aunts house and have no idea why I read them
Great analysis! I'm putting you on my short list of people I would be locked in an attic with
A week ago this video got recommended to me on my feed and without clicking on it, I got intrigued. I saved it for later, and read the first book in a week and i can't wait to start the others. Im kida obsessed now with it, so thank you for the video..?
This was the first book I read as a child going into adulthood. I was hooked from the start. It lead me into being an avid reader my whole life. Absolutely amazing series.