Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

57 reviews

renee_chrys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

beccammartin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

So haunting, and it hurts to read~ other than the long bouts of expose it was a fantastic thriller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

olivemyheart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The horror was well-paced and left me in constant dread. Although the plot took a long time to pick up, once the really horrifying parts started, it kept me really engaged. The author did not pull punches, there was a lot of shock value, but then again I was morbidly fascinated with it. The main flaw was that the book was steeped in white, upper-class religious values that at some points detracted from the book, and while it is critical of a lot of those values, it espouses many others. I really enjoyed the prose: it was imagery-rich while still using simple language, although many parts of the book had unnecessary paragraphs full of description that I skimmed over to get to the continuing plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, and Incest

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

pianofromthelibrary's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Incest, Rape, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

vyragraves's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

dumaurier's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Incest

Moderate: Confinement and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Blood, and Car accident

kelseyr713's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

2014 review: This is a bleak gut punch of a book. I was absolutely compelled to keep reading, despite a stilted writing style that was inadvertently humorous at times. Cathy is just so earnest about everything. ("Golly-lolly!") I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. I unfortunately went in knowing what I thought was the twist, but there was so much more to the book than that. I worried and rooted for the Dollanganger children the whole way through.

2024 review: Re-read for book club. I honestly can't believe I forgot so much of the plot of this book. All I retained was the incest (but I forgot it was non-consensual), the attic, and the scary grandma. I forgot they had a bedroom, I forgot that Cory dies, I forgot all the twists during the ending. I feel like the incest overshadows this book and its public perception SO MUCH when the actual moment is a single page. I do agree with my 2014 review that the writing is stiff/stilted, but when you consider that Cathy is writing the events years later looking back, and that she lost a lot of schooling time, it makes sense. Does a fantastic job of making you flip the pages as fast as possible while your skin is crawling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Incest only happens over the course of one page. Incest is non-consensual brother-sister. Mother attempts to kill her children via arsenic poisoning; succeeds in killing one.