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thehaylflayl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Incest, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Rape, Confinement, Car accident, and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Vomit
lwds's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
thespinystacks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
suklaa's review against another edition
dark
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? N/A
3.75
Fucking disturbing and I generally love dark themes but this one if truly the peak darkness. It's a very interesting read and it's definitely gonna haunt you after you're done reading. I can't believe y'all read this when you were kids!!!???? I'm deeply disturbed as an adult, I can't even imagine how this would've affected me when I was a kid.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Abandonment, Sexual assault, and Animal death
elysehdez19's review against another edition
5.0
5.5
Tengo tanto para decir y siento que nunca será suficiente... Es un libro excelente!!
Tengo tanto para decir y siento que nunca será suficiente... Es un libro excelente!!
arnette19's review against another edition
5.0
Questo libro è stato per me un pugno nello stomaco. Mi ha fatto commuovere, mi ha fatto arrabbiare, mi ha fatto sperare, ha distrutto le speranze e ha pure infierito. Mentre leggevo ero in quella soffitta insieme a Chris, Cathy, Cory e Carrie e soffrivo con loro. A tratti la storia è un po' prevedibile ma mi ha colto di sorpresa lo stesso perché mi dicevo "Sono sicura che questa faccenda finirà così" e quindi in un certo senso ero preparata ma in fondo speravo davvero che le cose sarebbero andate diversamente, tanto che finivo per crederci; e invece arrivava la pugnalata al cuore.
Leggendo altre recensioni mi pare di capire che in America questo libro è stato letto da un gran numero di persone in età pre-adolescenziale. Se lo avessi letto a quell'età credo che non lo avrei apprezzato completamente, forse l'avrei considerato e ricordato solo come un libro molto triste. Avendolo letto in età adulta, ho colto delle sfumature che forse mi sarebbero sfuggite e il risultato è stato quello di trovarmi alla fine del libro con il cuore spezzato.
È il primo di una serie di cui in Italia sono stati tradotti solo i primi due volumi, ora devo decidere se buttarmi a capofitto sul secondo o riprendere fiato per fare rimarginare le ferite.
Leggendo altre recensioni mi pare di capire che in America questo libro è stato letto da un gran numero di persone in età pre-adolescenziale. Se lo avessi letto a quell'età credo che non lo avrei apprezzato completamente, forse l'avrei considerato e ricordato solo come un libro molto triste. Avendolo letto in età adulta, ho colto delle sfumature che forse mi sarebbero sfuggite e il risultato è stato quello di trovarmi alla fine del libro con il cuore spezzato.
È il primo di una serie di cui in Italia sono stati tradotti solo i primi due volumi, ora devo decidere se buttarmi a capofitto sul secondo o riprendere fiato per fare rimarginare le ferite.
lolamuy's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
2.5
Heartbreaking story. I didn't know the themes before going in so it was even more shattering. Mainly I would describe it as bleak. Ultimately, this book was not for me, but I finished it because I wanted to know if the kids were going to manage to escape .
katiekat013's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.75
cordee's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
Read this when I was 12; loved it. Read it again as an adult and holy f*%# is it ever disturbing. Definitely gothic, not really horror, just disturbing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Incest, and Child abuse
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
halthemonarch's review against another edition
4.0
I read Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson in early 2020. That story is about a poor black girl who was abused by her mother and brother, and then kept trapped in a freezer. The girl’s favorite book was Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews, which sounded familiar. I added it to my list. I read this, or maybe started to read it in high school, as most angst lord teens/pre-teens have. This book was a masterclass in manipulation, abuse, neglect, certain religious fanaticism, and incest. Reading it not having never seen any movie or screen adaptation, I knew the characters and knew the plot before it unfolded. I was either re-reading, or the reputation of this book precedes it.
What to say about a book that has been well loved and ardently reviewed, more than 50 years old and still well known for its shocking taboos? I’ll start with the plot. We begin on the happy lives of the Dollenganger family, Chris and Corinne, and their four children, Chris Jr., Cathy, Carrie, And Cory, the latter two are twins and inseparable (don’t get too attached, because from Castor and Pollux to Fred and George, authors cannot leave their twins alone). While the family and party guests wait for Chris to arrive on the day of his 36th birthday celebration, the cops arrive instead and say that Chris had died in a tragic car accident that claimed his life. In the following days, Corinne breaks down and admits to her children that she needs a man to take care of her and needs money to be comfortable. She admits that she (and indeed Chris, too) came from money and it might be possible to reconcile with their relatives for a slice of that profit pie. Under cover of night, Corinne steals across the countryside with her children and arrives at Foxworth Hall where a maid and her mother are both hawkishly, severely, silently waiting to sweep the children upstairs and into containment.
At first, Corinne comes often with gifts and promises of freedom, but tactlessly she wears expensive clothes and a sun-kissed tan that slowly makes Cathy (foremost) and the rest of the children (more slowly) resent her for what’s shaping up to be indefinite imprisonment. The grandmother is a wicked woman who threatens to beat them, promises not to love them, and scrutinizes them at every opportunity she gets. The male and female children aren’t allowed to mix in their beds because they are “the devils issue” and prone to sin, but two years makes these rules run thin, and the children skirt these rules only to eventually be caught. The (bald, later we learn) grandmother demands Cathy cut off her hair for her vanity, and then later smears tar in it to teach her a lesson. She starves the children of soup, milk, green beans, and fried chicken (their only meal) when they are disobedient, and their mother allows all of this; still came to Foxworth Hall knowing what kind of people her parents were.
Eventually, Cathy and her foreboding, prophetic dreams convince Chris that the four of them need to run. They make a plan but there’s always a reason to stay another day; their plan is to steal money and jewelry from the grand house, from their mother and grandmother. Chris flies into a jealous rage after hearing Cathy kissed their mother’s sleeping husband, and forces himself on his sister. Later that day, as if in retaliation to their sin, the twin boy falls ill and the mother and grandmother take him away. They’re told days later that he died in hospital and had already been buried. Shocked, horrified, and grief-stricken, Cathy and Chris resolve to leave for Carrie’s sake, who at this point is malnourished and small. They learn that the meager desserts they were given had been laced with arsenic and that mama-dearest was the culprit, and all for securing a fortune because her father despised and disapproved of her marriage so vehemently. It comes to light that their grandfather’s passing, which was their only barrier to freedom, had actually transpired months ago and Corinne came cack to the country from her second honeymoon (She’s remarried to one Bart Winslow, a younger, dashing man who she is also never to have children with as dictated by Malcolm Foxworth’s will) to poison her kids and take the inheritance for herself.
I guess what I don’t get is why she kept up the charade so long. Why even bring the children at all if Corinne didn’t truly love them. Even in the beginning chapters where the family is happy, it’s... simpering. “Tell me how much you’ve loved and missed me” and a lot of pressing small children to bosoms and kissing them full on the lips with predatory compliments. Like they’re dolls to be owned, pawns to be discarded. As soon as the children started to resent her-- a year in or so when the begged for outside and the difficult questions started pouring in, why didn’t Corinne Amelia Dryer/Mary Ann Cotton those kids? Like.. the love wasn’t there, and it would have been so much kinder to just kill them while they still could believe their mother loved them. It wasn’t until the condition in Malcolm’s will that said if it should be discovered that Corinne had children in her first marriage, everything she inherited must be given back-- that she even started to poison them. That didn’t make sense to me; what was her plan if that wasn’t a condition? She didn’t actually think this would end with her children happy and healthy, could she? And why not all at once instead of one by one? When Cory died, that raised the other three’s suspicions and they deduced it was the donuts from there, but who cares if they died slowly? If they weren’t supposed to be up there, mass poison them all and dump ‘em like Cory, tf? It might have made sense if the children were known occupants of the house, but as secrets in the attic they could vanish easily, couldn’t they?
And how callously she talked about her twin boy’s death, how she couldn’t grieve publically for not even her new husband knew. Disgusting. Not only is Corinne Foxworth a beautiful and conniving witch, but she is also a heartless shrew who never loved her children, possibly never loved anyone in her life, seemingly incapable due to the traumas in her own past of losing her brothers, of beatings and lashings in Foxworth manor and the repressive nature foisted onto her by her parents; A cycle she, unfortunately, continues with Cathy and Chris, who experience puberty together in close quarters and are constantly lectured about sinful ideation.
I liked Andrew’s literary voice for the children and the time period. I see people saying the writing is bad because of the “oh great golly lolly!” type-expletives, but remember this is from the pov of a god-fearing 13-15 year old, as Cathy is our narrator. And they’re from the 70s. I for one, enjoy how different the vernacular sounded; how a smart child of today would speak completely differently from a smart child of the 70s. The way Chris and Cathy spoke to one another reminded me of playing house or pretend-- pretending to be older and to know what I was talking about. The way the twins spoke endeared me to them and felt true to those characters.
The surviving children set their plan into motion and escape Foxworth with expensive clothes to sell and around 300 pounds to their name, disappearing into 1970s Virginia. Though Cathy disposes of the arsenic donuts and the proof there was rat poison in them, she privately vows her mother will pay for her crimes against them tenfold and that the sweetest revenge would be to turn their backs on her in her time of need.
Not me though, I’da sent them bitches to JAIL; jail makes people super unhappy and it’s immediate! For poisoning and imprisoning children, she’d be there for much longer than the two years those kids were locked up. Plus, a woman like Corinne would shrivel up and die without her expensive things and fancy trips. I’d love to see Olivia become someone’s prison wife, she’d deserve that (I’m joking but..... I truly hate her) The only reason I find this book unsatisfying is the ending. I wish the escape happened differently ig, and that they kept the proof against Corinne with the intent to use it, but. They’re kids. By the end, Chris is 18, Cathy is 15, and Carrie is 8, but so stunted in her growth she still looks 5 or 4. I’m only of a “send that bitch to jail” mind because I’m 30, and that’s not my mom. Corinne certainly made me grateful for my mom, though. Childhood really coulda been so much worse.
What to say about a book that has been well loved and ardently reviewed, more than 50 years old and still well known for its shocking taboos? I’ll start with the plot. We begin on the happy lives of the Dollenganger family, Chris and Corinne, and their four children, Chris Jr., Cathy, Carrie, And Cory, the latter two are twins and inseparable (don’t get too attached, because from Castor and Pollux to Fred and George, authors cannot leave their twins alone). While the family and party guests wait for Chris to arrive on the day of his 36th birthday celebration, the cops arrive instead and say that Chris had died in a tragic car accident that claimed his life. In the following days, Corinne breaks down and admits to her children that she needs a man to take care of her and needs money to be comfortable. She admits that she (and indeed Chris, too) came from money and it might be possible to reconcile with their relatives for a slice of that profit pie. Under cover of night, Corinne steals across the countryside with her children and arrives at Foxworth Hall where a maid and her mother are both hawkishly, severely, silently waiting to sweep the children upstairs and into containment.
At first, Corinne comes often with gifts and promises of freedom, but tactlessly she wears expensive clothes and a sun-kissed tan that slowly makes Cathy (foremost) and the rest of the children (more slowly) resent her for what’s shaping up to be indefinite imprisonment. The grandmother is a wicked woman who threatens to beat them, promises not to love them, and scrutinizes them at every opportunity she gets. The male and female children aren’t allowed to mix in their beds because they are “the devils issue” and prone to sin, but two years makes these rules run thin, and the children skirt these rules only to eventually be caught. The (bald, later we learn) grandmother demands Cathy cut off her hair for her vanity, and then later smears tar in it to teach her a lesson. She starves the children of soup, milk, green beans, and fried chicken (their only meal) when they are disobedient, and their mother allows all of this; still came to Foxworth Hall knowing what kind of people her parents were.
Eventually, Cathy and her foreboding, prophetic dreams convince Chris that the four of them need to run. They make a plan but there’s always a reason to stay another day; their plan is to steal money and jewelry from the grand house, from their mother and grandmother. Chris flies into a jealous rage after hearing Cathy kissed their mother’s sleeping husband, and forces himself on his sister. Later that day, as if in retaliation to their sin, the twin boy falls ill and the mother and grandmother take him away. They’re told days later that he died in hospital and had already been buried. Shocked, horrified, and grief-stricken, Cathy and Chris resolve to leave for Carrie’s sake, who at this point is malnourished and small. They learn that the meager desserts they were given had been laced with arsenic and that mama-dearest was the culprit, and all for securing a fortune because her father despised and disapproved of her marriage so vehemently. It comes to light that their grandfather’s passing, which was their only barrier to freedom, had actually transpired months ago and Corinne came cack to the country from her second honeymoon (She’s remarried to one Bart Winslow, a younger, dashing man who she is also never to have children with as dictated by Malcolm Foxworth’s will) to poison her kids and take the inheritance for herself.
I guess what I don’t get is why she kept up the charade so long. Why even bring the children at all if Corinne didn’t truly love them. Even in the beginning chapters where the family is happy, it’s... simpering. “Tell me how much you’ve loved and missed me” and a lot of pressing small children to bosoms and kissing them full on the lips with predatory compliments. Like they’re dolls to be owned, pawns to be discarded. As soon as the children started to resent her-- a year in or so when the begged for outside and the difficult questions started pouring in, why didn’t Corinne Amelia Dryer/Mary Ann Cotton those kids? Like.. the love wasn’t there, and it would have been so much kinder to just kill them while they still could believe their mother loved them. It wasn’t until the condition in Malcolm’s will that said if it should be discovered that Corinne had children in her first marriage, everything she inherited must be given back-- that she even started to poison them. That didn’t make sense to me; what was her plan if that wasn’t a condition? She didn’t actually think this would end with her children happy and healthy, could she? And why not all at once instead of one by one? When Cory died, that raised the other three’s suspicions and they deduced it was the donuts from there, but who cares if they died slowly? If they weren’t supposed to be up there, mass poison them all and dump ‘em like Cory, tf? It might have made sense if the children were known occupants of the house, but as secrets in the attic they could vanish easily, couldn’t they?
And how callously she talked about her twin boy’s death, how she couldn’t grieve publically for not even her new husband knew. Disgusting. Not only is Corinne Foxworth a beautiful and conniving witch, but she is also a heartless shrew who never loved her children, possibly never loved anyone in her life, seemingly incapable due to the traumas in her own past of losing her brothers, of beatings and lashings in Foxworth manor and the repressive nature foisted onto her by her parents; A cycle she, unfortunately, continues with Cathy and Chris, who experience puberty together in close quarters and are constantly lectured about sinful ideation.
I liked Andrew’s literary voice for the children and the time period. I see people saying the writing is bad because of the “oh great golly lolly!” type-expletives, but remember this is from the pov of a god-fearing 13-15 year old, as Cathy is our narrator. And they’re from the 70s. I for one, enjoy how different the vernacular sounded; how a smart child of today would speak completely differently from a smart child of the 70s. The way Chris and Cathy spoke to one another reminded me of playing house or pretend-- pretending to be older and to know what I was talking about. The way the twins spoke endeared me to them and felt true to those characters.
The surviving children set their plan into motion and escape Foxworth with expensive clothes to sell and around 300 pounds to their name, disappearing into 1970s Virginia. Though Cathy disposes of the arsenic donuts and the proof there was rat poison in them, she privately vows her mother will pay for her crimes against them tenfold and that the sweetest revenge would be to turn their backs on her in her time of need.
Not me though, I’da sent them bitches to JAIL; jail makes people super unhappy and it’s immediate! For poisoning and imprisoning children, she’d be there for much longer than the two years those kids were locked up. Plus, a woman like Corinne would shrivel up and die without her expensive things and fancy trips. I’d love to see Olivia become someone’s prison wife, she’d deserve that (I’m joking but..... I truly hate her) The only reason I find this book unsatisfying is the ending. I wish the escape happened differently ig, and that they kept the proof against Corinne with the intent to use it, but. They’re kids. By the end, Chris is 18, Cathy is 15, and Carrie is 8, but so stunted in her growth she still looks 5 or 4. I’m only of a “send that bitch to jail” mind because I’m 30, and that’s not my mom. Corinne certainly made me grateful for my mom, though. Childhood really coulda been so much worse.