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hellojinko 's review for:
Flowers in the Attic: 40th Anniversary Edition
by V.C. Andrews
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
I have no idea why this book is seen as trashy incest porn when it’s neither trashy nor pornographic. I love how it discusses religion as a tool for abuse, how incest develops as a result of generational failing within the family, how terrible it is to see yourself turn into the same monster your mother is. The protagonist Cathy will haunt me forever as another character who made me feel seen. Her sexual trauma, her survivor’s guilt, her protectiveness over her younger siblings, the codependency she had to embrace in order to survive. Every needless suffering these children faced hurts more when you find out that V.C. Andrews was drawing from her own lifetime of abuse under her mother.
V.C Andrews’ mother was ashamed of her disability and would keep her confined in the house to avoid having anyone see her “damaged” daughter. (And if V.C Andrews was allowed out on the front porch, the mother would have her hidden behind bushes, away from the eyes of their neighbors.) Her mother would lock her in her room without food if she was angry, would prevent her from forming romantic or sexual relationships (even past the age of 40!), would make her wear clothes that hid her wheelchair whenever they had visitors, and would not even allow V.C. Andrews to accompany her outside the house if shopping was needed. (V.C. Andrews would say at the age of 41 that the last time she was allowed outside to buy shoes, she was 17!!!)
No wonder this novel is so fixated on following the matriarchal path that abuse can take between generations. No wonder she wrote the dedication addressed to her mother (who, BTW, refused to read her novel or support her writing—not until it started earning them money!!!)
It genuinely hurts me when people don’t treat this book seriously, when it’s reduced to “degenerate incest porn” meant to titillate and titillate only. It’s such a harrowing tale of abuse, of having to grow up quickly to be the meat shield for your only family, of how children are seen as disposable in a society that values only wealth and power. And can’t we also consider it as an abused daughter’s letter to her mother, a way to make sense of the cruelty only a parent is capable of?
V.C Andrews’ mother was ashamed of her disability and would keep her confined in the house to avoid having anyone see her “damaged” daughter. (And if V.C Andrews was allowed out on the front porch, the mother would have her hidden behind bushes, away from the eyes of their neighbors.) Her mother would lock her in her room without food if she was angry, would prevent her from forming romantic or sexual relationships (even past the age of 40!), would make her wear clothes that hid her wheelchair whenever they had visitors, and would not even allow V.C. Andrews to accompany her outside the house if shopping was needed. (V.C. Andrews would say at the age of 41 that the last time she was allowed outside to buy shoes, she was 17!!!)
No wonder this novel is so fixated on following the matriarchal path that abuse can take between generations. No wonder she wrote the dedication addressed to her mother (who, BTW, refused to read her novel or support her writing—not until it started earning them money!!!)
It genuinely hurts me when people don’t treat this book seriously, when it’s reduced to “degenerate incest porn” meant to titillate and titillate only. It’s such a harrowing tale of abuse, of having to grow up quickly to be the meat shield for your only family, of how children are seen as disposable in a society that values only wealth and power. And can’t we also consider it as an abused daughter’s letter to her mother, a way to make sense of the cruelty only a parent is capable of?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Incest
Moderate: Rape