Reviews with content warning for Rape - Flowers in the Attic

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

131 reviews

greysun69's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

TW: Child Abuse, Incest, Gaslighting, Child Neglect, Manipulation, Child Confinement , Racist terminology, Ableism, Religious Abuse, Rape, Sexual Coercion, Victim Blaming, Misogyny,Suicidal Ideations, Death of a parent, Self-harm

3.5⭐️ This book is a classic and for that reason there are certain things that didn’t age well such as the term “tar baby”, “retarded”, and the word “ugly” being used to describe a person with a incest-caused birth defect. Although the preteens didn’t speak like preteens, I suspended my disbelief just to read this book. Honestly, this shit was sad as fuck. I was sad for the manipulation of the brother that was supposed to be the smart one. The twins and Cathy all saw that the mom was a liar and couldn’t be trusted but Chris always wanted to believe in her. If by some miracle you weren’t marred by this book or movie, look up the trigger warnings because I may have missed some. The mother pissed me off more than The Grandmother did. The book described that a loving mother was changed by greed but she was simply a narcissist playing the role of a loving mother. The grandmother was simply a bxtch. Those little fxckers didn’t have to kill that mouse! I didn’t like the end but that’s because of cliffhangers.
The book was well-written and I’m willing to read the next book. The movie and the book were similar, but there were key moments in the book that were changed in the movie.

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moonytoast's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

3.75

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karma92's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

0.5

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mad_dog_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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sofipitch's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

So this was one of the few books in my childhood I was actually told not to read bc of the content, and I didn't know where to get it so I didn't. So I do feel the need to defend it on those grounds, there are also a lot of negative reviews calling it gross and such. And compared to something like Lapvona it is well put together, Lapvona is just an author putting every bad thing she can think of into a book so by the third incest/cannibalism/ whatever it's just boring and tacky. Here the incest and rape are a result of the abuse the MCs face, which is the result of histories of abuse from the family. In that regards I feel like it actually wants to explore what the themes at the same time as it wants to shock you.
The biggest flaw is that it's not well written, it reads like someone's first attempt at writing/first novel, it is clunky and just a bit meh. I wanted more given the gothic genre. Cathy is also reading a book once and says she likes to pause over pretty phrases, same, but I only did that once or twice. It also has pacing issues.
But I can see the appeal as a gothic fiction lover and think if kids/teens want to read this one they should be able to. It picks up near the end and becomes more thriller like

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