Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger Series #1) by V.C. Andrews

Up in the attic there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent little secrets struggling to stay alive...
Chris, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie had the perfect lives--until a tragic accident changed everything. Now they are trapped in their grandparents' attic, waiting for Momma to figure out what to do next. As the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months, the unspeakable horrors that plague them are rivaled only by the sinful jealousies that begin to rise.
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Let me start off by saying this: these books are definitely dark and definitely not for everyone. The story starts with the Dollanganger family, happy and content. Then, on his birthday, their father is in a car accident and dies. The mother feels the need to go to her father, who had many years before disowned her. With a promise and a quick departure, the children are forced into an attic with sparse sunlight and little food from a grandmother who calls them Devil's spawn. Enough with the summary, I know, I know. Well, this book is one of my favorites. It is dark and incestuous and doesn't shy away from anything nasty or unheard of. Cathy is the pessimist, and the narrator. She whined a bit, (not that I wouldn't have been bitching about having a witch for a mother and a dead father alone) but she was my favorite character. Her undeniable cynicism saved them several times over, and I couldn't help but feel the way she felt. Chris, though I had to love him, was a little too much of an optimist, and I found his faith in their mother (and his slight sexual inclination towards her) to be annoying and too hopeful. I cried multiple times at Cory and Carrie's sufferings, and the end of the book nearly made me stop, so full of it emotions was it. The story was horrific, and though I've heard reviewers say that their situation is nearly ideal, I found it troublesome that so little was done to escape at times. It seemed to me that had already accepted their fate, at least until the very end. The mother was despicable in every way, and the grandmother... Well, I wanted to kick that bitch's ass more than a few times. That was the other main problem: How hard would it have been to knock her out and run outside? I mean, was the old lady really that strong? But oh well, it made for a better story this way, and I love the book, from start to finish.
Stars: 5. Recommendation: Well, that's difficult. If the premise doesn't totally intrigue you and you're iffy about the idea, it's probably not for you. But otherwise, by all means, read it!