As Mallory announced on Thursday, today will be devoted to the study and discussion of V.C. Andrews, the author of Flowers in the Attic. For those of you who aren’t terrifyingly and intimately familiar with her work, Andrews was, for a time, the Stephen King of incest. You can’t begin to imagine the level of success she reached in her lifetime. Whatever number of books you think are required to move in order to merit bestseller status, triple it. You know how everyone is supposed to eat at least seven spiders in their sleep in their lifetime? V.C. Andrews is like those sleep spiders. You’ve read her, even if you think you haven’t.
Andrews died in 1986, but the ghostwriter her family hired to carry on her work, Andrew Neiderman, is still publishing under her name. If you haven’t read one of her books, your older sister did, or your cousin, or your mother. Someone in your family found a copy in the library, or had a “bad” friend lend them theirs to read after everyone else in the house fell asleep. V.C. Andrews books find their way from woman to woman the way the Twilight Barking chain travels from dog to dog in 101 Dalmations.
So what will today look like?
Well, here’s our itinerary. At ten, we have some fan artwork courtesy of Rachael Schafer (of Five San Francisco Locals fame). At eleven, we have an incredible piece by Ann Patty, the editor responsible for unleashing Flowers and its sequels and prequels on the world, followed by an interview with Ann at noon by Robin Wasserman, young adult novelist to the stars.
Mallory will weigh in at two, and Nicole has what she describes as a “really weird thing about the past and future of illicit adolescent reading” at three.
And, in the middle, we’re leaving space if you want to email us any pictures or thoughts to share about V.C. Andrews and her role in your life.
Well, let’s see how this goes!
Tags: ann patty, books, smut, the stephen king of incest, vc andrews day, writing, youth
I have never read a VC Andrews book, but I spent years of my childhood staring at the dark, sordid-looking book covers covers in confusion and longing while waiting for my mom to pay for groceries.
I have also read all the Wikipedia articles, because I’m a 21st-century reader.
Yessssss the covers were the best! With the little window and the full painting on the secondary cover! Or, as they are apparently called, stepbacks. (That site will eat your entire day, fair warning.)
I too am only familiar with the Wikipedia articles and the covers, but I feel like those cover the important bits.
I was almost too snobby (at 13!) to read Flowers, but when I did I *inhaled* it. And then all the other Dollangager novels.
Most important question: can someone please give me a definitive understanding of the swan bed? Ive never been able to satisfactorily imagine it.
VC Andrews day sounds amazing, by the way.
I am extremely pleased that you are embarking in this worthwhile endeavor. Shout out to everybody who learned what a D&C was from these books!
Ha! It was either through this book or one of Ma Jinx’s Sidney Sheldon novels that I learned about D&Cs.
Just D&Cs, right and left!
My older sisters would read these over and over and giggle at the indecency. If our dad had known what they contained, I can’t imagine he would’ve approved. But I feel like, ‘dirty’ books were almost ok, because at least you were reading. But a dirty movie, or HEAVENS, MTV?! Never.
Hah, that’s totally my house too. NO MTV. NO TV AFTER SCHOOL. But read whatever you can get your hands on, dirty and curse-filled or otherwise.
At my dad’s house I read The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, in which, among other things, he seduces his nanny at age 12 or so, and she gives him a hand job o_O
I think I was “luckily” JUST old enough to be able to figure out what was happening because the language was pretty obscure.
MTV was new when I was a kid so at first they let us watch it because they didn’t know any better. Occasionally they did tell us to turn it off when they saw something that was blatantly sexy/sexist (I’m looking at you, “Hot for Teacher”). But they were generally fairly lenient when it came to sex (they were more concerned about violence). But they also knew that there was some pretty cool stuff on there, and I guess for them it was a window into “what the kids are into these days.” We all watched “Thriller” together when it premiered.
They did put a passcode on the movie channels, but I learned from my classmate that their code the last four digits of their phone number, so I tried it and it worked.
Being good Catholics, obviously sex was worse than violence. I can remember being allowed to watch The Last of the Mohicans and the only scene where we were to “cover your eyes!” was when Hawkeye and Cora were going at it. The guy getting his scalp removed? Oh that’s fine.
But, haha, the passcodes. I forgot about those! I remember my dad trying it for about a week but he forgot the code and mom got mad because he’d blocked one of her channels.
Feel free to chuck me out of the community and give me a good, old-fashioned shunning.
But I bought a copy of Flowers in the Attic a couple of years back… and gave up less than a third of the book in.
These books had me in their grip back in the day like a dirty Harry Potter. DIRTY HARRY POTTER. This is the best day ever.
SOMEONE NEEDS TO WRITE THIS
We live on the internet. A thousand thousand people have written this!
a mashup of dirty harry and harry potter turns up nothing. SOMEONE NEEDS TO WRITE THIS.
I can’t believe you found an exception to Rule 34!
It’s a video, but there’s this.
And a t-shirt.
OH MY GOD
I read My Sweet Audrina illicitly and horrifiedly as a kid, I had no idea what was going on in it. I found it online not long ago and I might have to read it again now, but part of me just wants to remember it!
I…::whispers:: I have never read a V.C. Andrews book. Is 31 too old to start?
I read Flowers in the Attic last night so that I could join in today. I’m 26. HOLY CRAP THAT BOOK IS SO CREEPY EVEN IF YOU’RE READING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AT 26. AHHHHHHH.
Yes! Good! TO THE LIBRARY!
I was just going to ask the same thing. Except I’m 34.
I realize now that I missed out on many pop culture things that define our generation. Example: I’ve still never seen Clueless, which my friends find shocking.
I am 40 and have never read a V.C. Andrews book. But then the movie news came out and a bunch of my friends pressured me on FB and the Kindle edition was $1.99 and I started it and I’m having a hard time motivating myself to keep reading.
(Bring Up the Bodies, on the other hand, I am rationing out piece by piece so it lasts foreeeeeever.)
For reasons beyond my understanding, my middle school library had Garden of Shadows (the prequel about Olivia, the terrifying grandmother) but NOT Flowers. So I read that with no earthly idea what was going on, and noted it down in my reading journal for English class without thinking further. And THEN my teacher made a little note about how disappointed she was in me for reading that, when I could do better. Never mind that I’d already read A Tale of Two Cities that year. UGH. Uncool, lady.
I was hoping to have Flowers in the Attic finished by today, but my Kindle broke at the Renaissance Faire. Not a joke.
I am still, since this was announced last week, trying to figure out how I knew to read Flowers in the Attic and how I knew it was something to be hidden, before there was internet. (Well, there was internet, but somehow I don’t think I was reading about books on the internet yet.) I remember reading it, probably checked it out of the library – what inspired me to do that?! It must have been a bad friend. (And by bad I mean the best).
I’m 65% through my first reading of “Flowers in the Attic”, which I’ve burned through in the past three days. WEIRDLY EXCITED FOR ALL THESE PIECES?
I somehow own a copy of Flowers in the Attic, but have never read it. I’ve never even skimmed to read the scandalous parts. Just the cover kind of creeps me out! Haha. Maybe I should read it now as an adult just to see. Maybe.
Sad that I won’t be reading The Toast today then 🙁
We will leave the light on for you, should you choose to ever return.
And a nice tray of powdered donuts.
It’s too painful, right? I mean, the intense emotions and memories tied to these books. It’s alright, we understand.
I haven’t read it either. I think I maybe saw the movie, though? I feel like I’m more familiar with it than general pop-culture knowledge would provide.
But I’m still reading all the posts and comments because…I don’t know why. Because I’m addicted to The Toast, probably.
Hah, this is me.
A few thoughts….
-I remember recognizing a formula to the novels when I was young, and I felt like I had learned some awesome secret. Young heroine falls victim to family tragedy/weird history she hasn’t yet discovered + creepy sexual experience + meeting young man who is “an eternal, cock-eyed optimist” who saves young heroine (and gives her positive sexual experience).
-What was the series in which a step-father (or uncle?) makes an anatomically-correct porcelain doll of the main character? UGH. I think Leigh? Or Heaven? Are those the same? Maybe the same series where the awful foster mom makes the girl bathe in Lysol???
-In Flowers in the Attic, I remember how the little girl (Carrie??) loved the colors red and purple together.
I read Flowers in the Attic and I think a couple of the sequels at the correct age to get the most out of them, that was about 12-13 for me, I think. I remember lots of descriptions of the younger ones, the twins(?) and how weak they were and how they had giant heads and little skinny bodies and their necks were too weak to hold their heads up. I think ultimately I thought they were okay if a bit trashy, quality wise, but was mainly reading them because I knew it was Bad to do so, and because everyone else had read them.
(so I’m looking forward to the “illicit reading” piece 🙂
I am going to be a fascinated and terrified reader today. I have one of those ridiculously over-sensitive imaginations, which meant my first V.C. Andrews book was my last because it gave me nightmares for a solid month after reading, but I remember also reading it again that same year because I was maybe 13 at the time and I would have gone through more than nightmares to read about sex.
THIS IS ALREADY THE BEST DAY EVER IN THE HISTORY OF ALL DAYS!
i cant believe all of them are in one book now. How awesome. I need to get this. If There be Thorns was great. I remember that one! I’m so reliving my childhood right now.
OH MY GOD
My best friend and I started reading Sweet Valley High when we were in sixth grade. We’d buy the books individually and pass them back and forth. Then, sometime in seventh grade, Amy brought Flowers in the Attic home from the library. That’s when my reading matured. We devoured the Dollanganger books, and I moved on to the Thorn Birds, Sybil and other adult books soon after. I still cannot believe that we were reading about brothers and sisters having sex and evil grandmothers. Amy and I hid the books from our parents, because we knew they’d freak out.
The Stephen King of incest, love it! I was addicted to VC Andrews as a kid, this is the best idea ever.
Oh man, I feel 13 again! I borrowed all of the books from a friend I rode the schoolbus with and devoured them guiltily.
Yes! The first three books are told from Heaven's point of view. Her mom died during labor, and her "father" sold her to the lady who bathe her in Lysol to get rid of the Casteel stink.