A long time ago when I was maybe 10, I watched a movie called Flowers in the Attic. At that age, I really didn’t know what was going on in the story. All I knew is that I loved the dark creepiness of it, and it lingered on the edges of my mind for the longest time. How can you get better than a story about an old grumpy lady allowing her daughter to come live with her again after the daugher’s husband dies, as long as her daughter’s four children stay in the attic for months and then years, because they’re the “devil’s spawn” from an incestual marriage between their mother and her half-uncle? Yeah, that’s actually what it’s about in a nutshell.
One day, as I was browsing through the many options of Netflix movies, I found this movie again and decided to watch it. This time, I understood it and realized it definitely dealt with some dark subject matter. And no, I’m not talking about the new Lifetime movies they are doing on them. Those are awful and an embarrassment in acting!
Although the subject should have kept me away from the books, I decided to read them when I found out it was more than one book and an actual series about the Dollanganger siblings. It intrigued me. They did sell big time, and I’m always curious when I know a book is a best-seller. I have to know why it is. Along with that, I knew they sparked controversy. Who doesn’t get drawn in by that?
As I begin to read the books by V.C. Andrews, I started to feel really uncomfortable and realized they left a lot of the thematic elements of the books out of the movie. And rightly so. Who wants to watch a movie full of sex scenes between a brother and sister? I had to stop after the second book in the series. Although they are wonderfully written and very original in some sense, I just couldn’t bring myself to finish them.
Do I really want to be given a detailed description of a brother’s romantic and passionate feelings toward his sister? No, not really. Having a brother of my own kind of grossed me out, because the books made me question if I was locked up for years in an attic with only my siblings to grow up with and go through puberty with, would this occur? Ehhh…nevermind, I gag just thinking about that. So the answers probably no.
It was a creative story, I’ll give her that. But because of the uncomfortable feelings it gave me, I have to take a break from them. Perhaps one day I’ll grow curious to find out what became of the Dollanganger children, but for now, I think I’ll steer clear of incestual books, best-seller or not.
Cozy Corner 