Was VC Andrews a sex pervert?

I had no idea she wrote so many crappy books!

I thought it was only the "Flowers in the Attic" series.

Looks like she was quite prolific.

Many of these books were written by her estate after her death. But she undoubtedly had a kink for (mostly) consensual incest and old men lusting after young girls. I don’t think she ever had any gay characters in her books.

I loved the “Heaven” series as a young gayling and I thought the brooding dad sounded sexy. As an adult I realize he was an abusive pedo with syphilis

William Moseley was so damned hot in My Sweet Audrina. Did VC Andrews get to take him for a test drive?

I would cast William Moseley in every movie I made, if I was a director.

[quote] Her books are awful and twisted.

[quote] Incest, rape, murder.

[quote] Lifetime was having a VC Andrews marathon on Saturday, starting with "My Sweet Audrina," and along with the Flowers in the Attic series, it seems like she was really obsessed with sex and incest.

[quote] What a weirdo.

At what point in your life were you held at gun point and forced to read her books or watch the film adaptations? It sounds like you read the books and liked them. What a stupid thread to start. What's your point? What was the planned endgame?

[quote] What a stupid thread to start. What's your point? What was the planned endgame?

To prove what a nasty, unhappy, miserable, stinking rotten cunt you are R5.

Done!

No, it’s Sex pervert

Authors like to test boundaries and write extreme scenarios. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are perverted or anything. The characters they write are intended to be dark, flawed and psychologically broken. It's more interesting to write fucked up characters than traditional and normal ones especially in the genre VC Andrews writes in which was horror. Maybe she had some kinks and incorporated into her writing but given she liked writing about dysfunctional families, it seemed to fit in.

She did have peculiar... tastes.

I found these books so gripping as a young teen. Now they’re almost unreadable.

Were these actual people that modeled for the books?

That is an illustration from the inside flap of PETALS ON THE WIND.

Or do you mean, we’re the first books based on real people? They weren’t (though the author said she was inspired by a local story she heard... never proven.)

^^ WERE, not “we’re”.

Sorry!

World domination, r5!

Heaven fucked her uncle.

And her name was Heaven, R14?

That VC Andrews really was a sicko.

P.S. Heaven sounds like a porn star name.

I'm not so sure it was a rabid penchant for incest, although that was some of it. I think it was mostly due to her having only one schtick in her bag of tricks.

Every single one of her "series," was the same, minus, "My Sweet Audrina."

Young girl gets ripped from the life she knew to find out she comes from an extremely wealthy family only to find out her mother (or she) was the product of some incestuous relationship which in turn has caused her to have some sort of incestuous relationship!

Heaven Leigh Casteel or some bullshit like that. Both her fathers tried to fuck her and she ended up falling in obsessive love with her uncle. Her children went on to lust after each other as well.

R15 her name wasn't just Heaven... it was Heaven LEIGH!

R17 not true!

She only had one child, the crippled Annie who did not lust after her sibling because it wasn't her sibling.... both her parents were whores so her half brother was of no blood relation to her!

In every book, the female protagonist was lusted after by everyone. Males couldn't be introduced to her without "drinking her in." I kid you not. Every other fucking line was "he drank me in."

Oh boy, here we go - -

Tony Tatteron and Pa, Luke, Casteel, never tried to fuck Heaven.

[quote] Heaven Leigh Casteel or some bullshit like that. Both her fathers tried to fuck her and she ended up falling in obsessive love with her uncle. Her children went on to lust after each other as well.

Sounds like they should contact the Jerry Springer show.

[italic]Won’t someone think of the midget Carrie ? ?

[quote] her name wasn't just Heaven... it was Heaven LEIGH!

That's really cheesy.

I can't believe she made money off of that crap.

Even the Twilight series has more depth.

Go back and read. Luke was getting ready to go at it when he was stopped by his own father. Luke said she belonged to him and he had a right.

Tony got drunk and went into Heaven's room to try to rape her. She smacked the shit out of him and ran away the next day.

Fuck you for making me out myself as having read these horrible books.

[quote] Won’t someone think of the midget Carrie ? ?

Rofl!

She's at the far left of the picture at R9.

I was wondering why her head was so big!

Who's the dead guy with the bug eyes?

R27 it wasn't her fault! She didn't get any sunlight!

And someone DID think of her... Cathy's Ballerina husband... his dick did at least.

Did Cathy really fuck her brother in Flowers in the Attic? I thought she was just measuring his dick.

[quote] Fuck you for making me out myself as having read these horrible books.

Bwahahaha.

You sound like the episode of Seinfeld, where Jerry kept denying that he watched Melrose Place, until he had to take a lie detector test and got outed!

I knew that would work, R26.

Also, Heaven's relationship with Cal was kind of hot.

R29 her brother raped her the first time, didn't he?

That picture of R9 is perfect because whenever I think of that book I think of that scene. Cathy whipping her invalid Granny until she pissed herself.

I would stare at those damn illustrations when I was a kid. I remember staying up all night reading VC Andrews books when I had school the next day. I was so obsessed... then I found out her estate was writing the books I got completely turned off.

Cal was gross. He fucked Heaven when his wife Kitty was dying of cancer.

Didn't the evil Grandmother actually try to save the children by warning them not to eat the donuts?

They made Carrie look normal in the television series.

But Chris and Cathy... oh, my!

[quote]R29 Did Cathy really fuck her brother in Flowers in the Attic? I thought she was just measuring his dick.

I think he overpowered her once... then she did it with him willingly at some point, later. Maybe on the rooftop?

Sorry to malign them if that’s not true. (He did rape her under a Christmas tree in the sequel...long story...)

VC Andrews wasn't terribly creative. Not only did she recycle story lines, she repeated the middle names. Cathy's middle name was also Leigh.

The actress who played the mom in the first Flowers movie was perfect for the part. She looked like a nasty bitch.

Cathy's parents weren't just uncle/niece... they were brother/sister too! Nasty!

The dad in “My Sweet Audrina” was gross, turning a nice lady with no legs into his wanton whore, waving her stumps around in short negligees.

Y'all have gotten me determined to read this trash!

R41 I was just about to post it.

That actress was horrible! All the acting was horrible!

I love how in the recent movie versions, Heather Graham was equally horrible!

Seems just right, considering that the books were all horrible!

Now EAT THE COOKIE, dammit!

Heaven Leigh was hillbilly scum.

[quote] The dad in “My Sweet Audrina” was gross, turning a nice lady with no legs into his wanton whore, waving her stumps around in short negligees.

Huh? I just watched the movie on Saturday, and there was no lady with no legs in it.

It was just Audrina's cousin who broke her leg and seduced Audrina's husband. I forgot his name. But anyway, she was a real slut. She slept with Audrina's piano teacher, then her father, then her husband.

Granted, the were all hot! I would have slept with them too.

The dad (Luke) caught VD and would leave them groceries with a note instructing Heaven to burn the bags after putting the groceries away. Then he tried to fuck Heaven. His own daughter.

In the 1987 movie, Cathy killed Corinne by pushing her over the balcony.

But in the recent Lifetime movies, Corinne doesn't die until Part 3 or 4.

Which version follows what's written in the books?

Isn't there some graveyard fucking scene in Audrina?

She knew what fraus liked.

Didn't Sally Draper play Cathy in the remake? With republicunt bitch Kristy Swanson playing Cathy in the older version?

Which Corinne wore it better?

This queen breaks it down for us...

[quote]r41 The actress who played the mom in the first Flowers movie was perfect for the part. She looked like a nasty bitch.

She has a name, you know. It’s Corrine.

Gawker did a review of the Lifetime version of Flowers in the Attic.

Lol.

Then they reviewed Petals on the Wind.

Rofl.

R49, in the books, the mother doesn't die until they're all much older. She returns as a mystery lady who lives next door to her incestuous children who have an incestuous marriage. She befriends her Grandson and her butler starts to brainwash him to turn against his parents.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the girls obsessed with these book in middle school all share Qanon memes now

I detected some incestuous vibes when the father was watching Corrine get flogged.

R59 he was a Perv who raped his own Stepmother so of course he had those vibes!

Does Cathy push the mother in the original movie? I thought she chases the mother and the mother trips and falls over the railing and her veil catches something and breaks her neck.

I always liked the book covers with the window hiding the real story.

Thanks, R57.

That's what the Lifetime series follows.

Part 2 (Petals on the Wind) was about Cathy getting pregnant with her ballet dancing husband who dies in the car crash. Then she sleeps with Corinne's husband, and gets pregnant again.

Part 3 (Seeds of Yesterday?) was about Cathy's two sons ... one good and one bad. And I think Carrie kills herself.

Part 4 (If There Be Thorns?) is about Cathy's bad son who inherits all of the Foxworth wealth, and sabotages his brother's marriage.

The Lifetime movies were actually pretty well done (after the first one), and best of all, the guys were all hot! Especially James Maslow as grown up Bart.

R61, watch the video at R45.

It looks like Cathy pushes Corinne. Doesn't matter though, because that's not how the story goes.

I will admit to crying when the brother gets mauled by a lion right in front of Heaven.

R62, I just loved watching James Maslow take off his towel.

They also don't fuck in the movie and ate cookies instead of donuts.

R63 that pretty much follows what happens in the books.

I will say that I always though that in the later books when Bart gets all the money that he was going to end up fucking his sister, Cindy.

R36 a man has needs! Plus he bought me all those new clothes!

From fucking Kmart, Heaven. Have some decency.

R68 in the Lifetime movie Part 4, he does.

He actually ends up marrying her, and they become televangelists. Lol.

Also, Chris dies in a car accident, and Cathy ends up living alone in Foxworth Hall.

Heather Graham is the absolute weakest link in the movies.

[quote]r47 Huh? I just watched the movie on Saturday, and there was no lady with no legs in it.

I say this with love, but CLEARLY you have not read the literary masterpiece that is the source material.

[italic] “When she is eight, Audrina meets Arden Lowe and his mother Billie, a former ice skater who is now an amputee, having lost both her legs.”

Oh lord. In that Heaven book, isn't Cal's wife (Kitty) obsessed with catching Heaven masturbating with a pillow? Toward the end, Heaven grabs a pillow and masturbates furiously to spite Kitty.

Meant to include link:

[quote]R74 Toward the end, Heaven grabs a pillow and masturbates furiously to spite Kitty.

As one does - -

[quote] “When she is eight, Audrina meets Arden Lowe and his mother Billie, a former ice skater who is now an amputee, having lost both her legs.”

Ah, I see.

Well Arden's mother wasn't even mentioned in the movie.

They were too busy showing his abs.

The tragedy is that even though Heaven becomes rich, she ends up moving back to her old hillbilly shack.

R70 LIES, Cal's clothes came from fine stores. KITTY is the bitch who made me wear KMart.

In the books, Chris dies the same way his father did, in a car accident and Cathy dies in the attic.

Kitty also gave Heaven Lysol baths and douches to rid her of hill scum. Cal didn't do shit to stop her. Fuck him.

Yes, Kitty had a thing about not letting Heaven sleep with pillows between her legs. It had something to do with her parents beating the crap out of her for always thinking she was masturbating.

R81 not true. He told her to stop but she didn't! He also said if he ever did it again he would sleep in the other room!

Kitty also made Heaven sleep in her bed, next to Cal, AFTER she got him worked up and hard!

Tony Tatterton was Heaven's father. He raped his 13 year old stepdaughter Leigh who became pregnant. She ran away and married hillbilly Luke Casteel. Tragically Leigh died in childbirth.

Hillbilly Scum!

V.C Andrews was an invalid who was cared for by her mother. She probably died a virgin.

[quote]Then he tried to fuck Heaven. His own daughter.

Luke always knew Heaven wasn't his so it was okay!

R86 that doesn't mean she didn't know the warmth of a pillow between her legs!

Oh, those dreadful hillbillies!

He raised Heaven. It was gross for him to want to fuck her. He had Sara plain and tall, he should have fucked her.

Remember how Bart fingered Cathy to a crescendo?

[quote] R86 V.C Andrews was an invalid who was cared for by her mother. She probably died a virgin.

You can hardly call what Luke did raising any of his children!

And at that point Sarah had already run off, like the fiery, red headed bitch she was! Of course, this was after giving birth to a two headed, stillborn baby.

Fanny was a fucking slut who hated Heaven. She slept with Heaven's husband, didn't she?

Also, it wasn't Luke's fault he had them urges! Heaven looked too much like the love of his life, the child bride doll, Leigh!

R94, who didn't Fanny sleep with?

She slept with the entire school house, the Reverend, Cal, and Logan, who knocked her up.

But she also redeemed herself by saving Annie!

In Seeds of Yesterday Cathy catches her daughter Cindy fucking a house guest. I vividly remember the description of Cindy riding him lustily while yelling four letter words and her long red fingernails digging into his buttcheeks. It was the porniest thing I'd ever read at the time!

It never made sense that Leigh ran away with that bride doll made in her image. Why would a girl, running away from a situation where her step father knocked her up, take the doll that was used for the purpose of getting her in a position for her Stepfather to molest her?

How the fuck did Fanny save Annie? I can't keep track of all this fuckery.

After Cathy's sexual hisotry, R97, she sure as hell couldn't pass any judgements!

She fucked her.

R91 I remember how Cathy fucked Dr. Paul, got pregnant and maybe miscarried and Dr. Paul allegedly kept the fetus on his desk!

[quote]R97 In Seeds of Yesterday Cathy catches her daughter Cindy fucking a [bold]house guest.[/bold]

At first I though this said HORSE (!)

R99 she and her son break Annie out of the house and help her escape from the clutches of Tony.

R103 in that family, that would have been possible too!

It's VC Andrews. Bestiality wouldn't be surprising.

[quote]R102 I remember how Cathy fucked Dr. Paul, got pregnant and maybe miscarried and Dr. Paul allegedly kept the fetus on his desk!

He also had that wife in an asylum...

Dr. Paul's sister was clearly a dyke who wanted to scissor Cathy.

Cory was a little wimp who couldn’t hold his arsenic.

R108 she should have tried. Cathy would have been down, especially since she was family!

Cory was the only one smart enough to get the fuck out of that family using any way possible.

Heaven used to walk the maze outside the mansion to fuck her uncle Troy.

Only at first. Pretty soon she couldn't resist the crave for that juicy uncle dick and she used the underground passage in the kitchen.

Oh my sides. I remember the uncle would get depressed to the point of becoming catatonic whenever Heaven would leave his side. Then he rode his horse into the ocean. As if!

Tony knew about the affair but let it happen because he thought it would be good for his brother. Fucking twisted shit.

Tony was probably watching from the hidden passage and jerking off.

The original question is a strange one, that’s like asking if Agatha Christie liked to murder people. The urges to write about something, or to actually do it, are quite different. Stories are fantasies, not actions. Reading the books doesn’t make anyone a pervert either, writes this poster anxiously.

The revelation that Cathy and Chris’s parents were not half-uncle and niece but (half-)brother and sister was so unnecessary and gross that it was impressive. It’s already an incestuous relationship and wrong, the kids are already inbred. Where do you go from there?? Make it a WORSE incest because they’re even more closely related. Outstanding.

I mean, half-brother/half-sister is still better than full brother, full sister!

That’s true... and especially if that full brother/sister pair were THEMSELVES the children of incest... frankly someone should have poisoned them all far earlier.

I remember one of the twin boys had a disorder where he couldn’t feel pain. He got a cut and mixed dog feces in his bloody wound with a stick.

Those books were twisted.

I remember Heaven saving her feces in a big plastic bag. She pushed a girl down the garbage chute where the girl landed in the bagged feces. Twisted shit indeed.

You don't remember that correctly at all, R120.

The evil clasate of hers, Prudence Carraway, set Heaven up to show up at the school dance in all her finery. She then had the punch spiked with laxatives, and got the boys to dance endlessly with Heaven, not letting her out of their embraces while her stomach gurgled.

She finally escapes and runs to take a massive shit but can't because Prudence has had all the bathrooms locked. Heaven has no choice but to shit her brains out in a garment bag and dispose of it in the laundry chute.

Prudence corners heaven and dares her to slide down the chute. If she agrees and does it, they'll stop harassing her. Heaven tells Pru to go first, and she does and crashes into the bag and finds herself covered in Heaven's Hillbilly filth!

*classmate

[quote]V.C Andrews was an invalid who was cared for by her mother. She probably died a virgin.

Yes.

Andrews only wrote the Flowers in the Attic books, My Sweet Audrina, Heaven and Dark Angel, the second Heaven book. They claim she wrote everything up to and including Fallen Hearts, but I don't believe it. Everything else has been written by a male ghostwriter named Andrew Neiderman. Her relationship with her family was iffy and within days of her death they'd made the deal to hire a ghostwriter to pretend he was 'finishing' all these outlines she'd left behind, which was bullshit. They've profited off her name for longer now than she had an active career in her lifetime. She didn't do many interviews, but years ago we had a Datalounger who was one of the few who had spoken with her, for a book he wrote about horror writers. Based on that interview, I think she would have HATED what her family has done.

She was definitely eccentric and maybe even a touch diabolical - but it was all in the mind. In reality, her life was defined by her physical limitations, so she wasn't out there fucking her relatives, raping and murdering people, OP.

Her books are like proto-frau fiction.

creepy, trashy novels. the author looked like a creep. couldn't take a decent pic.

Her work is terrible, but it obviously appeals to some. Her plots remind me of some of the fanfic written by the tumblr crowd where just about everyone is being raped, assaulted, or otherwise victimized, so maybe they were inspired by her.

The story in the entire Flowers in the Attic series takes place between 1957-2001 I believe. There is a detailed timeline online somewhere.

The film adaption of Petals in the Wind begins with the doctor's funeral which is much further in the book. Henny (the doctor's maid who found the kids on the bus) isn't mute and she doesn't die of a stroke like in the book either. She only appears briefly in a few scenes.

The film adaption of My Sweet Audrina really strayed from the book. Her autistic intersex sister and the double amputee mother of her love interest were both omitted.

^^ criminal

Battle of the Grandmas

I never read the book. I watched the 1987 movie on some movie network and I found it weirdly fascinating. So campy and gaudy but very terrifying just the story of family abuse. I know the plot of the book from reading it on Wikipedia and apparently they wanted the film to have the incest scene and may have filmed it but the distributors refused to release it, so they cut it out. They also wanted to film a sequel but it never happened and Kristy Swanson agreed to do the sequel but sadly never happened.

Wasn’t Wes Craven, or another regarded horror director, initially slated to direct Flowers in the Attic? Imagine that adaptation!

I remember being introduced to this series by a girl at summer camp (she brought all the books with her). I remember reading Flowers in the Attic that fall and trying to read the second one (petals in the Wind?), but giving up Galway through because it just became TOO MUCH!

Ugh autocorrect! HALFWAY* not Galway!! WTF!

Kristy Swanson was an 80s/early 90s scream queen, she was in Deadly Friend, played Cathy in Flowers in the Attic and was the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is still beautiful and I'm surprised she didn't have a bigger career. Sarah Michelle Gellar perfected Buffy but Kristy gets props for being the original

Kristy is a deplorable.

R134 what did she do? Is she a Republican?

I tried to watch the Lifetime adaptation of Heaven but the actress they chose was both ugly and redhead!

[quote]She was definitely eccentric and maybe even a touch diabolical - but it was all in the mind. In reality, her life was defined by her physical limitations, so she wasn't out there fucking her relatives, raping and murdering people, OP.

She may not have been out there doing those things but it doesn't mean she wasn't spending her time wishing she could!

R146 a red head????

A RED HEAD?

It's one of the central points in the book, so much so its repeated ad nauseam how dark her hair is... like a raven. And how she hated that she got that color from her father... how she was cursed not to have the silvery blonde hair of her mother... how she even WISHED she had the flaming red hair that Tom, Keith, and OUR JANE had!!!!!

Well, I don’t know. She looks perfectly normal in OP’s picture.

Anne Rice, Toni Morrison and Stephen King wrote about incest and child rape too though their books are better received than Andrews

I unashamedly, absolutely, positively loved these books as a pre/early teen! I loved gothic and fucked up stuff. in the same year (I was 11) I read Red Dragon, The Stand and My Sweet Audrina. I had already read The Little Girl Down the Lane, Audrey Rose, Carrie, The Exorcist and Firestarter.

Lifetime is having another VC Andrews marathon all day today and tonight.

Is anyone else watching?

The lineup is: Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, If there be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, If there be Thorns (again), and finally Seeds of Yesterday (again).

Six "Flowers in the Attic" movies in a row!

[quote] Six "Flowers in the Attic" movies in a row!

You can see exactly what a horrible actress Heather Graham is, too!

Poor Ellen Burstyn having to appear in these crappy movies.

And Kiernan Shipka made a very ugly (young) Cathy, in the first movie.

Watch "Seeds of Yesterday," if for no other reason than to see James Maslow's hot body in action.

He is SMOKIN'.

Didn't VC Andrews claim that My Sweet Audrina was based on a true story?!

[quote] Was VC Andrews a sex pervert?

More like a sex pest.

Whether it's intentional or not, V. C. Andrews novels are very much in the tradition of classic Gothic novels like "The Castle of Otranto," "The Mysteries of Udolpho," and "The Monk," in which threatened or actual sexual violence are integral parts of the story. And literature from the concurrent Romantic period is jam packed with incest.

Those books were catnip for teenage girls during the 1980s-early 2000s. Then "Twilight" came out and interest in them fell off.

Audrina? Audra? Why can’t they just be Audreys?

Everytime I see red & purple together I think of midget Carrie

Whatever happened to Mason Dye, who played young Christopher (opposite Kiernan Shipka)?

He is HOT.

Midget Carrie also favored six inch heels.

If Mason was my brother, I'd definitely have sex with him!

Fan art:

(this could be a whole separate thread!)

Interesting article about the author:

[quote] Editor Ann Patty flew to Andrews' home in Virginia to meet her in person for the first time and wasn't sure what to expect. Though she relied on the wheelchair, Andrews stood to write. Joan Andrews described it this way: "Her early novels were written standing up at a chest-high desk using a typewriter. She would be at that desk sometimes 10 to 12 hours writing. She once showed me the soles of her shoes where they were worn through and the bones were protruding on the bottom of her feet."

[quote]I thought she was an older Southern woman," Patty said about that first meeting. "I was really young, I had never published a book. So when I met her and found her to be crippled, it was like this huge shock. And then it all became clear: She was that teenager. If you think about her emotional life and her experiences and independence — which there was none — her life kind of stopped when she was about 14 or 15."

Christopher #2 (Ben Lamb) was hotter than Christopher #1 (Mason Dye).

Btw, how in the hell did Christopher become a doctor? He never went to high school!

My favorite part of Petals on the Wind was when Christopher's fiance caught him making out with Cathy in the bedroom. Good times!

I think in the books, Chris and Cathy do end up going to school? Or they supposedly test out of whatever grades because their intelligence is so high from self-educating themselves in the attic (between blowing and eating each other out).

Don't forget Pa Casteel sold his kids into prostitution for something like $100 / pop.

I'm watching Petals on the Wind right now, and Carrie is listening outside the bedroom door, while Chris and Cathy have sex.

Has the book ever addressed how Carrie feels about their incestuous relationship?

In Flowers in the Attic, she walked in on them in bed together, and acted like it was nothing.

Now in this movie, she's listening to Cathy say that she's leaving Chris to go to New York. She looks sad that Cathy is leaving, but not even the slightest bit bothered that her brother and sister are sleeping together.

WEIRD!

Was it ever explained how Bart Jr. became a religious nut?

In "If there be Thorns" he started out as a normal kid, but then he stepped on a nail and got an infection, and ended up getting hospitalized.

Is that what made him change?

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that her ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman wrote The Devil's Advocate?!

He must be getting pretty old, I wonder if they're going to hire a new VC Andrews ghostwriter once HE dies?

Did Chris start banging Carrie, after Cathy left?

I think it was also a pre-Me Too thing. Being perved on by male relatives is a pretty common experience for young girls, but back then they were shamed into silence.

Wes Craven's original script for Flowers in the Attic can be found here, girls.

Correction to R156:

Christopher #2 was played by Wyatt Nash, not Ben Lamb.

Interestingly, Wyatt was also a contestant on Survivor: Redemption Island.

And yeah, he's definitely hot.

R160 he became a religious nut after his Grandmother/Step-Mother befriends him and her butler starts to brainwash him.

Carrie probably thought nothing of what was going on because 1) she was so used to it and 2) she was dumb as an arsenic dusted donut.

I thought Bart was the one who can’t feel pain.

No? Did I make that up?

Very creepy. Glad I never read any.

Thank you all. What a delightful and fun thread. This has reminded me of my 6 grade self waiting my turn to read these books as they were passed around class.

Yikes!

Carrie was gonna marry a minister, but when she invited Corinne to her wedding, Corinne pulled a Mariah Carey and said she didn't know her!

So Carrie baked some poison doughnuts and ate them.

Oh, the humanity!

[quote]R171 Carrie was gonna marry a minister, but when she invited Corinne to her wedding, Corinne pulled a Mariah Carey and said she didn't know her!

Midget Carrie was also disquieted that her fiancé suddenly got religion, when he’d been an appliance repairman or something when they met.

All those years of hearing she was “the devil’s issue” made her jumpy about religious people.

[italic]You can’t blame this all on Corrine!

It’s Corinne.

Oh noes!

Chris' fiancee just caught Cathy and Chris on his bed, locked in an embrace and a smoldering kiss!

Gross! Rofl.

What is it with Corinne's giving birth to the Devil's spawn?

I just turned the channel to Lifetime and Petals on the Wind is on and what the fuck is going on with the camera work? Cathy's confronted her Grandmother and the camera looks like it's being held by someone having a seizure.

[italic]IT'S SPELLED CORRINE!

HAHAHA did Heather Graham just use shaving cream as lube to get Bart off?

R173, I just looked it up. R172 is right. It's CORRINE.

I got it wrong, too.

I wonder what Ellen Burstyn had to do to keep herself from laughing hysterically when working opposite Heather Graham.

Dylan Bruce who played Bart Sr. is smoking hot!

One thing about Lifetime, they cast the hottest guys for these movies.

I always thought the stories themselves were really interesting, but Andrews' prose and dialogue was weird. Didn't Cathy say some bizarre stuff like "golly lolly" all the time in the first book? I don't think anyone's ever said that in real life.

The first movie adaptation cuts a few too many corners, miscasts some roles, and leaves out some of the racier stuff, but it's very watchable and the music score is really beautiful. The Lifetime movies were pretty awful. I'm still not sure what Heather Graham was doing. It was like she walked on set without reading the script beforehand. It also has no pace at all.

They should have hired some prestige filmmakers to adapt it as an HBO mini series so the whole thing can breathe better. It's a shame Nicole Kidman is too old to play the mother. She'd have been ideal maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

Sharon Stone was originally in the running for the role in the '87 version and she'd have been great.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I have no idea what Heather Graham is doing in these films or what the casting director was thinking but it’s sad that she doesn’t even come close to “so bad it’s good.” Ellen Burstyn did her best.

The mom in the original film, Victoria Tennant, at least looked the part of a creepy mother who wants her kids dead (someone said this above and no offence Ms Tennant), if not the greatest actor either.

Re Corrinne / Corinne —it started out as Corrinne for sure, but I think one of the later books spells it the second way, perhaps whichever ghostwriter stopped paying attention. So maybe everyone is right on that one.

^ Not according to VC Andrews!

[quote]R179 I just looked it up. [R172] is right. It's CORRINE. I got it wrong, too.

Don’t feel bad. It’s just another example of how Miss Andrews is an annoying writer.

I just found out that the kid who played Bart (Mason Cook) is gay.

Whoops! Meant to post this photo at R187.

Here's a brief interview WITH Miss Andrews HERSELF, for y'all.

Jessica Lange should have played Corrine.

[quote]She may not have been out there doing those things but it doesn't mean she wasn't spending her time wishing she could!

Even if she was, so what? She didn't actually do anything of the sort. Are you saying you've never had an aberrant thought or wish yourself? What's your point?

As for the adaptations of Andrews' books, every one of them suffers from the same problem: they're essentially afraid of the very elements that made the books so compelling to people. They're afraid of the darkness. They're afraid of the heroines who do morally sketchy things with men and like it. They're afraid, above all, of the incest. If you aren't going to really embrace the reasons why people have devoured those books for decades now, why bother?

What is YOUR point, R191?

No one is clamoring that she did these sorts of things.

If Corey had lived he and Carrie would have ended up together like Chris and Cathy, right?

It was terrible how VC Andrews described Henny.. such a stereotype and constantly making reference to how fat she was. Also, there was no reason to make the black, deaf, woman, write like an illiterate.

I guess you missed the OP, R192.

[quote]R193 If Corey had lived he and Carrie would have ended up together like Chris and Cathy, right?

Well, midgets tend to stick together.

I watched the Lifetime marathon.

It was absolute FILTH!

That VC Andrews. What a NASTY woman.

R195 I guess you missed the part where someone can be obsessed with something and not DO the thing they're obsessed with?

The actress who played Corrine in the 1987 movie was married to Steve Martin at the time.

I'll admit I recorded several of these. I watched [italic] If There Be Thorns [/italic] last night. I wouldn't call any of it high art, but it's different...even for Lifetime.

Obviously Andrews was fixated on the subject of incest, yet I do not believe that qualifies her as a pervert. Perhaps when she was young, growing up in Virginia, someone she knew, or an adult told her about such a story of incestuous parentage, and scandalous cover up. Many things make such a lasting impression when we're young.

Being an invalid her social circle was limited to family members and medical personnel. Hence the obsessions with doctors and incest. The other constant themes are evil female relatives and beautiful women with disabling injuries.

Flowers in the Attic was supposedly based on events she had heard about from someone. Whether or not that was true, who knows.

The other constant theme was religious zealotry driving people to inform insane decisions.

However, how much of an obsession she had on incest and the other themes is debatable. I still think she had one formula and stuck to it and she can really only be held accountable for repeating those themes in her first two original series. The rest of the stuff attributed to her, which she didn't write, continued to copy those themes because it obviously tapped into the interest of a large market.

Cathy became famous as a dancer. Her son Jory and his wife Melanie were also well known. So how did she get away with marrying her brother? How were they allowed to adopt Cindy?

It was the 60's. Anything goes!

She definitely has the face of a pervert.

While I have zero proof of this and think it's icky with icky on top, I think if you go sniffing around in the deep dark secrets of many families you may find an incest story lurking somewhere. The only difference is back then people had the good sense not to talk about that shit in public. Maybe not so much brother/sister and parent/child, but a I bet uncle/niece, aunt/nephew, cousins, that kind of thing. And quiet frankly, it wasn't all that long ago when two people could just disappear and start a brand new life somewhere else and no one would be the wiser.

Her books were perfect for teenage girls. And that's who they were aimed at. The guys were always creeps. And the girls survivors. I read them when I was younger. But it got to be about the same thing. Poor little rich girl. And there got to be so many of them.

You have to maintain a solid suspension of disbelief.

I remember my mother having these books, loaned by one of her frau friends. And then I read them at boarding school. I don’t think they’d hold up, but now I’m curious...

There was some Gillian Flynn book that struck me as being sort of a knockoff of a VC Andrews plot. Could not get into that one.

VC probably got moist writing this smut.

Definitely slept with a pillow between her legs!

I don't get the pillow joke, not knowing much about the female anatomy.

Could someone explain?

The pillow stimulates their prostate Rose

For someone who must have lead a challenging and painful life, I’m glad she ended it with millions pouring in. I hope it brought her some happiness.

(Of course, had she been one of her characters it would have just ushered in new levels of woe.)

[quote] For someone who must have lead a challenging and painful life, I’m glad she ended it with millions pouring in. I hope it brought her some happiness.

I would have spent it all on hookers and blow.

[quote]r44 Y'all have gotten me determined to read this trash!

Here’s a recap of the first book, should life throw its obstacles in your way - -

She refuses the same exact theme over and over again. Her books are also very formulaic. She was an average writer and her ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman is an even worse writer. He wrote the dreadful prequel to Flowers in the Attic along with the recently released sequels that reveal Cory actually survived and about 60%-80% of the work credited to V.C.

Sarah Shepard who wrote the Pretty Little Liars book series is the new and poor man's V.C. minus the gothic horror and incest.

[quote]R187 I just found out that the kid who played Bart (Mason Cook) is gay.

Not surprising.

Just [italic]reading[/italic] these books turns you gay. (They could maybe be used as a secret weapon on Str8 guys one wants...)

[bold][italic]“I brought you a present...!”

[quote]R216 She was an average writer

I don’t know - - I only read a few of her REAL books, before the ghostwriter took over, but the first book especially has a really good plot. That’s something that shouldn’t be undervalued.

I used to read scripts and novels for a big talent agency as a side job, and no matter how good the prose or dialogue is, if the writer doesn’t have an interesting concept that dictates the plot, there’s little point in reading the work. Stories have to be ABOUT something, and unless the writer is extraordinarily skilled, they have to be about something unique.

This is an oversimplification and there’s always exceptions... but what I’m saying is it’s a special writing gift to come up with a story that’s actually dramatic. And V.C. Andrews was capable of that on a few occasions, even if her other gifts were kind of lacking.

Wait, there's a series where Cory survivied?!?!

Tell those of us who don't want to Google all about it!

The story to Flowers in the Attic is pretty strong. Lurid, but well plotted. It's Andrews' dialogue and prose that aren't the best, but when you're spinning a yarn like that, who cares?

I thought Petals on the Wind was an even more interesting book with all of Cathy's sexual awakening stuff with her foster father and the drama with her dancer husband, his mother, and then trying to get revenge on her own mother by fucking her husband. That book was a true epic. When the Lifetime movie started and they were already half way through the events of the book and Paul was dead, I knew it wasn't going to be able to hold up.

I'd love to see a version of this series that really embraces the creepier and sleazier elements of these stories and goes for broke. None of this P.C. crap where they're scared what people will think if they depict the novels as is. They're horror stories for God's sake. They're supposed to make you uncomfortable.

I'm surprised by how odd Wes Craven's script for the Flowers in the Attic movie was. I usually love his work, but something felt off. Placing it in the 80's and having Chris and Cathy curse and act vulgar seemed too forced and the ending might be even more bizarre than the one they eventually went with in the film. I liked that he did add a little extra horror to it.

[quote]R219 Wait, there's a series where Cory survivied?!?!

Seriously, I would like a version where not-dead Corey went trans to forge a new, untraceable identity.

The books have recycled and used up so many plot elements as it stands now...

[quote]R220 I thought Petals on the Wind was an even more interesting book with all of Cathy's sexual awakening stuff with her foster father and the drama with her dancer husband, his mother, and then trying to get revenge on her own mother by fucking her husband. That book was a true epic.

I secretly like that one best, too.

OMG, what Midget Carrie went through at that school!

^^ and who can forget Cathy having a miscarriage and [italic]blood shooting out through her tights [/italic]at the climax of her first professional audition?!

Midget Carrie was tortured at that boarding school, worse than Heaven Leigh who managed to soak her abuser in a bag of shit.

[bold]#Justice4MidgetCarrie

Writing about incest, rape and murder is one thing; being a "sex pervert" is something else again. I don't think Stephen King is a pedophile or child rapist even though he featured a child gang-bang in his very popular novel "It." I don't think V. C. Andrews was a "pervert", either. I think she wrote about lurid subjects because it sells. And in her case, boy, did it sell.

The ghost writer:

Someone remind me of the torment Carrie went through at school?

Also, Cathy didn't sleep with her foster father.

She slept with and then became engaged to Dr. Paul, her ADOPTED father!!!

I love this thread. Memories!!!

My grandmother once tried to narc me out to my mother about these books. My mother was oblivious and thought they were YA novels. She sided with me and didn’t mind me reading them.

[quote]R229 Someone remind me of the torment Carrie went through at school?

Midget Carrie is sent off to a fancy boarding school after settling into Paul’s house. There she is tormented by some jealous redhead bitch who gets a clique of other brats to regularly encircle Carrie’s bed at night and freak her out.

Midget Carrie goes missing from school and Cathy rushes to the campus. Her keen psychic bond with her sister leads Cathy to the school’s attic, where she finds the midget hiding and catatonic behind a trunk. Her arm might be broken....I don’t remember : (

Anyway, I think she’s home schooled after that little snafu.

[quote] I thought Petals on the Wind was an even more interesting book with all of Cathy's sexual awakening stuff with her foster father and the drama with her dancer husband, his mother, and then trying to get revenge on her own mother by fucking her husband. That book was a true epic.

[quote] When the Lifetime movie started and they were already half way through the events of the book and Paul was dead, I knew it wasn't going to be able to hold up.

I never read the book, but I think that Lifetime did a nice job of telling that story. I was hooked!

The ending reminded me of those cheesy 80's telenovelas like "Lace." So over-the-top dramatic.

The big reveal at the end was amazing! Cathy coming down the stairs at Corrine and Bart's Christmas party, with The Grandmother in the wheelchair snickering, while Cathy reveals all of Corrine's secrets. Yes!!!!

It was so satisfying. And then to have The Grandmother give Corrine a "present" of Cory's dead body in an old trunk, and Corrine setting fire to The Grandmother's bed. Omg. I thought that Lifetime did a great job.

[quote] and who can forget Cathy having a miscarriage and blood shooting out through her tights at the climax of her first professional audition?!

What??!!! How could Lifetime not have included this in the movie?? Rotten bitches.

Btw, Lifetime announced that they're going to do the Heaven series, too.

Get ready for it!

R233 the thing is that if you didn't read the book, you're missing out on a good chunk of tasty shit that happened in the first part of Petals on the Wind.

Who had red hair in VC Andrews' life? All of the evil people in her book have red hair.

R234 didn't they already release the first Heaven movie last year?

So much I had forgotten about Midgetgate:

[quote] Sissy Towers is also a nasty piece of work who calls Carrie a dwarf and a freak and literally climbs on her desk to make carnival barker announcements about Carrie’s size until all of the girls on their floor come to stare at her. Sissy is a monster. She demands that Carrie take her clothes off (!!!) so that everyone can gawk at her; when Carrie just curls into a ball and won’t react, Sissy continues to harass her. Only one girl, Lacy St. John, stands up for Carrie, and for her decency she gets punched in the nose by Sissy. God damn, this child. Carrie sees this and lets loose with one of her patented Carrie-Screams. This FINALLY alerts the headmistress, who gets upstairs at long last (along with the rest of the teachers) and discovers a full-on brawl happening in Carrie and Sissy’s room. All the while, Carrie screams. The fight is broken up and Sissy blames it on Carrie–saying she can’t stand to have a roommate so “unnaturally small”. Miss Dewhurst isn’t having it and tells Sissy she’ll now be rooming on the first floor next to Miss Dewhurst’s office. All of the other girls have their weekend leave cancelled and receive demerits. The room finally clear, Miss Dewhurst goes over to talk to Carrie, who has stopped screaming but is still having a terrible flashback (seeing Lacy’s blood made her remember the day that Chris fed them his blood) and when Miss Dewhurst demands to know what happened, Carrie can’t respond. The charmingly sensitive Miss Dewhurst warns Carrie that until she speaks up she won’t be getting weekend visits either. unfortunately, Miss Dewhurst is a tall, grey-haired lady, so the sight of her looming over Carrie sends Carrie into a screaming fit, yelling “I hate you!!” at Miss Dewhurst until she leaves the room and the nurse sedates Carrie. Cathy receives a call later telling them that Carrie has lost her privileges for the weekend.

The new Flowers in the Attic trilogy is about a distant relative of the Dollanganger/Foxworth family who finds a secret diary (same exact plot as one of the Heaven books) written by Christopher detailing events that supposedly happened but were not mentioned in the original book series while they were in the attic. The third book has this wealthy little boy dying in a hospital and his family adopting Corey who somehow survived being poisoned and was abandoned there at the same exact time by Olivia and Corrine. Don't know if the retcon addresses the child's skeleton Olivia kept in a trunk that was clearly Corey's.

Corey's corpse was never mentioned in the original books, was it?

Cory's corpse was kept hidden in a closet at Foxworth Hall and set on fire in Petals in the Wind during the climax when Cathy confronts her mother about her crimes. If Cory didn't die, I'd like to know who the fuck the crazy bitch set on fire.

R239 is it any good? Because I kind of want to read a book in Christopher’s voice. He was so incesty right from the start

Why didn't Christopher have any kids of his own?

"He looked her up and down slowly, drinking her in. Heaven/Leigh/Dawn/Ruby felt a stirring in her loins like she had never experienced before. Her eyes stared at the floor as she felt her face grow hot."

In every chapter, every book.

The ghost writer can go fuck himself for this trash.

What's the name of this series where Cory made it out alive? I don't see anything on it.

Maybe it’s called [italic]Cory: The Comeback

Cathy burned down Foxworth Hall. Before the Christmas party she sneaks up to the attic and lights some candles. As Cathy is trying to contact the ghost of Cory she thinks she hears someone and becomes frightened. Cathy runs back downstairs leaving the candles burning.

According to my research R246, Cory is still alive in this book: Christopher's Diary #3: Secret Brother. The reviews on goodreads reveal that it wasn't well liked by fans!

I can't find a GOOD plot synopsis, so I'll leave you with this. Guess who the mysterious little boy is.

[quote]An elderly man loses his grandson in the same ER where a young boy is dropped off and left for dead. Moved by the plight of the traumatized child with no home and no memory, he takes the boy to his vast estate to recover and raise alongside his granddaughter, who becomes enraged at her grandfather's actions and ashamed of her "secret brother." But while the boy doesn't remember where he came from or who his family is, their presence lingers in the shadows like ghosts of the past. A past he might be better off leaving in darkness.

What does VC stand for?

Andrew Neiderman's ghostwriting is a poor imitation of V.C.'s. Not to mention he's writing all of these unnecessary prequels and sequels to her original works that are full of inconsistencies, continuity errors and retcons galore.

Cleo Virginia. I guess the reversed initials sounded better.

Do people actually believe that Neiderman is the one continuing to write these books? My guess is that he, or the publishers, have hired yet another ghost writer, several times over and are just continuing to use Neiderman's name.

I also suspect that a ghost writer was used to help VC write a lot of the original content.

She looks more like a sex pest, than a sex pervert.

After someone made the suggestion earlier, I can't get the idea of Jessica Lange as Corrine out my head. She really would have been perfect role the role around the time the first film was made. Seems like it was pretty low budget and they couldn't afford her.

Ryan Murphy Presents: Flowers in the Attic, Starring Jessica Lange

Jessica would now have to play the, "Pisses herself when Cathy whips the shit out of her," Granny.

Lol R257.

I thought it was Corrine who beat on Granny, and not Cathy.

No, Cathy whipped the grandma, in fact she pirouetted around the room as she whipped her, no lie. It was quite dramatic!

R259 and then felt sorry for her and wiped up the urine.

Also, R248 was incorrect. In the book, the blaze is Corrine's doing.

[quote] No, Cathy whipped the grandma, in fact she pirouetted around the room as she whipped her, no lie. It was quite dramatic!

Lol.. now I know why it wasn't in the movie.

It would have looked so silly, even for a Lifetime production.

Olivia Coleman would make a good Granny.

Or Coleman's competition, Glenn Close. I bet she'd have been a scary granny. I wasn't too impressed with Burstyn and I'm a huge fan of hers. She kept playing her too much for sympathy and she lost a lot of the character's threat. Louise Fletcher was great in the role and almost exactly as I pictured the character when I read the book.

Lange could play Corinne in "If There Be Thorns".

Our Jessie isn’t touching trash like this with a 10-foot pole.

HUSH was enough.

I'm a bit of a square, and I have never read these books. But I remember them. And this thread is cracking me the hell up. You guys are hilarious, spilling all the hot tea about these insane fictional characters. I'm laughing so much!

Heaven Leigh dyes her hair blonde to better resemble her mother in order to go cocktease her father at his circus job. The father sees her and loses focus of the tigers/lions he's supposed to be taming. One tiger ends up mauling her brother Tom right in front of her. Heaven spends about two minutes feeling guilty, then goes back to fucking her uncle.

You can't make this shit up.

In “My Sweet Audrina” the title character is in a coma and her husband fucks her half-sister in the room while there mentally disabled other sister is also in the room. He also watched her get gang raped as a child.

For fuck's sake, will no one tell me about the graveyard sex in Audrina?

This is an interesting read, an interview with Ann Patty, the editor of Flowers in the Attic. She claims that BOTH Flowers in the Attic and Heaven were based on "true stories." Patty says she'd discuss how Heaven came about in her memoir about working with VC Andrews, which remains unpublished!!!

[quote]Yes, Flowers in the Attic was based on a story she heard when she was in the hospital for a spinal operation.

[quote]Well, someone told it to her, yes. Some doctor there. So I’d guess that some aspects of it were true—at least the aspect of kids being hidden away. Whether the twins were real, the sex, the time frame, probably not. I think it was just the concept of kids hidden in the attic so the mother could inherit a fortune.

R270 there’s also an interview with VC where she says the child gang rape scene in Audrina almost happened to her as a child. She claimed she got away.

The Heaven series was good. But after Fallen Hearts, it all went to hell.

Didn't VC Andrews also write "Love in the Rinse Cycle?"

In Australia the Lifetime movie channel has been reintroduced: I’m watching Heaven tonight. I have a thing for po’ white West Virginia trash in trashy movies.

I had forgotten that Dr. Paul makes Cathy recount all the details of her sexual activity with Chris, right before he tries to fuck her. I never made the connection before that Dr. Paul was a perv who got off on the thought of Cathy and Chris fucking each other.

He also then had some weird relationship with his sister, who for some reason had it in for Cathy, without even knowing her. Was VC hinting that Dr. Paul was also fucking his own sister?

What's so odd is that, as a teenager, I found the Paul/Cathy relationship super hot. That's what I wanted at that age - this kind, sensitive doctor to sweep me off my feet and fuck me. Looking back now, it's a somewhat disturbing part of the story and so tragic that Cathy can't see this relationship is doomed.

That strikes me as pretty fantastic writing. The fact that there can be so many different interpretations to it depending on your age and place in life.

Heaven in the Lifetime movies is fug and ginger.

Jason Priestley is ridiculous.

They’ve also managed to weirdly desleazify the content

Haven't read the books, but am watching the Casteel series from Lifetime.

Heaven is such a whore. She can't look at a man without fucking him but acts like the Virgin Mary in public. You know who she should have fucked? That sleazy priest who knocked up Fanny. I bet he could throw a mean fuck. One night in Heaven in exchange for the baby.

In the book, Heaven only fucks Cal, Troy, and Logan.

Who is she fucking in the movie?

Dr. Paul's sister was a man hating lesbian who put the moves on Cathy.

[quote] I have a thing for po’ white West Virginia trash in trashy movies.

R274 I do, too, and I’m not sure why; maybe because I grew up rural, and used to hear weird morbid local legends like this on the grapevine all the time growing up.

Never read these books or saw these movies (or even heard of them, ‘til now), but they sound like absolute hellbilly madness. I’ll admit, I’m piqued. What other works are of similar ilk? TRUE BLOOD seems like a supernatural Southern version of it, from the excerpts and summaries upthread.

Speaking of insane white trash; since the early ‘10s, my Harvest tradition has been to rewatch the History Channel miniseries HATFIELDS & McCOYS (the LARPing vanity project Kevin Costner made because he wasn’t getting movie jobs anymore), and this has nicely assuaged my hankering for melodramatic provincial fuckwittery. I honestly thought I was scraping the barrel by bingeing it year on year, as were Mare Winningham and Bill Paxton (RIP) for starring in it. However, given the descriptions here of Andrews oeuvre, I realise that my chosen catnip is more like Merchant Ivory. I must be more intelligent and tasteful than I give myself credit.

And Matt Barr is prettier than any of the actors pictured upthread so far, so.

Sorry R281, but Matt Barr looks like an UBER DOUCHE.

[quote]That strikes me as pretty fantastic writing.

But the writing itself.. not so much. Re-reading some of the passages and VC's writing reads like a 12 year old, Junior High School Student's journal or submission to her Creative Writing class. She writes as though it's through the lens of someone who has watched too many movies and has never actually experienced any of the things she's writing about... including just general, day to day, interactions with people.

[quote] She writes as though it's through the lens of someone who has watched too many movies and has never actually experienced any of the things she's writing about... including just general, day to day, interactions with people.

Well that's exactly what her life was like, so it makes sense.

Yes, it makes sense, but the point was more about how people read that shit up.

When a trashy work becomes popular, it’s usually because it captures something honest and primal in spite of itself.

r286, I can only speak to the female portion of readers but I think you've got the right idea about why pre/teen girls LOVE VC Andrews books. It's writing about all the unwanted and confusing attention female children get from the adult males in their lives and how other females react to they're receiving the attention.

Flowers in the Attic was a great story. That seems undeniable to me. We can talk for days about the prose or dialogue, but the story itself was well plotted and memorable. I still think about it every time I drive past some enormous mansion and think "I wonder if anyone ever hidden any family members up there for some reason."

I think what was so shocking about it at the time was the blatant child abuse and neglect. You didn't hear stories like this very often back in the day, but these days, it's not uncommon at all to hear an awful story about some woman letting her children be abused by her new husband or leaving them by the side of the road somewhere.

Popular trash is usually pretty Freudian.

Take Twilight. Young teenage girls and married mothers 20-30 years older made it a hit. No one can call it especially good, but Twilight does reasonably well is revel in the obsession of a teenage everygirl virgin with a physically vampire she can't fuck. It's all about the heated looks, the unknown of whether he likes her, that tantalising moment before the first kiss. It presents the idea of a potential lover climbing through the window and watching her sleep as desperately romantic. And it is to a certain demographic, to females who can't have sex with a guy at school because they're too young and/or don't want people to think they're sluts and to mothers who can't fuck that coworker because they're married.

There's a formula if a writer is canny enough to crack it and approach the story from a juicy angle.

I can’t believe they excised Dr Paul from Petals On The Wind

The Lifetime movies all felt really rushed. They'd have been better off doing each one as a two part miniseries.

I should have known when it seemed as if they announced they were shooting the Lifetime Flowers in the Attic one week and, by the next week, it seemed like they were finished. Lifetime really knows how to churn them out. Roger Corman would be proud.

Rushed and horribly cast.

No, there isn’t great prose or dialogue in these books, but as posters are saying, the plots hook you. The creepiness of the story details from these books stays in your mind, perhaps because many people read them at a formative age, but also because someone has quite honestly had the audacity to sit down and write novels with multi-generational incest and poisoned doughnuts and do so with what appears to be an entirely straight face. Andrews held her nerve, perhaps because she didn’t know any better, but the result is just insanely addictive trash and m I imagine many more “literary” authors would kill to be as successful as Andrews was.

On a recent episode of Dynasty, Fallon calls her creepy brother “Flowers in the Attic” (I laughed!) Imagine writing something so well-known that it can be a pop culture reference immediately understood by the audience all these years later (Ok admittedly on a CW reboot show but ya know). Most authors can only dream!

She looks creepy. I don't read those sorts of books, but I did see a terrible movie based on one of her books.