Flowers in the Attic on Lifetime TOMORROW

I had never read the book Flowers in the Attic. The book was first published before I was born, and then it wasn't until many, many years later that I first heard people talking about it and how weird it was. Needless to say, that didn't really sell me on reading it.

But then I was offered the opportunity to read/review the new mass market paperback version that ties in to the upcoming Lifetime movie based on the book. So I thought, Sure, why not? Let's see what this is all about.

Well, it certainly wasn't as pornographic as I had expected based on what I'd heard other people say about the book.

It is, however, actually kind of sad and crazy. Everything seems to be hunky-dory for Cathy, Chris, Cory, and Carrie until their father dies in a car accident. Hard-pressed for money, their mother decides to move back in with her very rich parents. The only problem is that a) the grandparents wrote their daughter out of their will because of something she did way back when and b) the grandfather doesn't know that his daughter has children.

As told by Cathy, the story details the children's lives spent hiding away in their grandparents' attic so that the grandfather doesn't know they exist. Their mother keeps telling them that she's going to win her father's affection again and inherit his money, and then when he dies (he's very sickly), the children will be released from the attic.

But that's not what happens.

And yes, brother and sister Chris and Cathy have sex once. But it's not romantic or heavily detailed. It basically happens out of frustration at being teenagers cooped up alone in one room for three years and not understanding how to cope with their hormones and not being able to see any other teenager along with being physically and mentally abused by the only adults in their lives.

The whole thing is just crazy! And I liked the book more than I thought I would.

If you want to see the book in action, check out the Flowers in the Attic movie on Lifetime tomorrow, January 18 at 8 p.m. ET. The movie stars Heather Graham as the mother, Ellen Burstyn as the grandmother, and Kiernan Shipka (Sally from Mad Men) as Cathy along with Dylan Bruce, Mason Dye, Chad Willett, Ava Telek, and Maxwell Kovach. You can watch the trailer here:



Flowers in the Attic is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. It is available to purchase now. I received a free review copy for my honest review.