Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic is a Gothic novel by the American writer V. C. Andrews, published in 1979 and the first book in the Dollanganger series.

The story is told by Cathy Dollanganger, the second of four children, whose family lives comfortably in Pennsylvania until her father is killed in a car accident and leaves them with nothing. Their mother takes the children to the house where she grew up, a mansion owned by her dying father, and installs them in a bedroom with a bathroom attached while she works at persuading him to change his will in her favour. The children are kept hidden from their grandfather and punished by their grandmother whenever they are caught or seen, and what was supposed to be a few weeks stretches into years. The book sold enormously and was controversial for its treatment of abuse and of the relationship between the siblings.

Andrews wrote several series about families with secrets, and the Dollanganger novels were adapted for film twice, in 1987 and in 2014.