Flowers in the Attic, Part 2

Night class cancelled! Since I said if it was cancelled I'd do the second half of FITA, and it was, I'm keeping my promise. Now, if school is cancelled tomorrow, I will do all of Petals on the Wind. Let's see if my bargaining works again!

I'm doing this post with my prized first edition hardcover FITA that I found at a thrift store in October for 50 cents. When I saw it, I gasped really loud and fell to my knees holding it. It's always a comedy going thrifting with me!

If anyone is reading along or anything, Part 1 was Part 1 of the book, and Part 2 is Part 2. I'm unimaginative. Let's begin!

We skip ahead to the next year, making their imprisonment totalling 2 years now. The Grandfather is still alive, but just barely, as he has been since they first came to Foxworth Hall. Part 2 of the book doesn't waste any time with details, on the second page we already get some naked weirdness!

Cathy says that she is a teenager now and has never seen her body naked. She also claims she's never seen a picture of a naked woman, which I find hard to believe. If Chris wants to be a doctor, surely he has an anatomy book somewhere. Plus Corinne wore a see through negligee in mourning, she probably went completely naked when happy. Whatever. Anyway, Cathy gets naked in the bedroom when her siblings are in the attic, and falls in love with herself. She does ballet positions and is pleased with how hot she looks. She turns around and sees Chris silently standing by the attic door in the dark closet. Creepy! Ooh, and Chris hard on 6! He stands there and checks her out from head to toe, while I throw up in my mouth. Cathy tells him to leave, and he just comes closer. She starts to dress and he tells her not to. Chris! Sister! Just then, the door swings open and it's The Grandmother! Oh noes!

The Grandmother freaks out, and come on, what grandmother wouldn't freak out at coming in on her grandson lustily staring at his naked sister? So, word, TG. She calls them sinners and shit, and leaves. She returns shortly with scissors, and tells Cathy she's going to cut off all her hair to teach her not to be so narcissistic. Cathy is all like hell to the naw because her father told her once he liked long hair on little girls, and ever since then she has greatly pampered her hair. Chris threatens TG, and she says that she will either cut Cathy's hair or they will have no food or milk for a week. She then changes her mind and says Chris has to do it, and it better be done when she returns. Okay, I know that hair is very important to a girl, but when it comes between cutting off your hair while you're locked in a room for a long time or feeding your family, I'd go for the haircut. It's not like Cathy has to go to school bald or anything. Tyra would so kick her out at elimination for not following through with the makeover.

That night Cathy has a weird dreamthat ends with her smelling tar. She wakes up feeling drugged, and her head is super heavy. Chris wakes up and sees that her hair is covered in tar. He finds a red mark on her arm where TG must've drugged her so she could do it. How did Carrie, who was sleeping next to her, not wake up? Damn it, Carrie!

Cathy and Chris try for hours to wash the tar out to no avail. While Cathy is in the tub Chris has to piss, but is embarrassed to do it in front of her. WTF, Chris, you weren't afraid to ogle her! He tells Cathy that maybe if she peed in the bathwater the ammonia might unglue her hair. Gross! I don't know if it worked or not, but after a few more hours they finally get all the tar out. Cathy lost a lot of hair in the process and what she had left was platinum blonde and broke easily. TG still hasn't brought any food, so Chris says that they'll cutt off the front part of Cathy's hair and she can wrap a towel around the rest so it looks like she's all bald. They do so, and just before Cathy goes to sleep she sees Chris staring at her and holding the hair he cut off. Hard on 7!

TG still doesn't bring any food, or clean linens, or toothpaste, or toilet paper. They have to rip pages out of old books and use that. Corinne hasn't shown up this whole time. The twins are crying for food, so Chris slashes his arm and makes them drink his blood. Ew! Even grosser, they take dead mice out of their mousetraps and skin them and prepare to eat them raw. My fat hamster, Pola, is like, "Incest boy say what?" and I can feel my mac and cheese start to come up. Chris goes down to the room to get salt and pepper, and returns with the picnic basket stuffed with food. They eat sparingly so they don't get sick, and discover four powdered sugar doughnuts in the basket. Don't eat them! They realize from their almost two weeks of starving that their mother doesn't give a shit about them. Um, shouldn't you have known this 2 years ago when she allowed you to be locked in one room? When they return to the bedroom, they find that every mirror has been smashed. TG knows how to get her point across.

After the twins are asleep one night, Chris and Cathy use a sheet ladder they made to climb down to the ground to go to the nearby lake and go swimming. Hmmm. If I was locked in a room for two years and starved and stuff and had a way out, would I go swimming and return? Fuck no, I'd leave and go to the po-po! Chris and Cathy would rather skinny dip and check each other out. Chris really does get a hard on this time, number 8, while Cathy watches. Ugh. Remind me never to eat before reading VCA books, kay?

They go back via the sheet ladder, which Cathy almost falls off of, and Chris says they shouldn't use it any more because Cathy doesn't have the strength in her arms to climb up it. How about you climb down it and then fucking leave? They wonder where Corinne is, because she's been gone over a month. Stripper convention?

Some time laterthe shit really hits the fan. Chris is standing at the window looking out, which is forbidden because someone might see him. TG comes in and yells at him. He gives her some 'tude, and she leaves and comes back with a whip. She takes him into the bathroom and whips him while Cathy screams. When she's done, Cathy won't stfu so she gets taken in the bathroom and whipped, too. The switch TG was using breaks, so she beats Cathy with a hairbrush until she blacks out. TG should totally be the new Supernanny, she'd whip those kids into shape in no time. Literally!

Chris and Cathy apply antiseptic to each other's wounds and then begin to make out while naked. Cathy feels Hard On 9 and tells him they have to stop. You're damn right you do! She says they will never have sex. I'd be relieved if I hadn't read the whole series before.

Cathy wakes up to Cory screaming. There a mouse caught in their traps, but it's still alive. Chris rescues it and makes a splint for its broken leg. Cory wants to keep it as a pet, and names it Mickey. TG comes in while Cathy is holding Mickey and keeping him warm, and disapproves of the pet. Cathy doesn't give a damn, and Chris takes a birdcage from the attic and wraps it with wire screening so Mickey can't escape, and they nurse him back to health. Mickey soon trusts them, and when he's well, leaves all the other mice and stays with them.

More time passes, and Cathy catches Chris measuring Little Chris. I think V.C. Andrews tried to write a good book in Part 1, but when Part 2 came around she was just like fuck it. They look at the twins and realize that they don't look much bigger than when they came to Foxworth Hall, except for their heads. They try to take the twins out on the roof for some sunlight, but the twins freak out and they have to bring them back in. They drag them to the schoolroom where they measured each other's heights when they first came, and Cathy cries when she sees that they've only grown two inches between ages four and seven.

They go down and eat some lunch and watch some soap operas, and Corinne finally strolls in. She was away in Europe. European stripper convention? Chris and Cathy let her have it, and she goes into poor little Corinne mode. She says that they live in a warm, safe room, and have good food to eat, toys to play with, and a TV. She tells them that her father is confined to his bed and the doctors have given him only a few more weeks left to live. I'm convinced that Malcolm is immortal. Bitch is never going to croak! Corinne cries some more and tells them that they are heartless and ungrateful children. It's very heartless and ungrateful to not appreciate being locked in one room for 2 years. She gives them presents and brags about all she's done for them, and then tells them that she won't come back until they can treat her with love and respect, and leaves. Well, I guess we're never seeing Corinne again!

Corinne is apparently stuck in a time warp, because she got them games and books appropriate for the ages they were when they first came, and most of the shit they already had from when she brought stuff before. Cathy has never worn a bra and Chris has never shaved, but Corinne apparently didn't realize that a 14 year old and a 17 year old would be needing those things. Cathy tries on the dresses Corinne brought for her, and none of them fit because they are little girl dresses with no darts in the bodice. Cathy throws a fit and runs up to the attic to do ballet to make herself feel better. She falls while dancing, and hurts her knee. She loses hope and contemplates jumping out the window, but figures Corinne wouldn't care if she did. Duh.

Ten days pass before Corinne comes back again, and she's pleased to see that they're pretending to forgive her. She says she has great news, and they ask if Malcolm has died. Corinne gets all pissed and says no. She tells them she got married and she was away in Europe on her honeymoon. They aren't too happy that she could forget their father like that, but she says they need to understand that she needed someone to love, and someone to love her. Um, Corinne? If you didn't lock your 4 kids in a room for 2 years, they'd love you! Stupid ho. She goes on and on about her new husband and where she picked up all their presents, and asks Cory and Carrie if they like their new toys. They answer her politely and coldly, and she moves on to the next detail of her honeymoon. Cathy asks her if she has told her new husband about them, and she says she will just as soon as her father dies. In other words, never.

Cathy gives Chris a haircut, which she says makes him look like Prince Valiant (I Google image searched it, and it's totes gay). He says he's going to cut her hair now, and chases her around the attic with the scissors. Didn't anyone ever teach them not to run with scissors? Apparently not, because he trips and cuts Cathy pretty badly. He patches her up on one of the old mattresses on the attic, and lays down with her, mad at himself for cutting her. They talk, and he has a hand under her shirt (number 10), and then starts kissing under there, and I puke. Where the fuck is TG when you need her?

They pass the days listening to Cory play his instruments, and Corinne doesn't show. She probably had to go buy some new clear heels or something. They need to escape, and try to think about ways to make a key. Hey, dummies, what about your rope ladder that you used to leave the house when you went swimming? Who cares if Cory and Carrie are afraid of being on the roof? It's kind of like the cutting Cathy's hair or starving the family for a week. Do you scare the twins for a little bit, or stay in a living hell? Seems like an easy decision to me! They decide that when Corinne comes back, they'll press her key into a bar of soap and then carve a copy of it from wood. Corinne finally comes, and is totally oblivious to their sick appearances and the twins' indifference to her. Chris makes the soap mold, and Cathy tells Corinne that they throw up often, have headaches, stomach cramps, and very little energy. She doesn't seem the least bit concerned, but what did you expect?

Chris spends the next few days making the key from a piece of very hard wood...no, not hard on number 11! He uses that type of wood so that the key won't break in the lock. He finally finishes, and they are super excited to see that it works. Chris decides that he is going to start stealing money from Corinne's room so that they'll have some when they escape. I bet it's all in dollar bills. He steals money from her and sees that she has fur trimmed negligees in her closet. Hot? Cathy comes with Chris one night and sees the fabulous swan bed for the first time. She tries on all of her mother's clothes and uses makeup for the first time, and Chris says she looks like a hooker. Well, it is Corinne's stuff she's using. She takes off all the crap, and sees an interesting book on their nightstand, How to Create Your Own Needlework Designs. She opens it up and it's a sex manual with the needlepoint dust jacket on it. She's shocked, and Chris comes over and looks (there's number 11!). Chris puts the book back, and they leave. They act all weird towards each other and then go to bed.

Now it's springtime, and Chris is sick. He can't go to steal money, so Cathy does. When she get's to Corinne's room she finds her new stepfather, Bart Winslow, asleep in a chair. She forgets about the money and wonders what it would be like to kiss a man with a mustache. She does it, and then gets scared so she runs back up to their room. Chris is asleep over an anatomy book (I knew he had to have one!). He wakes up and asks Cathy where the money she is. She says she didn't find any, and he says it's okay because she probably just didn't know where to look. They go to bed.

The next time Chris goes back to steal money, he's looking at the porn book (12) when he hears voices. He hides in the closet and Bart and Corinne come in and argue. Bart thinks that the maids have been stealing money from him, and Corinne says he's crazy, just like the time he thought some young blonde girl kissed him. Chris realizes it was Cathy Bart was talking about, and is pissed. When he gets back upstairs he tells her what he heard and goes into a jealous rage. He says that Cathy is his and will always be his, and wrestles her down on an old mattress (13) and totally does her. There are no words for my disgust. Cathy worries afterwards that she's going to get pregnant. How would they explain that to TG? Chris says that the odds are against it and that it was just one time. How many times do you think it takes, Chris? He apologizes for raping her, and she forgives him. Really?

They have stolen almost $400, which Chris doesn't feel is enough, but winter is coming soon and they don't have coats or boots that fit and the twins catch cold easily. Chris says he's going to have to start stealing Corinne's jewelry.

Cory gets sick again with the same illnesses that they've all been having, and Chris makes up his mind to steal the jewelry that night. However, Cory is too sick that night for him to leave. Chris studies his medical books to search for an answer to their illnesses, and can only come up with food poisoning. You got it half right, Chris. Cory is getting worse and worse, and Cathy dares to tell TG that he's really sick and needs his mother. TG leaves and then brings Corinne back with her. That's right, TG, force her to be a parent! Corinne sees him, on the verge of death, and hesitates because she doesn't want anyone to see her bringing him to a doctor. Cathy screams at her and pleads with her, and TG tells Corinne that Cathy is right, Cory must be taken to a hospital. TG for the win! Carrie wants to go with her twin, but Corinne vetoes the idea. She leaves with Cory wrapped up in a blanket in her arms.

Corinne comes back the next morning with no Cory. My first thought was that she just forgot him like all her other children, but no, she says that he died. She had him buried with a false name put on the gravestone. Carrie becomes catatonic with grief. Chris and Cathy blame themselves for not escaping sooner. Cathy has a dream that Cory meets her father in Heaven and he takes care of him, and feels peaceful upon wakening.

Now it's November, and Chris finally goes into Corinne's room to steal jewelry. He comes back empty handed. Everything in Corinne's room is completely gone. He tells Cathy that he then decided to look for stuff in TG's room, but she's in it reading the Bible. He sneaks away then to the grandfather's room, and comes upon the library. He is looking for money in the desk, but doesn't find any. He gets to the grandfather's room, and finds it completely empty and unused. He goes back to the library to try to steal money out of the hidden safe Corinne told them about, but hides when he hears some servants coming. The two servants, John and Livvy, start talking about how the grandfather is dead and Corinne is gone, and then they have sex (14), smoke some cigarettes, and then have sex again (15), and finally start talking again. Chris learns that the grandfather has been dead for over a year, and has added a codicil to his will that Corinne would see nothing if she ever has children, or it is proven that she had had children from her first marriage. Chris also learns that the powdered sugar doughnuts they had been eating have been covered with arsenic by Corinne to slowly poison them to death. Cathy doesn't believe him, so they regretfully test out a piece of doughnut on Cory's pet mouse Mickey. He dies several hours later.

They know now they have to leave right away. They layer on clothes and pack up their most prized possessions. They put Mickey's body along with two doughnuts in a paper bag to take to the police. Finally, finally, finally, after more than three years in the room, they leave. It's about fucking time! They could've left a long time ago, when Cory was alive and Cathy and Chris's virginity still existed!

And now, the newest and worst cover.




Awww, cute! A love story! What's that? That's two siblings gazing longingly into each other's eyes, half a second from making out (16)? Sick!