Glad you asked! Flowers in the Attic is the first novel in a series written by V.C. Andrews. The central characters are Corrine, Cathy, Chris, Corrie and Carrie. Corrine is the mother, the four others are her children. These children are born out of an incestuous marriage between Corrine and her half-uncle, Christopher. They have the four kids and all is peachy. Except one night Christopher dies in a tragic car accident and Corrine is forced to take the kids to her mother's house.

Corrine's father is elderly and dying and they devise a plan so that he never finds out about his grandchildren. The plan is to keep the children hidden in the attic until he passes. Corrine then stands to inherit his fortune and promises to come back for the kids. Except, she doesn't. She remarries and leaves the kids behind.

If I tell you any more than that it will ruin the entire ending of the story, but it's (imo) a very gripping read.

I was obsessed with V.C. Andrews' novels as a teen. But, almost all of her novels involve some sort of extreme trauma or theme of incest to some degree. And not in the creepy, "he touched me in my sleep" kind of way, but in the "we're attracted to each other and can't help it" kind of way. less