Loved Flowers in the Attic, the other books, NSM. Somehow the creeping horror of gradually realizing that their mother would never come back for them really got to me. There was a perfectly horrible movie version starring Kristy Swanson. I remember the audience groaning in distress and thinking there must have been a bunch of folks who had read the book attending that particular press screening.

Hated the movie.

There was a musical that some freak company out here did of it. I think ND worked on it or knew someone who worked on it.

There was a musical

Oh that's genius. I'm pretty sure Flowers in the Attic is the only one I've read. And even though it is just terrible, I immediately wanted to read the whole series as soon as I finished it. That feeling has died down a bit though.

I wouldn't read it at night before I went to sleep, the time I usually like to read, because I was afraid it would creep me out too much. But it wasn't as horrific as I had remembered it being.

A friend needs recommendations for romance authors to get for her 17-year-old niece.

Jumping in late to suggest anything by Caroline Courtney. Her books were published in the 80s, and have a string of pearls on the cover. I think that they're all out of print, but you should be able to get used copies. Barnes and Noble lists quite a few of her titles. They are Regency titles, and quite clean. I just loved them then, and still re-read them when I'm sick or depressed and need some brain candy.

I remember reading FitA when I was 13 or so. The incest bit had me going, "Her brother? Huh." The continuation of their relationship further on creeped me out more.

I recently reread (well, re-skimmed) the FitA series, the Heaven series and My Sweet Audrina. Wow, they're awful in such a fun way. Fun if you're skimming, anyway. Audrina is far and away the best of the lot.

I remember paying to go see the movie when it came out. I remember thinking the actor who played Chris was pretty cute, but that the rest of it was awful.

When I read that, I thought if my brother and I spent that kind of time locked up together, only one of us would come out.

The continuation of their relationship further on creeped me out more.

I was twelve or thirteen when I read Flowers, and I remember being seriously wigged by what happened with Christopher. By the time they were living together in the ... second? third? ... book, I too was wigged on a different level. I didn't read any of the others (meaning the other series). Wait, that's a lie, I did read one of them ... possibly even My Sweet Audrina. I'll have to look up the description for that one.

My favorite was the second one, Petals on the Wind, in which They Almost Have a Normal Life. Or whichever one eventually took Cathy to New York to dance. I was so excited for her to get out and succeed, but the whole "revenge on my mother" thing got old, as did creepy Christopher.

I remember being seriously wigged by what happened with Christopher.

I think I might have been wigged more if I had a brother or the likelyhood of ever getting one. As it was, the whole incest thing was more theoretically ewww-some than anything. On the otherhand, non-con sex? Followed up with later marrying the guy? That was something that I realized could happen to me (well, the former anyway). I was reading a bunch of Harlequin romance novels at the time that were using that as a recurring theme. I read the whole thing as, "It's ok if he rapes her if he loves her and marries her later." And I had a big hell, no! reaction.

Yeah, I can't read any of those.