Dollanganger

VC Fan, Althea noticed that in FITA, Cathy was twelve when they entered the attic to be hidden away in 1957. In SOY, the book opens and states, "and so it come to pass the summer when I was fifty-two and Chris was fifty-four..." Althea noted that chronologically, that would have made to take place in 1997, thirteen years after the book was published. --Althea

When Cathy started to get her period Corrine was telling her that she got it while she was riding her bike and she didn't even realize it. But in Garden of Shadows, Corrine already knew about her period and was all 'La-de-da, I'm a woman now!' --Rainbow Hair

In Petals on the Wind when Cathy is trying to seduce Paul, she said that her MATERNAL grandmother was sixteen and her maternal grandfather was 55 when they both got married. Well she couldn't have been talking about Olivia because in Garden of Shadows Olivia stated that she was in her early twenties when she met Malcolm. And Cathy couldn't have just pulled that fact out of nowhere because when they all went to live in the attic, Olivia was in her late sixties and Corrine was in her early thirties so Olivia must've "had" her while she was in her mid-thirties. Cathy was talking about Alicia, but she didn't even know who Alicia was until much later in the book, when she tried to seduce Bart (Sr), so she couldn't have known that Corrine was actually Alicia's daughter, not Olivia's. So what *was* Cathy talking about? --Rainbow Hair

Cathy was 27 years old when Olivia died in the fire. In the prologue for Garden, Olivia's diary said that no one was supposed to read it for twenty years after her death. Well then Cathy must've been 47 when she finally read her diary. In Seeds of Yesterday, when she and Chris are in their early fifties, I'm assuming that Cathy still didn't know that Chris and Corrine were brother and sister, not half-uncle and half-neice. (And the actual diary was not read until after Cathy and Chris' deaths had occurred.) --Rainbow Hair

It is very clear that when Cathy and her siblings went into the attic, it was 1957. Well, Seeds of Yesterday began in 1997 and it ended in year 2000-2002. --Rainbow Hair

In Flowers, Chris Sr died on his thirty-sixth birthday. In Garden, Corrine wrote and said that Chris died on his thirty-fifth birthday. --Rainbow Hair

(Major thanks go to Rainbow Hair for MANY submissions for this section.)

On the subject of mistakes and observations, Cathy says that the twins smile at her reference to "Mary Poppins" when they come downstairs from the attic covered in dust during their early days of imprisonment (1957-1960). That particular movie was not released until 1964, which was four years after they escaped from Foxworth Hall. --Natasha

I found a mistake to do with the Flowers in the Attic [Dollanganger] series. Cathy started writing the books when she injured her knee in "Thorns." At this point their Grandmother had already died so her first book was released after the death of gm. Yet in "Garden," the opening states that the book was being written in defense of what Olivia had done - implying that she knew of Cathy's books. Now as far as I am aware the ghostwriter denies having anything to do with writing "Garden" and claims this was completed by VCA yet this seems like a rather big point for someone to "forget." --Helena

Can I point out that Miss Andrews was dying when she wrote GOS? There were many discrepacies in that particular book but I chalk it up to her illness. --Mutt

I have just realized that Malcolm Foxworth, Jr. was called Mal for short in "Garden of Shadows." However, in "Seeds of Yesterday," as Joel Foxworth is telling his life story to Chris and Cathy, he says that his brother was called Mel. Also, in "Seeds of Yesterday," Cathy says that the twins were five years old when they entered Foxworth Hall in 1957, when in fact, the twins were four. Cathy's memory must have been failing her! --Penguin1jg

In "Garden of Shadows"" Malcolm Foxworth's first son is nicknamed "Mal." Yet, in "Seeds of Yesterday," Joel states that his brother was called "Mel." A minor error, yet rather confusing, as well. --Jennifer DiBartolo

In "Flowers in the Attic" Corrine says she had a brother who died whose nick name was Mel. In "Garden of Shadows" Olivia says she nick named Malcolm Jr. Mal. --SamiMojoJoJo

When Bart is reading Cathy's book, he talks about reading about his father dying in the fire. Now, this may not be a mistake but I was under the impression that the book that Bart was stealing was "Flowers in the Attic," but Bart Sr doesn't die until Petals. Also, in "If There Be Thorns," Cathy tells Jory about his birth and it takes a lot longer than it actually does in Petals. --Lis

In Petals on the Wind, Cathy confronts her mother about the attic days and demands her mother to tell her what really happened to Cory. Corrine states that after Cory died, she didn't know what to do with him, so she threw him in a deep ravine and covered him up.....Cathy says that her mother did not do that. When Cathy was revisiting the attic, she said she found a small room, and in that room was a strange odor of something rotting and decaying. Was it possible that Corrine may have hid Cory's body in that room... the answer never actually comes out, and as usual, leaves us die hard fans hanging! --Amie

In "Garden of Shadows" after Mal died, Olivia had told Malcolm that Joel would not be returning to school and that he had tried out for an orchestra and had been accepted. He would be leaving for Switzerland. In "Seeds of Yesterday" when Joel came back to Foxworth Hall, he told Cathy and Chris that he had run away the night of Mel's (MAL: he was your brother, get his name right, Joel) funeral and that he worked as a deck hand to earn money to go to France. What happened to his orchestra?? Also his mother had set up a trust account for the 2 brothers. Why didn't he use that to get to France?? --Robyn

I noticed in GOS that when Mal died, John Amos came to visit. It said John Amos was 31, but how could that be. He was 6 years younger than Olivia (she was 24 at the beginning of the book, John Amos was 18 at the wedding), but Olivia could not have been 37 at that time becasue Mal was 18 and Olivia was 24 when Mal was born??? --Abbie

Cathy was talking about Chris going to college 30 miles away. But later when she talks about it she names the school as Duke University. I live in NC, and Duke Univ, is MUCH further than 30 miles from the NC/SC state line. --Stacy

After Julian's accident and Cathy and Chris go to the hospital, she says that when he wakes up, she gets up and goes to him...well, she has a cast on her foot where Julian broke her toes when he jumped on them, so how is she going to just get up and go?? --Stacy

Cathy had a cast only up to one knee and this was five-six days after he broke her toes. She was perfectly capable of walking/limping to him. --Mutt

When Cathy has Jory, she names him Julian Janus Marquet nickname Jory, but in If There Be thorns and Seeds of Yesterday his full name is Jory Janus (Marquet). --Beth

In "Seeds of Yesterday," I'm not sure what page, there are quite a few mispellings. One which I remember quite well is "wih" which is supposed to be "with"... --Jade

Regarding Rainbow Hair's question regarding Cathy's "slip" that her maternal grandmother was 16 when she married her 55-year-old husband, I think the author meant for Cathy to say her paternal grandmother. Of course, you and I know she is one and the same (Alicia) and it makes sense that Christopher Sr. would have spoken about his mother at some point and Corrine knew of her as well (not their true relationship), as she talked about her when explaining how she and Chris Sr. got together in FITA. Anyway, Cathy couldn't have known about Alicia being Corrine's mother as well, so I think it was just a slip-up on the part of the author. --Nikki

Regarding Rainbow Hair's comments about Olivia's diary and how Cathy must have read it. Who's to say that she did read it? After all, Cathy hated the grandmother and wouldn't have wanted anything to do with her. Further, in regard to the diary being written as a defense for what Olivia had done, don't most people keep a diary during their lives? (i.e. they don't decide to sit down and write their whole life story one day). So, I don't think Olivia's diary had anything to do with Cathy's book. I think it was Olivia's way of attempting to make peace with God and herself for what she had done. --Nikki

Regarding the comment about how unattractive the Dollanganger children were. I have only one question: If you were locked away for more than three years, with barely any sunlight, beaten, starved, fed poison doughnuts, etc. how great would YOU look? As far as how they looked on the other books, especially the Petals on the Wind cover, I think the author/illustrator was attempting to show how the horror of the attic had never left them. Would it have made sense for them to look any other way? I don't think so. --Nikki

Keeping with Julian's death scene... it is said that his head is strung up and back because of his broken neck. Yet when Cathy lies down beside him he says he can't feel her hand on his chest... how does he know it's there in the first place? He can't look down to see it. --Mutt

Just an interesting point everybody seems to miss... Corinne was pregnant with Chris Jr when she and Chris Sr ran away from Foxworth Hall. --Mutt

In FITA I found a part where Corinne tells Cathy that for everything that seems difficult and complicated, there is a book showing how easy it is. And Cathy goes "THAT I was to find out" Is she refering to what I think she is? ;) --Mutt

In Petals where Cathy is talking to Paul and comparing him to Julian and he says that she should be out with Julian, but Julian is out of town although she suspects that he will be back the next week so Paul says that he guesses the next week of her time will belong to Julian then. And she says something like she doesn't know because sometimes she wants him other times she doesn't. Cathy and Julian have already broken up and he has been ignoring her existence (to her knowledge) since her 16th bday...so how can the next week belong to him and how can she say that she is torn with indecision when this is the time period that she refuses to acknowledge her feelings for him?
This all happens the night Cathy and Paul get together, about a year and a half after Julian leaves her. Just a few pages later Julian tries to talk to her at the dance studio and she refuses to have anything to do with him. It was to my understanding that they didn't do anything other than dance sometimes between her 16 bday and the Christmas ballets almost two years later. --Mutt

In FITA, Cathy says that Chris is 2 yrs and 5 months older than her. Cathy was born in April and Chris mid to late November so how is that considered 5 months? --Mutt

The night Cathy crashes the Christmas party at Foxworth Hall it is supposed to be 15 years after the one she saw when she was 12. Yet several pages before she says Jory will be four in February... either Jory is nearly three or it's 16 years after the first party.
I get heckled on this point so I'll explain further: Cathy married Julian one year after moving to NYC which put her two months shy of 19. Jory was born on their 6th anniversary so she was just shy of 25. The night of the party Cathy says Corinne is 48 and she is 21 yrs younger so she's 27, nearly 28. That means Jory is almost three, not four. --Mutt

In "Seeds of Yesterday" we never did find out who pulled those mean pranks on Jory(tacks in his bed, the windows open,etc...). --EarthAngel

I've noticed that in "Flowers in the Attic" when the dollhouse is brought up for the twins to play with, that Corinne says Malcolm smashed the glass case around it so she could play with it when she was little. But in "Garden of Shadows" it never mentions the dollhouse case ever being smashed. --EarthAngel

When Olivia meets Alicia she says that she has chestnut color hair, which is a brownish color. But when she is preparing the north room for Corrine's children she finds Alicia's hair brush and says that the hair strands are a golden color. --EarthAngel

In the Mistakes and Observations section, someone named Stacy points out that Duke University is not thirty miles away from any point in South Carolina. I just finished reading POTW today, and I just wanted to correct her observation. The school that was 30 miles outside of Clairmont was the prep school that Chris attended, not his college. --BLAIR

In "Petals on the Wind" on page 313 it says " Carrie was twenty now, I was twenty-seven....." so it says that Cathy is seven years older than Carrie. But in "Garden of Shadows"on page 362 it says "......baby girl named Cathy; the second, EIGHT years later..... the birth of twins.." Also in "Flowers in the Attic" if Cathy was twelve and the twins were four when they went into the attic then she was eight years older than the twins. --EarthAngel

In "Garden of Shadows" Olivia keeps referring Christopher [Sr.] as Malcolm's stepbrother instead of his half- brother, well after all they had the same father. --EarthAngel