Flowers in the Attic

I was recently wandering the book store and noticed that Flowers in the Attic (and Petals in the wind) was displayed with a shiny new cover in the Young Adults section. I remembered seeing Flowers in the Attic at the grocery store checkout when I was younger, and for some reason the title had always stuck in my mind, so when the book randomly came into my possession the other day, I read it. It's rare that I read a book and then think to myself, "seriously, did I just spend the time to read that?" but this book actually left me feeling guilty for reading it. And honestly, I would rather have a child read Twilight or Eragon over this book, and they were previously at the bottom of my list...
The story follows the lives of 4 children who are hidden away in an attic in a ploy for their mother to gain an inheritance from her wealthy father. The narrative is from the perspective of the oldest daughter, Cathy, and effectively manages to reflect her emotionally stunted lack of development in roughly 500 pages. Even her relationships with her siblings somehow come across as flat and uninvolved even though she expresses her deep devotion to them constantly. However, I will admit that I wanted to know how the story ends, in the way that you read gossip magazines, a desire for a glimpse of the bizarre as opposed to any actual vested interest. Really, who doesn't want to know how a tale of random insest and captivity resolves?!? The twist of the story was predictable, but the actually villain was never clearly defined, like so many other elements of this story. I was slightly disappointed in the abrupt ending of the book, however I knew there were additional books in the series.
My respect for the book was completely destroyed when I looked up the rest of the series. It appears that they story line degenerates into a series of melodramatic romances and deaths. I believe there is even a sucicde by way of powdered donuts. Since I am not a fan of Telenovela type drama, I will not be reading any more books by V.C. Andrews or her ghost writer. They are right up there with the cheesy romances with topless men and flowing hair on their covers, though this one lurks in under a "gothic horror" label and has no romance. I suppose I'm saying it's a bit formulaic and poorly written...
bleh.
Oh, and they made a really terrible looking movie kind of based on this book as well:

Don't you want to read it even more now??? I love a crappy 80's movie more than the next person, but this one looks bad, and the book is right there with it. :P