Celeste

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: I read this book in about 2 weeks, I thought it was a very good book, and would recommend it to anyone of any age. It is a very good story that keeps you wanting to read more and more. It is a good book for girls who are just trying to figure themselfs out, about where they belong and what they were meant to do in life.
This is about a young girl Celeste hows mother believes in the spirital world. And when she is forced to take on her twin brothers identity and become her brother, she forgets about her self, about being a girl. But a neighbor boy helps her discover her true self again.


Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag...
Review: A few years back I was a fairly dedicated V.C. Andrews fan, but then I got tired of her repetitive and familiar work. While recently browsing the bookstore I stumbled upon her latest effort, Celeste. I was quite intrigued after reading the plot's summary on the back cover. It sounded...original. Not that Andrews' work is ever bad, but lately its been a little lacking in all respects.

Celeste is about a crazed woman and her relationship with her two children, Celeste and Noble. The novel begins very slowly, attempting to give depth to the characters. It succeeds in this respect for a while, but when you hit the 100 page mark and the main conflict of the novel (Noble's death and the insane mother's attempt to turn Celeste into Noble) still hasn't begun, you start longing for more plot to chew on.

The previously mentioned plot, though, is quite riveting...as are the conflicts that arise from it. But, the novel suffers in its pacing and lack of a true climax. Andrews attempts to take the plot in two directions: one dealing with ghosts and spirituality and the other dealing with the novel's central conflict. There is almost a tug of war with the conflicts...leaving the reader wondering what is more important. And in the end, you'll feel as though the characters have not grown or changed from the moment the conflicts arose. They end back at square one and the journey you've taken with them feels pointless.

"Celeste" is more of a good idea than a good book. Yes, its premise is different and intriguing, but all of the book's filling is same old same old V.C. Andrews. Fans will probably adore it, but everyone else might get lost in Andrews' overly rich language and slow plot development. I am happy to say that, at least for now, V.C. is headed towards truly original, controversial, and memorable writing once again. This is a step in the right direction.

Rating:
Summary: BRAVO! CELESTE BREAKS THE MOLD! A DEFINITE MUST-READ!
Review: Bravo for Mr. Neiderman! He has successfully "broken the V. C. Andrews mold" with CELESTE! On the cover of the book, it says, "A mother's love as deadly as Mommy's in Flowers in the Attic." And how true that is! Mommy is indeed deadly. And whacko!

While it is not my approach the review the book page by page, let me point out the strengths of CELESTE. Much like WILLOW and the original V. C. Andrews books, this one takes place over a period of many years. There is very little "teenage interaction" and this is a much more adult-oriented book. The characters are strong, likeable (well, not Mommy!), and understandable.

While reading the book, I kept wondering how the character Celeste could be so willing to go along with her mother's deception. Then it finally hits you... Mommy has so traumatized Celeste that Celeste has no other choice. Pleasing Mommy is so important to Celeste, the least favorite of the twins (Noble and Celeste). Their very separatism from town and from other people allows Mommy to mold Celeste into her ideal of Noble.

One cannot help but look foward to Black Cat and beyond. Personally, I am hoping that in the next book Mommy gets hers and gets it good! Although in the past in my other reviews of V. C. Andrews books I was unwilling to give away the secret -- who the ghostwriter is -- here I am proud to say it is Mr. Andrew Neiderman, the popular horror and suspense author. I can easily imagine CELESTE being a "Neiderman-branded" book for its fine suspense and storyline. If in the past you have grown tired of the "sameness" of the V. C. Andrews formula, pick up Celeste and enjoy its unique qualities. You will be hating Mommy too very soon!

A TRIUMPH! A MUST-READ!

Rating:
Summary: Like a REAL VC book...the very best the GW has done.
Review: CELESTE has elements of both Flowers in the Attic and My Sweet Audrina, rather than being just another Heaven rip-off. Celeste's character is intriguing because she honestly believes everything her mother tells her, as opposed to a Dawn-like heroine who KNOWS everyone around her is wacky. Celeste doesn't even realize how traumatized she is. For once, I didn't feel it was the same old character speaking.

Sarah is absolutely nuts, and it's not just "I want to stay young and beautiful forever." It's refreshing to see characters who are not what we'd expect...for instance, I expected the "boy next door" to be a sympathetic character. He's not.

Finally, a reader can easily see why the next two books are NECESSARY, not just filler. All in all, a very satisfying VC experience, which hasn't happened in a long time. (Of course the GW's aggravating writing style such as "Her eyes grew small" is still apparent, but try to ignore it and enjoy the plot.)

Rating:
Summary: It's an improvement
Review: Don't be so harsh. Personally, I found Celeste to be much more of a novel than the latest books prior to this one. The GW seemed to have spent more time writing Celeste. The old "formula" was not used quite as fluent as it is in all of the family series (poor beautiful girl finds out she's really a rich beautiful girl with a dysfunctional family of greedy people; she is always tortured by the mean ones and always has a man madly in love with her). In this story there is more of a mystery. Some things surprised me here. Celeste's character was bit different. She was quite the little wimp, but it's understandable coming from her backround, though I was always hoping she'd turn around, slap her psychotic mother and run away. At least here the girl can stomach a few lies and disobey orders occasionally. The insanity of her mother was interesting at times as well, like the way she goes completely psycho when something disturbes her or "the voices" tell her something is wrong. A different range of characters appear, and I'm so glad there is not sight of one of the GW's most favorite character: the beautiful woman who is obsessed with beauty and looking young. Those women all say and act the same, making you feel like the same character is appearing in all sorts of books under a different name. Celeste's posing as her brother is creepy and strange, reminding me of My Sweet Audrina, VCA's finest work. Though this book would never add up, it too had aspects of the late-VC's masterpiece.

This book took me a while to read because I never found time to read it all at once, but once I did I was hardly satisfied. There are a few things that stand out as huge annoyances for me: The mother needs mental help; Celeste needs to come out and be the female that she is, and she should also go to college or something and actually (gasp!) make a friend or so. Now that Celeste is older, can't she just get out from her mother's clutches? She's nearly an adult herself. The "Mommy" and "Daddy" thing still happened, too. It drives me insane! NO MORE "MOMMY" AND "DADDY"!! Can't they just ONCE say "Mom" or "Dad", "Mother or "Father"? I feel like I'm reading a book designed for pre-schoolers here, listening to the girl talk about what Daddy said or Mommy did...

This book is strange with one tragedy following another. But it's definitely a bit more interesting than the recent works, meaning the books following The Casteel stories, where they all just went downhill.

Rating:
Summary: Celeste
Review: First, i'd like to point out, Celeste and Noble are NOT identical twins. Boy/Girl twins are never identical. they are always fraternal. They can look so much alike as to appear identical, but as they grow older, they won't. Anyway, enough about that.

Celeste was a welcome change. Rather then then the usual poor to rich girl, we get a girl growing up on a farm. You can only assume they are well off, from the mentions of the mother's inheritance from a gtrandparent. The children are home schooled by their mother, a former school teacher. Their father runs a buisness(i'm not quite sure, but i think a construction sort of thing).Other then the mother's rather odd beliefs, they have a happy,if rather isolated laugh.Things good rather well, until a tragic accident takes first the father, then later, the brother Noble dies.

Noble was the favorite, and his death appears to send Celestes mother over the edge. And thats all i'll say. Definetly worth a read or two.

Rating:
Summary: All Too Familiar
Review: Honestly, I very much enjoyed the book. I found the character Celeste "Nobel" very interesting and found the homosexual under tones appealing as well. The thing that bothers me though is that it's all most too much like Flowers in the Attic.
Even the writing style it self.
I have to wonder though if stuff like this really happens any more. It's imaginative but all most too imaginative, and too much like Flowers in the Attic.
Yes I do like the book and I will be awaiting for the sequel. Still it's all too serial.

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 Stars
Review: I am not a huge VC Andrews fan. I wouldn't even go so far as to say I am even a fan. But I find I can't stop reading the books. I have to see what's going to happen next, even though I know what's going to happen next since the story NEVER changes.

So I entered into Celeste thinking, maybe, this time things will be different. Of course not. There are changes, but nothing major. There's still the same constants: the father is a kindly man who loves his family and dies, the mother is a nutjob, the young, beautiful, talented, and special daughter wants her mother to love her, and the family is torn apart by tragedy after tragedy.

I liked the idea of twins. I liked the idea in the Landry series. But I had hoped that the twin brother would last longer. But no, that would be too different and then nothing would happen. But the brother is the favoured child and is not insanely jealous of his sister. Nor, does he want to begin an incestuous relationship with her. So, that's different. The young boy that is supposed to be the special, one true love of Celeste isn't all that great.

It's not a bad book, but it seems to me that the author spends a great deal of time rehashing the same issues over and over again. I don't mean issues from the other books (I expect that) but the same issues from teh same book. Celeste wants her mother to love her and so goes along with her crazy schemes. Celeste keeps wanting her mother's love and isn't getting it. Over and over, Celeste has the same conversation in her head, "If only mother would see me as a girl who can see spirits, then she would love me." This gets a little dull.

It's a typical VC Andrews style book. You know the storyline, you know most of the characters, but you can't help but read the series. It's like the road home. You know the way very well, and you know the destination very well. And if someone changed any of it, you feel very much put out.

Rating:
Summary: Descent VCA novel
Review: I decided to give Celeste a try, after giving up on V. C. Andrews years ago, because of the different plot description. I bought it right away and read the story and was moderately impressed, but not to the point where I'm buying V. C. Andrews books again. But, over all, for V. C. Andrews fans, read this book.

The strongest point of this book is that it's different. Yeah, way different from the previous family series and miniseries books. This book reminds me very much of My Sweet Audrina.

The book starts off and continues on for quite some time with Celeste and her brother Noble as kids. Sarah, their mother, insists that she can see spirits, and she wants her children to see them as well. From the beginning, we realize that Sarah favors Nobles much more than Celeste. Even though Celeste's father states that she is the smarter twin, Celeste is the most impressionable one, maybe because she craves to have her mother's attention without realizing it. When Celeste does get the "gift", and not Noble, instead of her mother being fully proud of her, Sarah is silently disappointed that her beloved Noble doesn't have it. She orders Celeste help him achieve his gifts. The responsibility of Noble, and his unpredictable ways, leaves Celeste with a heavy burden, for if she fails, her mother would surely reprimand her, something she does not want.

Tragedy strikes again and again in this novel, and Celeste world keeps going upside down. When her brother Noble dies, her mother snaps, and Sarah convinces herself that her son didn't die. In fact, she convinces herself that Celeste has died (with the help of her "spirits"). This is the part where Celeste's identify is taken and replaced with her dead brother. Of course, this masquerade is not perfect, and things go horribly wrong.

The characters are stronger and more complex in Celeste, and (finally!) I felt something for the main character. But at times I found the plot moved a little too slow, but it made up for the different atmosphere, characters, and situations that this book brought to the table. This book is indeed a breath of fresh air, but I found that it could have been...more? No matter. Most fans who will enjoy it. 3 ½ - 4 stars

Rating:
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME
Review: I didn't like this book at all.

The title character, Celeste has a very sheltered to the point of being imprisoined life. She has a twin brother named Noble (sounds more like a lion's name or a winning race horse's name than a boy's), a controlling, manipulative mother who has a lot of New Age superstitions and a father who is the only likeable character in the book.

The children are home schooled; they are taught to believe their dead relatives appear to them in spirit form and that they can communicate with them. Their mother buys them amulets and insists that they and their father wear them as well. Arthur, the children's father is the one voice of reason. He tries to convince his crazy wife to let the children mix with other kids and to develop social skills, all to no avail.

Arthur joins many other VC Andrews/unmasked ghostwriter parents in death by automobile accident. That's a quick and easy way to finish a character off. After Arthur's untimely death which his widow taxes on his refusal to wear his amulet, she isolates the children further. To make matters worse, Noble breaks his leg at 9 and is not allowed to go to the hospital. Instead, he is treated at home with a home made cast and Celeste is blamed for every jam her brother gets into. She is also brighter than Noble which their mother resents. She wants Noble to have all the mental endowments and advantages.

Add to it Noble's untimely demise in a fishing accident. Naturally Celeste is blamed and to make a stupid story macabre, morbid and sick, their mother buries Noble in Celeste's clothes and forces Celeste to take on Noble's role. Her hair is cropped; she is forced to wear her brother's clothes and act as much like Noble as possible. All photographs and objects belonging to Celeste are buried. (...) Her mother lives in a state of constant denial, even when Celeste is raped by a neighboring boy and becomes pregnant. Even after the baby is born, Celeste is forced to be her child's "big brother." I didn't like the mother at all and her punishments of starving and locking up the children and following nonexistent voices repelled me.

I also don't like the way many of V.C. Andrews/ghostwritten characters call their mothers "mommy," which sounds very babyish and just right for the 4-year-olds and younger set.

I didn't like this book at all. The sequel could ONLY be better, which isn't hard to do. I'm not overly optimistic about that. Naturally, anything with the name "V.C. Andrews" and an attention grabbing cover will attract readers for any number of reasons and the cliff hanger endings will keep readers wondering what happens to the weird cast of characters. Good marketing skills. I would not wish this book on anyone and it is just literary junk food suitable for reading on a long plane trip.