Customer Reviews

Child of Darkness (Gemini)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

After reading Black Cat(which I rated a 3 out of 5) I was only eager to read Child of Darkness to learn where Celeste and Baby Celeste end up. Well this book barely touches on the life of Celeste- she is only in one scene of the book, and she is locked away in a mental institution. Baby Celeste is nothing of the pragmatic youth we see in Black Cat. She seems to be an ordinary girl(which is a breath of fresh air) but the story has very little plot, the resolution is so calcualted it is insulting and the ending......well there is very little I can say about the ending without seeming crude, angry and snobbish. All and all I believe Black Cat is a pulitzer winning book in comparison to this novel. The ghost writer doesnt even try to caputre the essence of V.C. Andrews. Dont even waste your time on such nonsense. Dont even read it for free in a bookstore- pick up another V.C. Andrews book. This one is by far the worst.

Well, Andrew. Neiderman has done it again. Another fine V. C. Andrews book!

I have to admit, that for part of the book, I was perplexed. I wondered what this had to do with the Atwell family. Where was (big) Celeste? What was happening at the Atwell farm? Then, as Celeste's guardian family (especially Ami) got more weird and more threatening, I understood the reasoning behind this story. After all, Mama was dead and (big) Celeste was mentally ill and in a home. Where else could the story go? We needed to examing (little) Celeste's strange journey home. The ending left me breathless and excited to write this review.

Okay, I've never seen a series that more cries out for BOTH a prequel and a sequel. Let's see a prequel that tells us how Mama got so weird. Let's see a sequel to see how Celeste adapts to life on the Atwell farm, how she and (big) Celeste, and does Noble's spirit form ever return?

One thing done exceptionally well in the series by Mr. Neiderman was the "spiritual" and "physic" storyline. Did Mama and eventually (little) Celeste really communicate with spirits? Or were they just wacko? And will we ever know?

While I wait for APRIL SHOWERS, I seriously ask Mr. Neiderman and Pocket Books to think about providing us with that much needed prequel and sequel to this, the GEMINI series. I know I would buy it and I am sure millions of VCA fans would too! And another thing, why not a book about Basil, Wade, and Ami? These freaks deserve to have their story told too! Maybe a stand-alone book like MY SWEET AUDRINA.

Bravo for a fine job done!

This has to stop, seriously. When Neiderman first ghostwrote for VCA, he did a decent job. I liked the Cutler series, and he did a good job of finishing up the books that VCA had started but didn't finish for the Dollanganger and Casteel series. The Landry and Logan series, while not the best, were still very decent, and I enjoyed them. However, it all started to go downhill with Orphans. That was not what VCA would have written. I endured the Hudson and DeBeers series with disgust. The April Shadows and Broken Flower series are making VCA spin in her grave right now. Mr. Neriderman, please stop writing for VCA and go back to your own work. You're a old man, stop writing as if you were a young girl. Put the VCA name to rest, did you know there's a online petition circulating around demanding that you stop writing for VCA???

I found myself confused and frustrated with this series. You know that you should feel sorry for Celeste, but after reading Black Cat, you don't. She is GROWN, yet she let her mother push her around, and Mom is one VERY f---ed up person. And this third book in Gemini just... left things hanging, without satisfaction or questions answered. Celeste (Sr.) is given bare mention in this book, and you never do learn what happens to her. It's like Neiderman lost interest in this series and slapped this third book together out of random ideas he got from soap operas. I ended up selling these books on eBay because I wanted some of my money back and more room on my bookshelf for better books.

Thank God I didn't buy this book, I borrowed it from a friend. As soon as I started reading it, its slow pace just made me gag, especially with Baby Celeste's idiocy showing up every time, what an annoying naive little twit. The beginning was kind of decent, explaining her early life and such, but there come the adoptive parents, the rich house, and other things that may make this like yet another "Laguna Beach" episode.

And what the ph*ck is it with rape now? First there were brothers and even random strangers in past series, now a Grandpa, to make it even more gross?

Also, the ending was so rushed. The only character I cared about (Celeste Sr.) only appears in like a couple of lines, and her story isn't even clear.

Seriously, GW needs to stop. Now.

I think that that is exactly what Neiderman had running through his mind when he wrote this series and book.

I have always loved Andrews and Neiderman's work. (I even ran a very popular VCA site) Heck I even liked one of the miniseries (the Orphans series). But ever since the DeBeers series I have liked the books less and less. And I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that I read books that are truly shocking now because I still get that wonderful "OMG" feeling when I re-read the early books of both Andrews and Neiderman. I remained optimistic with the wildflowers and shooting stars series even though I could not stand them. Then he lost me with the De Beers series (with the exception of Willow because I could dort of understand her and where she was coming from, in the first book anyway), and even more so with this last series. The Gemini series has had to have been the worst series of books I have ever read. And it's too bad because it could have been so wonderful. I love weird and freaky stories. And let's face it, a girl being forced to live as a boy is pretty twisted and freaky. But Neiderman dropped the ball. The entire story was boring. It barely held my interest but I was determined to try and get through it (mainly because I was hoping I hadn't wasted $7 on a book). Then came the ending and it was so obvious that he was desperately trying to come up with the most shocking thing ever just to keep people interested. Instead, I believe it had the opposite effect.

I'll still be reading April Showers, but (and I hate to say it) if it's as bad as De Beers and Gemini, I highly doubt that I will ever purchase another "V.C. Andrews" novel, and it so pains me to say that.

I will not write much on the obvious flaws of this book, how it left many questions unanswered, etc. This has been written by others already. I just wanted to add something that no one else seems to have commented on. The ghost writer screwed up the timeline again (as he has done in previous books). In the beginning of the book, (big) Celeste is interviewed at the mental clinic. The doctor's report says she is 17 yrs, 4 months old. The doctor mentions that Baby Celeste was 6 yrs old at the time. That would've made big Celeste 11 yrs old when she had her! Huh?! In the book "Celeste", when Celeste meets Elliot Fletcher (who later gets her pregnant), she tells him she is 15 yrs old. So, by the beginning of the book "Child of Darkness", big Celeste should've been 21 yrs old. Apparently, Andrew Neiderman does not know how to count! Get with the program, dude!
And you should have written more about the fate of big Celeste, who was a much more interesting character anyway.

"Child of Darkness," the third book in V. C. Andrews' "Gemini" series, combines good writing and an exciting plot - in a completely unoriginal way. "Child of Darkness" does exactly what Andrews has done before, and that doesn't do anything for the readers.

"Child of Darkness" picks up years after the conclusion of the second book, "Black Cat" and readers rejoin the character Baby Celeste at age 16. After spending more than half her life in orphanages, Celeste Atwell is chosen by Wade and Ami Emerson - a wealthy young couple. Chosen, Celeste is told, to attend a private high school, receive gifts and attention, bring "youth and excitement" to their home, and be a friend to Ami - who seems to look at Celeste as sort of a project.

Living in a large house with more than she ever could have imagined, Celeste is amazed at how her life changes. She is quickly learning how to drive an expensive car, going to the best restaurants, receiving attention from a boy at school, and being taught about clothes and cosmetics by Ami.

What's too good to be true often is, however, as Celeste soon sees. Wealthy adolescent classmates can be snobby and cruel, Ami can seem more of a wild teenager than a married woman at times, and Wade's father - Basil, owner of the family business that supplies their wealth - has his own set of eccentricities.

Where "Black Cat" was flawed with too many supernatural elements, "Child of Darkness" keeps it believable by only hinting around that aspect - mostly dealing with Mrs. Cukor, the Emersons' superstitious maid.

The flaws in "Child of Darkness," however, are much less forgivable. This book is predictable from beginning to end. Readers who are familiar with other Andrews books will likely feel as though they've already read this one because the storyline is so similar to her other novels.

The writing is good, but that's because ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman (Andrews died in 1985) has had a lot of practice with this story - the names and places are just different. For readers unfamiliar with Andrews' work and reading through the "Gemini" series first, this book is a great read - but only for them, and only if they've already suffered through "Black Cat."

Recycling is great - but not for stories.

This book is a disappointing finish to the Gemini trilogy. The characters were inconsistent with the first two books of the series in such a way that this book seemed not a finish at all but rather a separate story all together.

I don't know if the GW had thought of this plotline during the Orphans miniseries and decided to do it later or what, but this definitely reads like it belongs in that series. This book has absolutely nothing to do with the other two books! You get a few mentions here and there of Noble, but you don't see Celeste senior until the last 2 pages. And does Celeste Junior really have any psychic powers? Who knows. It doesn't matter.

I really wanted this book to be about Celeste Junior finding out the truth about her parentage, discovering she has actual powers, learning to use them for good, and bonding with the woman she never knew was her mother (let alone a girl!) Instead we get 400 pages of Celeste Junior being alternately spoiled by her foster mother and coerced into being a floozy for the father-in-law. WHAT does this have to do with anything else? It could have been any other character in this situation. Majorly disappointing. Don't bother. Read the other two and make up your own ending for both Celestes.

I can't imagine what the people who gave this book five stars were thinking. After the first two very promising books in the series, this is a horrible letdown.

I was disappointed by this book. It's not really the book's fault, though. It was decently written with an interesting plot and moderately well-developed characters. What disappointed me was the direction the series took. The first two books set up this fascinating world where the family members are either seeing their dead ancestors or schizophrenic. The mother is classic V.C. Andrews-style abusive, and I was looking forward to this story being fleshed out, having an explanation for the visions, seeing the repercussions of Baby Celeste growing up in that family, reading about the older Celeste's therapy after masquerading as a boy for many years, finding out what happened to Panther... None of that is in this book. Baby Celeste is a 17 year old orphan at the beginning of this book, and then she gets adopted by some creepy rich people who have secrets of their own (which don't have anything to do with Celeste). It's almost like an entirely different series. I don't care about this other family's weird crap. That's not why I picked up this book. The elder Celeste barely even makes an appearance in these pages and it's frustrating as hell. The series also ends here. Usually an Andrews series (before the ghostwriter ran out of outlines left by the real Virginia Andrews) featured 3 books about a girl, one about her daughter, then a prequel about the mother or grandmother. Yes, it's formulaic, but it works. It satisfies the reader. The fourth book wraps things up, then the fifth book explains how they got to be all messed up in the first place. There is enough information to make you care about these people. I'm just....this makes me sad is all. I feel like I could have done a better job finishing out the series myself, and that shouldn't be the case. I'm not an author and I don't pretend to be, so for me to say that....it's pretty crappy.
However, none of that has anything to do with the book that is. The book as it exists is an entertaining read, I just expected better from this author.