4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The last of Mr. Neiderman's good work, September 30, 2008
This review is from: Melody (Logan) (Mass Market Paperback)
While Melody wasn't as good as the Casteel, Cutler, and Dollanganger series, it was still a good read, and a decent series. Melody has a lot of enemies, and secrets to contend with, but she shows to be a fine young lady with a good backbone, and was overall a good heroine in face of what she had to deal with.
This is the last series that Mr. Neiderman, the ghostwriter for VCA, put any real effort into. If you're interested in reading V.C. Andrews, only buy the Logan series or any of the series that came before it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Loveable Melody, June 20, 2007
This review is from: Melody (Logan) (Mass Market Paperback)
A year after first reading `Melody' she is still fresh in my mind as arguably VC Andrews' most likeable heroines. She is not obsessed with sex, money, or fame. Her only fault is being too caring for people.
Although the story is formulaic it is more "realistic" than any other Andrews' family saga. Some characters are evil but few are down right psychotic. No one gets locked in the attic or tortured. The focal conflict is the family tree being more twisted than ever. Even by VCA standards the Logan family tree is the most complicated yet! This provides for even more incest.
The VC Andrews formula is aliped to Melody Logan a gorgeous 15 year West Virginian with "flaxen blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes." Her family is poor but happy living in trailer park with her parents Haille and Chester until Chester dies in a coal mining accident.
The now snobby and neglectful Haille and her lover Richard travel to Cape Cod to reunite with the other Logans whom shunned them. Melody is shocked that she is simply abandoned to live with family members she has never met before as Haille and Richard take off for Hollywood.
The middle class Logan household is depressed due to the recent death of beloved daughter Laura whom recently drowned. She was Melody's exact double. There is mean and nasty Uncle Jacob, wimpy Aunt Sara, Laura's cold twin brother Cary, and young deaf May. Melody is set to fill Laura role occupying her room and possessions.
The Logan home is cold hearted but not down right psycho or abusive. At school Melody is also bullied. Weekends are spent at Grandmother Olivia's (we're running out of names for evil grandmothers) mansion where she is the nastiest Logan yet.
There, Melody learns of Haille's disgrace. She was the only daughter of Olivia's promiscuous sister Belinda whom Olivia raised as her own. Hence Haille and Chester were foster brother and sister and biological first cousins. But Chester was not her biological father. Haille was so promiscuous his identity is unknown but her former fiancé Kenneth Childs is a prime suspect.
Melody is also shocked to learn at school that Cary and Laura were rumored to have and incestuous relationship. They attended all social functions as dates.
In the misery of her new home Melody is eventually able to find some happiness as she investigates and befriends her suspected father, an eccentric artist. She is also able to be the big sister to May and daughter to Sara that Laura would have been and to Cary the... well I won't give anything away but I promise you more incest than any other VC Andrews series.
There are also more family secrets than any other series. Who is Melody's real father? What was Cary and Laura's true relationship? And what character come back from the dead. I promise these questions continue to haunt the reader throughout the series as they are not answered until the very end. It keeps you very intrigued.
The first three Logan books, `Melody' `Heart Song' and `Unfinished Symphony' really read all as one as they take place in a very short period of time and focus on the same 3 mysteries I just mentioned.
The Logan series remains one of my favorite as Melody is very likeable. She does not become focused on sex and money and she is eager to help those in need. The twisted family tree provides for more incest than I ever thought possible. And several of them are far more intense than typical VCA. Where as with many VCA books we wonder how or why the sibling fell in love the Logan series provides us with an explanation.
The fourth book `Music in the Night' is also heart stopping as it is told from Laura's point of view and many mysteries we've been dying to know from the beginning are finally answered.
The fifth book `Olivia' is a complete waste, no new secrets are revealed! It focuses solely on Olivia and Belinda and what evil witches they were. Unlike Olivia Foxworth she is not even an interesting villain. A better prequel would have been about Haille and her trials growing up hated.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This needs to stop!, January 21, 2000
This review is from: Melody (Logan) (Mass Market Paperback)
I hope the editors are reading this! whoever the ghostwriter is needs to get a new plot. Before the story begins you can almost guess that an "evil" father or stepfather has committent incest or rape. The negative stereotypes of women also need to cease. Either she's beautiful and vain or she's beautiful and innocent, no in betweens. There are no plain and smart women, those women are always jealous and spiteful. No caring women who are strong enough to fight back and stand up to these evil men! Hardly any of the "heroines" go to college. I am tired of the brothers liking sisters and so forth. Really, people are tired of the same old bull! If the ghostwriter going to create an interesting plot, they should start with adding more diversity. Please make it more complex. What happened to the sad, but sweet endings, like the first & second series? What happened to the heart wrenching storylines? The ones that just made you want to cry. And what happened to the plot that made you feel as though you were witnessing these events? The mystery and fire is no more.Flowers in the Attic was breath-taking because it broke new ground, and it had twists and turns. It was not sophomoric like this novel and the terrible Wildflowers series. All the novels after Dawn, have become to much of a formula. The only reason I read these books anymore is the hope that they will get better.
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