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Celeste
V.C. Andrews Book Review

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Plot Summary of Celeste
"

Pocket, Apr 2004, 7.99
ISBN: 0743428625

Twins Noble and Atwell are part of a close knit family though their Mommy Sarah favors her son over her daughter. Mommy takes the children to purchase amulets to ward off evil over the concerns of her increasingly worried husband Arthur that Sarah is over the edge and their kids are suffering. Not long afterward, Arthur, a skeptic of mystic powers, dies from a cerebral aneurism. Mommy knows that the spirits took Arthur away because he failed to heed her advice about protection.

Mommy becomes displeased and concerned when Celeste displays mystical prowess before Noble. At a nearby stream, Celeste and Noble push and pull with his fishing rod. When she lets go, he falls, cracks his head on a rock, and dies in the accident. Mommy is stunned that her “daughter” died as from now on Celeste is to be Noble and she is so convincing that the authorities believe the female twin died. Though a bit confused, Celeste's personality wanes over the years as with Mommy's impetus Noble takes over until adolescence sets in encouraged by Elliot moving next door.

Though CELESTE is the author's usual theme of a dysfunctional family in which the suffering of the children from deranged adults surface in adolescence, C.V. Andrews provides an intriguing thriller. Still the initial reactions that Celeste could not pose as Noble and how did the authorities get fooled are overcome when one realizes how isolated the twins were and how Mommy believed that the girl died. Though Mommy seems out of the Bates Motel, Celeste as Noble and later as female yearnings surface makes for a fine tale that will excite fans of the author.

Harriet Klausner

"

Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar

" Celeste and her identical twin brother, Noble, are close until a accident takes Noble's live. It's a loss that pushes their mother, a woman obsessed with ghosts and the afterlife, over the edge. Desperate to keep her son alive, Celeste's mother forces her to cut her hair, wear boy's clothes and take Noble's identity. Celeste has virtually disappeared until a boy moves in next door and Celeste will risk her mother's warth to let herself comes back to life.
" Celeste" is the story of a girl on the edge of a breakdown and the story of her mother, who you don't really know if she sees the ghosts she claims to or if she is simply an unbalanced woman or both."

Greg Bryant, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Celeste
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - depressed - thoughtful
Time/era of story - present (2000-2010)
Kids growing up/acting up? Yes
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Coping with loss of loved one(s) Yes
Loss of... - brother/sisters
Parents/lack of parents problem? - parental abuse

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a kid - a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - homemaker
Has magical powers? Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount - an average amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 2 ()
United States Yes
Farm/Ranch? Yes
Farm/Ranch: - farm

Style
Person - mostly 1st - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of anatomy - rape/molest (yeech!)
Unusual Style: - a lot of stream of consciousness - written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript - significantly more descript than dialog
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