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. Broken Wings and Gemini were intolerable.April wasn't a real heroine. There were no horrible, dark secrets (her father's secret was laughable) and no real family secrets at all. This book focused a lot her stumbling (and unrealistic) explorations of her own sexuality as well as her struggle with weight. It seems as if the ghostwriter is venting his dislike of fat people because April is obsessed about her weight and everyone else makes fun of her, and in this book the struggle continues and is contrived and predictable in many places. The scene where she was in the bath with the young deaf girl was creepy.It also seems that Neiderman has a problem with deaf characters, as in the Logan series, May was portrayed as weak and fragile and helpless, and the deaf girl in this book is portrayed the same way, in a unfunny and unsympathetic caricature. Disappointing.
Na de dood van haar ouders en de breuk met haar zus komt de 17-jarige April (ik-figuur) in huis bij een oude dame en haar dove kleindochter Echo. Ze voelt zich er thuis en probeert haar evenwicht terug te vinden. Alles verandert als na jaren Echo's moeder met een vriend terugkeert. April wordt door hen gechanteerd en bedreigd waardoor ze opnieuw in een nachtmerrie terecht komt. Dan moet blijken of ze zo zelfstandig is geworden dat ze haar leven in eigen hand kan nemen en schaduwen op afstand kan houden. Een roman die je leest alsof je deelnemer bent aan het verhaal en direct belang hebt bij de afloop. Het boek is het tweede en laatste deel in de 'Schaduw'-serie.
What do You think about Girl In The Shadows (2006)?
So we had everything here that makes a good Andrews book. We had the dead parents, the willingness to have sex with the first guy who comes along, the rape, the being shut up somewhere, the nasty older "Sister", the young girl with a disability. We were just missing the incest. Maybe her ghost writer needs a new formula? This book was actually fairly dull until Rhona showed up. April kept getting on my nerves for keeping everything to herself when it was quiet clear that things would have gone better for her if she's talked more. The teacher got on my nerves as well. But still it was okay. Miss the 5 book sagas :(
—Redfox5
