Book Review for “Echoes in the Walls” by V.C. Andrews

On By KaraIn -Young Adult/New Adult, Uncategorized

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I’m not sure why I keep torturing myself by buying all the new V.C. Andrews releases. I keep holding out hope that Andrew Neiderman, the ghostwriter for Andrews, will return to writing actually GOOD stories but so far that hasn’t happened. Echoes in the Walls is the sequel to House of Secrets and just as terrible. I’ll get more into my thoughts after the synopsis. There will be spoilers.

Synopsis

Fern and her mother have lived as servants in Wyndemere House, the old gothic mansion of the Davenport family, for as long as she can remember. And her friendship with Dr. Davenport’s son Ryder was never a problem…until they came of age.

As cruel forces try to come between Fern and Ryder, what really holds the biggest threat to their happiness is the past, and the truths it threatens them with.

My Thoughts

To put it simply, this book is a waste of paper. I hated the first book but I purchased this one hoping it would be better. It picks up with our unbelievably boring main character, Fern. Fern is gorgeous, smart, naive and just an all around perfect girl. She’s of course not into social media or anything girls her age are into because she’s just too “old school” for that. She speaks and thinks like a wealthy, blue blooded woman in her 80s. As you can tell, I hate Fern. I’m so sick of the formulaic way Neiderman writes his main female characters. They all have the same “voice” and react the same way no matter the time period they’re supposed to be in. His earlier books under the V.C. Andrews’ name were like this as well but he put MUCH more development into those characters and they are some of my favorites.

The love interest in the book, Dillon, is a wonderful match for our perfect Fern. He’s totally not like other guys *eye roll*. He loves to write poetry, act in school plays, complain about his parents and go to obscure restaurants. That’s basically it. Oh and he’s really good looking, obviously.

Ryder throughout this entire book is dealing with the traumatic head injury he received in the first book. We find out at the end of the book that he basically recovered his memory super fast and now remembers everything, including his almost incestious relaionship with Fern. I’m not totally sure why he didn’t speak up and tell his family that but who am I to question this literary masterpiece?

This whole book is just boring and is about the same worn out topics every Andrews’ book is about. The incest theme is just so tired. The same goes for these pathetic female main characters. I don’t mind the campy, over dramatic, Lifetime movie-esque storylines BUT I want them to be well written with good characters.

I have been reading and loving V.C. Andrews’ books for over ten years. Andrew Neiderman has written the majority of those books because Andrews has been dead for a very long time. I KNOW that Neiderman can do the Andrews’ name justice and write really good books, that’s why his newest ones are so disappointing to me. I strongly feel he’s burnt out on writing these overly dramatic teen dramas but I wish he would quit instead of pushing out trash two or three times a year. There is going to be a third book in this series and I highly doubt I’ll review it, but there’s always a chance. I would love to know your thoughts about this book or V.C. Andrews’ books in general! Thanks for reading and have a great day!

15 thoughts on “Book Review for “Echoes in the Walls” by V.C. Andrews”

  1. TheMakeupCase17

    I stopped reading VC Andrews books a looooong time ago. The plot is basically the same EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. Poor girl finds out she’s actually from a wealthy family & has/almost has an incestuous relationship with a guy who turns out to be her brother. BORING!

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    1. I am so sick of it. I WANT to love these books but the stories are just so awful now! Like how about we get a male main character or a plot line that doesn’t involve incest??? It’s just sad when you look at how good the older books were.

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      3. TheMakeupCase17

        The one that I really liked was the one that basically told the grandma from Flowers In the Attic’s side of things. Actually made me sympathize with her a little. Just a little though. 😂

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  2. Latasha

    SPOILER ALERT: At the end of House Of Secrets Ryder was returned home without any serious health problems. He made plans to go off with friends for the summer and he also planned a picnic for myself, Sam, and Fern. It really bothers me that Echoes In The Walls now tells about his memory problem. On top of that Fern seems not to like Sam as much as before. And Sam has become some smart mouth brat. This book disappointed me from the beginning.

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      1. Annette richard

        I thought I was the only one who feels that, House of Secrets and Echoes in the wall are terrible books, I stop reading, all the characters are boring and very forgettable, plot always the same, when I realized house of Secrets just wasn’t going to get any better I just stop reading it. Time for ghost writer to put writing VC Andrew books aside, she has been dead 34 years, she couldn’t have left that much incompleted work, besides she was a good writer, books haven’t been any good after Casteel series with Heaven

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