Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Heart Wrenching, Full of Humanity, Truth in each sentence more of what we as a people need to read and write the truth in such excellent words.
Rating: 
Summary: original and honest storytelling
Review: I applaud Delores Phillips for her work in this novel. Through the heart-breaking life experiences of Tangy Mae, Phillips brilliantly describes the debilitating effects of a society boiling with racism, poverty and injustice, but shows how resilience of the human spirit can still overcome even those tough obstacles.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: I enjoyed the novel. The characters leapt from the pages and Phillips held me captive from beginning to end.Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Touching
Review: I finished this book with tears in my eyes! Just trying to imagine a mother treating her children the way Rozella did was very disturbing. This has to be one of the best books that I have read in a long time!
This is not a book to ignore. You will enjoy it, and hate the mother at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best debut novels to come out in a while
Review: I got the chance to read this book and it was really good. You have this mother, Rozelle, who has a bunch of children, but manipulates,bullies,terrorizes and prostitutes them for her own uses. She keeps them in line by making them say, "Honor Thy Mother" and doing things, but in the end, she pays the ultimate price. Tangy, I really liked, but she really went through some real hurtful things. She wants to keep going to school when most of her other siblings have already quit.She loves her mute sister, but hates and alternately loves her brother in law,wanting him for her own.Yet she keeps going to school,becoming the first in her family to finish high school. But just from look at this family from the outside, you can tell that there are some real murky secrets there that make them real dysfunctional. The ending left me wondering, what happened? what happened to them? makes me wonder if a sequel is in the works.
Rating:
Summary: A More Than Great Read
Review: I read lots of books, averaging 4-6 per month. This book took me WAY out of my comfort zone making me crave for more. Althought there were some predicable areas they were needed to give hope, to be wrong about what you knew would happen. The fact that it could very well be a ture picture of someones life in part now or once upon a time make this book a great read.
Rating:
Summary: The Darkest Child
Review: I see there have been many thorough reviews of this book so I have only to say that this book kept me turning pages deep into the night. It does not lag in any part, but keeps you riveted to it's pages. There must surely have been a real Tangy Mae, Tarbelle, Mushy and Mamma Quinn out there-- I am amazed that Delores Phillips, the author, has created this family that will now, forever live in my heart.
Rating:
Summary: My Life
Review: I thought I was all alone in the world until I read your book Ms. Phillips.
I had a life as such and only in reverse, the ten children, we were 7 boys and 3 girls. I never knew why my mother treated me the way she did, and as for color she was the Darkest one.
I was getting beaten for existing I guess. When I left home at sixteen, I never return. I didn't even go too her funeral when she died. I didn't have to worry about her coming for me at anytime , all she cared about was Men and Money. Some of the things she made Tangy Mae do, well I'd be dead today. My Mother was a lot worst than Rozelle, one my little brother was playing with eyes on the kitchen stove, she came up too him and put his hand in the fire and then put them on his face, he died with those scars on his face. I'm the oldest child.
This is a GREAT GREAT BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: On the level of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin
Review: JANUARY 2005
Syracuse, New York
Delores Phillips came out so powerfully in her first novel that I'm very interested to see what her next book will be like.
This one is the possibly the best novel of the entire year. A tough act to follow. It's just flawlessly good. So sad and so tragic. It just makes you FURIOUS and yet you can't put it down, because there is so much reality in it. I loved this book.
It's awesome. Please read this book my people. Pleaase!!
Last Note: "The Darkest Child" won 5 N.Y. Hotep Society Awards including best book of the year. My bookstore was one of the ones that sent in ballots. Congratulations to Delores Phillips for such an outstanding achievement.
Rating:
Summary: A stand-out debut novel
Review: Remember the 70's television comedy called Good Times? It seemed good things rarely happened to the Evans family and you frequently found yourself wishing for something great to happen that would whisk them out of their unfortunate existence. Well, The Darkest Child is like the literary equivalent of Good Times, except this story takes place in a house on Penyon Road, somewhere in the state of Georgia during the late 50's. And this time the sorrows and afflictions experienced by the family comes at the hand of the mother, Rosie, a woman who inflicted so much abuse on her ten kids that you cannot keep up. The story is narrated by Tangy Mae, a fifteen year-old woman/child that the mother labels as ugly. The mother sleeps with men, chain smokes, drinks, cries, yells, and does all kinds of unusual and disturbing things that make the reader feel sorry for the kids and wonder about their eventual outcome. The Darkest Child's strength lies in its commanding writing voice and vivid descriptions. Some of the painful scenes make you physically react, as if you're being abused instead of the children. The worst thing about the book is there are far too many characters; you may not feel attached to each of them or remember which one is which, but the story is still compelling enough to keep you drawn to the characters' dilemma. In addition it would have been great if the mother's behavior was explained so the reader could know her motivations behind her horrendous actions. This book is highly recommended because of its originality, excellent writing, and unpredictability, and because, as far as I know, there aren't too many books that can be compared to The Darkest Child. It is an engaging and dark read that won't be soon forgotten.
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