Rating: 
Summary: A Casebook On Child Abuse
Review: Reviewed by Idrissa Uqdah for Flavah Reviewers
Set in rural Georgia in the late 1950s, amidst the early Civil Rights struggle, the saga of the Quinn family is narrated with a realistic cast of characters who face an abundance of hardships.
Rozelle Quinn is a light-skinned, beautiful, soulless woman who treats her children like indentured servants who owe her for their very existence. Living in squalor and poverty with no hopes and dreams she brainwashes her children with the commandment to "Honor Thy Mother". Even though she favors her light-skinned children and her male children over the darker-toned ones, the wrath of her madness escapes none of them. Her endless promiscuity with men from various ethnic groups results in an illegitimate brood of ten children of varying different shades; a constant reminder of her thoughtless behavior. Just when you think that there is nothing more horrible that Rozelle can do; she surprises you with another evil deed that outranks her previous one.
"The Darkest Child" is told from the view of Tangy Mae; a gifted and articulate 13 year-old who is Rozelle's darkest-skinned child. Tangy Mae is smart and loves school yet her mother continually threatens to make her quit school and work as a domestic to bring in money for the household. Realizing that education is the only way out of her malevolent household Tangy Mae bears her mother's behavior in order to maintain the privilege of attending school.
Delores Phillips is a solid writer whose first work is a descriptive and moving piece of prose. Rape, murder and forced child prostitution are only a few of the horrors that the author uses to give you a story that you will never forget. Ms. Phillips makes you cry for those children and worry about their survival; showing the resilience of the human spirit and what lengths a child will go to in an effort to secure a mother's love. "The Darkest Child" is not only a powerful read but will be long lived after the last page ends.
Rating:
Summary: The Darkest Child is a Masterpiece
Review: Rozelle Quinn, the matriarch and villainess in the novel "The Darkest Child," may soon become the most detested character in the history of fiction. She is a physically abusive mother who not only spanks her children with a leather belt but also burns their flesh with smoldering pokers straight from the fireplace, pours steaming hot coffee in their faces, and punches them in the face sending teeth flying and causing eyes to swell like a world class pugilist. She encourages the children to steal for the good of the family. She even forces her teenage daughters into a life of domestic servitude and prostitution (a life she knows all too well) for the extra money it brings into the household, which she always claims for herself. Psychologically, she's even worse, ranking her children by skin tone, claiming the lighter skinned ones are more valuable than the darker ones. When some of them make plans to leave her house for good, she either makes them feel guilty enough to stay or finds a way to sabotage their plans. The story is told from the perspective of Tangy Mae, Rozelle's darkest and most intelligent child. The setting is the fictitious, rural town Pakersfield, Georgia. Tangy Mae, who is 13 when the book commences in 1958, dreams of someday being the first in her family to finish high-school in order to make something of her life. But there are many obstacles, including Jim Crow laws, racism, poverty, and most of all her sadistic mother who wants her to quit school to get a job for the purpose of helping take care of the family, which includes nine other siblings, all of them by different men. Though Tangy Mae is the storyteller, the lives of her brothers and sisters are given just as much attention as she. This includes Tarabelle, Tangy's strong and brave older sister who hates her mother for forcing her to service men in The Farmhouse, Harvey, her older brother who wants to marry an undertaker's daughter, Martha Jean, her deaf younger sister who falls for an older man for whom Tangy also has a crush, and Sam her brother whose dreams of equal opportunity leave him framed for a crime he didn't commit. When Mushy, Tangy's older sister, returns to Georgia after a four-year, self-imposed exile to Cleveland, she fills her brothers' and sisters' heads with ideas on following in her footsteps-far away from their abusive mother. Meanwhile, Rozelle will stop at nothing to keep her children home with her. "The Darkest Child" is a beautifully written work of art that is hard to put down. Its descriptive writing is reminiscent of classic works from Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, and Ernest Hemingway. Consider the following passage as an example: [And the sound of silence was frightening. Rain pounded the tin roof like a thousand demons marching for their master, and the roof yielded. Liquid curses splashed down upon our heads and into the waiting vessels. In the gray shadows of a rainy dusk, the clock on the table ticked rhythmically, but the hands never moved. They were stuck.] Simply beautiful. This novel will undoubtedly cause you to cringe with its graphic depiction of violence. The characters will make you cry and laugh. They will also leave you longing for the escape they desire. But most of all, this book will make you fall in love with the writing of Delores Phillips, a Cleveland resident who works as a nurse and holds a degree in English from Cleveland State University. Not only is it the one of best debut novels available, but it is easily one of the best novels ever written. "The Darkest Child" is a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Touching Story That Will Stay with You Long After It Is Read
Review: The Darkest child by Delored Phillips took me back in time. I am too the darkest child in my household and I was criticized and tormented as a child because of the darkness of my skin but I wasn't looked down upon my mother like the protagonist of this story, Tangy Mae. Tangy Mae's mother Rozelle was bordering insane. She categorized her child as "my white children, my Cherokee Indian children, and the niggers and Tangy was definitely a nigger according to her mother. No matter how smart she was, no man would ever want a black-ass woman. You see Rozelle was a half-white woman with gray eyes that could pass for white and had all the men in Stump Town paying her rent, but it was not because of her light skin. Rozelle was a farmhouse prostitute and each of her daughters when they were of age accompanied her to the farmhouse whether they liked it or not. To tell the storyline would give away the plot of the whole story but I would recommend this read to anyone who wants a quality story. Mrs. Phillips uses metaphors such as "the rain was pounding the roof like a thousand demons marching for their master". The book ends as if there is a sequel coming soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Madness Rules
Review: The Darkest Child is a powerful debut from Delores Phillips; one so strong, I think she should earn a nomination for "rookie author of the year," if such a category in literature exists. It is a harrowing saga set in the late 1950's in rural Georgia and narrated by a teenaged Tangy Mae Quinn. Tangy is child number seven from Rozelle (Rosie) Quinn, a beautiful woman who has slept with most of the men in the town resulting in marriage to no one and ten fatherless children by as many men. Rosie exhibits selfish, erratic behavior leading the reader to believe she is a paranoid schizophrenic, although she is never diagnosed as such in the novel. Rosie rules the household with an iron fist (and an occasional iron poker) and is mean-spirited and merciless. Partially because of her mental condition, Rosie brainwashes the children with biblical references to "Honor Thy Mother" which burdens them with an obligation to forfeit all earnings to Rosie and never abandon her. Although Tangy is the lead storyteller, there are numerous characters with much drama of their own and a subplot surrounding the Civil Rights struggle and school integration. Phillips also adds the classic theme of "colorism", in which the options of dark-skinned women in a color-conscious, male-dominated society are limited; however in this novel, Tangy tries to overcome it via education. There are tantalizing family secrets and vivid descriptions of child abuse which elicits reader empathy for the characters. I felt the characters' pain as they struggled with suppressed anger/frustrations from the domestic situation with a manipulative, mad mother as well as the social situation regarding second-class citizenry in the segregated South. This is a really good book if you like to read about African American familes and women's issues and struggles. However, I thought it could have been a great book if the cause of Rosie's dementia was revealed and had more closure on the outcome of key characters. Perhaps a sequel is forthcoming....if so, I would love to read it. Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
Rating: 
Summary: Love the writing but didn't like the story...
Review: The Darkest Child is about a sibling of ten, suffering in the unimaginable spoils of poverty, neglect, abuse all at the hands of an incorrigible mother. Ms. Phillips is a talented writer and I will read her next work. However this story left too many unanswered questions and un-accounted for events. Main characters were built and let down to inconclusive endings. Detail in some areas caused the plot line to lag especially toward the end. In other areas details would have been great to give the reader a sense of some motivation particularly for the mother. And I understand that the book was from the point of view of grammar school child who we managed to see grow up and graduate from high school, but it was established that this kid was exceptionally smart and this reader would have liked to have seen the author be creative in revealing some desireable information. I will say that the author was exceptional with her scenic description often placing you right in the middle of the action.
Rating:
Summary: The Story Captures You Right Away
Review: The Darkest Child. By Delores Phillips, 387pp (2004) The Darkest Child is the story of Tangy Mae Quinn, one of ten children born
to a brutal mother, Rozelle Quinn. Tangy struggles to become educated in
spite of a racist Georgia town and a mother who takes joy in killing her
dreams and self esteem. The story captures you right away. You feel for Rozelle's children, who in
spite of everything love their mother and crave her acceptance. While you
get to know a little about each sibling, Tangy is the narrator of the book
and the story evolves around her. Tangy is a wonderful heroine, smart,
sensitive, talented and pretty and your heart breaks for the horrors she
endures at the hands of her mother. I loved the first two thirds of the book, and I could not put it down.
However, when Tangy's mother forces her into prostitution, I felt sick and
literally could not sleep. The description was so vivid and so disturbing
that I had a hard time reading and processing it. This is not a knock on
the author or the book, but more like a word of caution to potential
readers that this book is pretty intense. One criticism I did have of the book is that it ended too abruptly. I
wanted to know what happened to Tangy and her siblings. I wanted to know
that they were going to be alright. Another problem I had with the book was
that I wanted to know more about what made Rozelle tick. She was obviously
mentally ill, but I wanted to know what happened to her to make her such a
monster. She had no redeeming qualities and was pretty much one
dimensional: pure evil. The book eluded to the fact that she was the
product of rape, and born with the devil in her. I personally do not
believe people are born evil and I wanted to know more about her
background. I felt the story called out for a more complete explanation.
The final problem I had with the book is that Rozelle was a bi-racial woman
and I felt her character with all her unexplained craziness perpetuated the
myth of the tortured mulatto. Unfortunately, this is not the first
contemporary fiction book that I have read that has embodied this theme or
a variation on this theme. There has been a lot of pain associated with
color within our community, and what we need from our writers are
thoughtful discussions, and more complete characters, not knee jerk
stereotypes. All criticisms aside, I still thought the book was wonderful; very
detailed, very moving and an outstanding first effort by a very talented
author. 4 stars
reviewed by
misrich
Mahogany
Hudson&Albany
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Book
Review: The story follows young Tangy and how her mother discriminates within her own children on the bases of skin tone. I too am a chocolate child who's mother did the same but not to the degree of Rozelle. Can't wait till your next book!!!
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read this year
Review: The way Phillips brings the story to life through the characters is fascinating. I could picture every detail, and was pulled into the book from the first page until the end. I highly recommend this book to any reader, and I would love to see this story brought to the big screen. -reviewed for www.avid-readers.com by Dewhana Jones (full review will appear on avid-readers.com in May)
Rating:
Summary: Got To Read
Review: This book was excellent. Well written and very captivating. I recommend everyone read it. Can't wait to read more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: After page 100, it's interesting
Review: This book was good. To me it really started out slow, however after page 100 it became interesting, very interesting. Tangy Mae was a very obedient child. Her Mother put her through pure hell. She was abused in so many ways by her mother, however Tangy still respected and obeyed her mother. The character is a very smart, beautiful and strong sister! As the story un ravels you will find out why her mother was the way she was, but that still doesn't excuse her for the way she treated ALL of her children, especially the darker children she had. All in all this is a good long story with a happy ending....(as happy as it possibly could be)... This is a must read... Thank You.
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