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3rd out of 104 books
—
67 voters
Darkest Child
“Evil’s regenerative powers and one girl’s fierce resistance. . . . A book that deserves a wide audience.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Filled with grand plot events and clearly identifiable villains and victims . . . lush with detail and captivating with its story of racial tension and family violence.”—The Washington Post Book World
“[An] exceptional debut novel. . . . [H...more
“Filled with grand plot events and clearly identifiable villains and victims . . . lush with detail and captivating with its story of racial tension and family violence.”—The Washington Post Book World
“[An] exceptional debut novel. . . . [H...more
Paperback, 462 pages
Published
January 1st 2005
by Soho Press
(first published 2004)
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This is an EXCELLENT book. I say that because I felt a range of emotions as I turned the pages...rage, sadness, happiness, pity...I laughed, I cried.
In reading this book I saw through its characters different ways people learn and/or choose to survive the hardships of life. A person can go through tragedies and people can try to destroy their spirit but there always is a choice. They may not be able to choose the hand they have been dealt or control the situation but they always have the option...more
In reading this book I saw through its characters different ways people learn and/or choose to survive the hardships of life. A person can go through tragedies and people can try to destroy their spirit but there always is a choice. They may not be able to choose the hand they have been dealt or control the situation but they always have the option...more
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This is the story of dirt poor 13 year old Tansy Mae, one of ten children born to her unstable and at times very abusive mother. Tansy's mother is black but easily passes for white and makes her living cleaning houses for rich folks and pleasing the men of the house (but she keeps this from the younger kids). Her mother expects them all to quit school and get a job to help support them. Tansy is smarter than the rest and wants to complete school but her mother has other ideas and once Tansy beco...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is an incredibly compelling powerful book about a young girl with dark skin and a sharp mind.
I didn't read ANYTHING on this book before I bought it. I did not want any preconceived notions about it. I must say it was a captivating read and I wish filmmakers did not butcher novels because I would LOVE to see this on screen!
Having been an Air Force brat, I grew up in predominantly white neighborhoods, went to school with mostly white kids, and lived primarily in the northern states. I can't...more
I didn't read ANYTHING on this book before I bought it. I did not want any preconceived notions about it. I must say it was a captivating read and I wish filmmakers did not butcher novels because I would LOVE to see this on screen!
Having been an Air Force brat, I grew up in predominantly white neighborhoods, went to school with mostly white kids, and lived primarily in the northern states. I can't...more
10 likes · like · see review
Family, race, single parenting, poverty
*SPOLIER ALERT*
The Darkest Child, set in the small town of Pakersfield, Georgia is the story of Tangy Mae Quinn as she struggles to love and satisfy her abusive, mentally disturbed, sexually promiscuous, yet breathtakingly beautiful mother Rozelle “Rosie” Quinn. “Mushy, Harvey, Sam, and Martha Jean were her white children. Tarabelle, Wallace, and Laura were Indians – Cherokee, no less. Edna and I were Negroes,” Tangy Mae describes the diversity of her mother’s offspring, categorized by the ethni...more
The Darkest Child, set in the small town of Pakersfield, Georgia is the story of Tangy Mae Quinn as she struggles to love and satisfy her abusive, mentally disturbed, sexually promiscuous, yet breathtakingly beautiful mother Rozelle “Rosie” Quinn. “Mushy, Harvey, Sam, and Martha Jean were her white children. Tarabelle, Wallace, and Laura were Indians – Cherokee, no less. Edna and I were Negroes,” Tangy Mae describes the diversity of her mother’s offspring, categorized by the ethni...more
Stephanie Jones
Historical Fiction
This intriguing story is told through the words and eyes of Tangy Mae Quinn, an African American teenage girl who lives during a very critical time. It is 1958 in a town in Georgia, which means she is experiencing discrimination and injustice beyond belief because of the color of her skin. The only thing is that the discrimination against Tangy Mae is not only coming from the outside but also the inside. She is the seventh of ten children, and they all have diff...more
Historical Fiction
This intriguing story is told through the words and eyes of Tangy Mae Quinn, an African American teenage girl who lives during a very critical time. It is 1958 in a town in Georgia, which means she is experiencing discrimination and injustice beyond belief because of the color of her skin. The only thing is that the discrimination against Tangy Mae is not only coming from the outside but also the inside. She is the seventh of ten children, and they all have diff...more
The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips takes place in the rural area of Georgia in the 1950s. So far, the book is about the main character, Tangy Mae being the "darkest child" due to her biracial family. She is the only on in the family that is consider a "Negro" because of her dark skin complexion, and nappy textured hair. Tangy Mae loves to attend school, however her mom doesn't want her to continue her education instead she wants her to be a maid like herself, cleaning up after whites. Not onl...more
Can I tell you that I didn't want this book to end?! I absolutely love these sort of books! First of all, I was compelled to read it because I kept noticing it in searches for books. The title and the cover can also be credited for drawing me in. For some reason it was relatable even though my family is nowhere near as dysfunctional as this one. The book deals with topics like an unfit mother who struggles to survive by any means, lack of self-esteem, poverty, racism, etc. This book is not for t...more
I thought this book was absolutely fantastic. I loved every second of it from the moment I picked it up yesterday until I put it down this afternoon. This book is about a poor black family (no father, 1 mother, 10 children--all of different fathers, presumably) in Georgia in the late 1950s through the early 1960s. The civil rights movement is the undercurrent of the book, but the main story is about how this family copes with their changing world and changing selves. I love the way the main char...more
I had to go to Atlanta to find this diamond in the rough. I'm sure I could have found this book at my local Borders, but since the story is set in Pakersfield, Georgia it made sense that his book was on prominent display.
This is Delores Phillips' debut novel, and after reading it I'm stunned at the graphic details and emotion that come out. As the story opens it is 1958, and we meet 13-year-old Tangy Mae and her mother Rozelle 'Rosie' Quinn in rural Georgia. This was a time when opportunities f...more
This is Delores Phillips' debut novel, and after reading it I'm stunned at the graphic details and emotion that come out. As the story opens it is 1958, and we meet 13-year-old Tangy Mae and her mother Rozelle 'Rosie' Quinn in rural Georgia. This was a time when opportunities f...more
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 exh...more
Unbeatable plot: a truly psychotic mother raising twelve children in poverty in rural 1950s Georgia. It’s very well-written—I didn’t mind the dialect at all, which speaks volumes about the author’s talents. She uses dialect perfectly: at no point is the writing at all difficult to read, nor does it distract. I couldn’t put this down.
EXCERPT:
“‘Satan’s in here,’ Mama repeated with mounting fear in her voice. Edna started to cry, and Mama spun around to face her. ‘Shut up. You want him to hear you...more
Set in a small Georgia town in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s, The Darkest Child is the story of a family dealing with physical abuse and mental illness in the midst of town in the early, violent process of desegregation. The majority of the story revolves around a portrait of Tangy Mae, along with her nine siblings, who are at the mercy of their mentally ill mother.
Tangy Mae and her sisters survive being prostituted, branded with irons, beaten with household objects, and mentally abused....more
Tangy Mae and her sisters survive being prostituted, branded with irons, beaten with household objects, and mentally abused....more
This was my second time reading this book. The first time, I was in my teenage years and at the time, I was more interested in romantic novels, so I stopped reading after the first few pages. As I grew older, I started to explore more areas of interest. This book was recommended to me after I read Daniel Black's Perfect Peace. I'm glad that I read this book. At first, I thought Emma Jean, the mother in "Perfect Peace" was crazy, but I think Rozelle Quinn really had her beat!
Rozelle Quinn was an...more
Rozelle Quinn was an...more
Unbelievable.
Mama is deathly afraid of God and He's not welcome in her house. She believes satan is in the house and Mama is always right. She makes her 10 kids be quiet to keep satan from hearing them "...so he'll think there ain't no bodies to get into." Her newborn starts to cry and Mama believes satan has crawled into that baby and she wants baby Judy out of her house.
Nobody defies Mama. Least not her ten kids. In fact, see that ice pick or hot poker? Yup. Don't mess with Mama. She's loony-...more
Mama is deathly afraid of God and He's not welcome in her house. She believes satan is in the house and Mama is always right. She makes her 10 kids be quiet to keep satan from hearing them "...so he'll think there ain't no bodies to get into." Her newborn starts to cry and Mama believes satan has crawled into that baby and she wants baby Judy out of her house.
Nobody defies Mama. Least not her ten kids. In fact, see that ice pick or hot poker? Yup. Don't mess with Mama. She's loony-...more
This should really be 3 1/2 stars. I bumped it to 4 stars, because it is real, in a way that I wish nothing had to be so real.
I'll need to think a little more before I review it.
Okay, I'm going to try - but, I may come back to this.
This book is raw and traumatic. Raw in a different way from Beloved, raw in a different way than Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is almost inexplicable how harrowing the entire book is. And, yet, I can't say that each character did not touch me in some way. This was almost the...more
I'll need to think a little more before I review it.
Okay, I'm going to try - but, I may come back to this.
This book is raw and traumatic. Raw in a different way from Beloved, raw in a different way than Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is almost inexplicable how harrowing the entire book is. And, yet, I can't say that each character did not touch me in some way. This was almost the...more
A woman has ten children and beats them senseless almost every week. She takes her teenage daughters to "The Farmhouse" to turn them into prostitutes--just like herself. Her children live in a town filled with racial tensions, yet they must face worse at home.
Tangy Mae, the narrator, is the daughter who loves school and wants to figure out a way out of the town. Yet what she must go through in order to do that, at the hands of her own mother, is horrific.
Here's a dialogue between mother and dau...more
Tangy Mae, the narrator, is the daughter who loves school and wants to figure out a way out of the town. Yet what she must go through in order to do that, at the hands of her own mother, is horrific.
Here's a dialogue between mother and dau...more
Wow! What a rollercoaster ride!
I started reading this book and once I got into it, I was not able to put it down. I finished most of it in one evening. With that begin said, it was so hard to imagine what she went through growing up during that time.
This book made me laugh, cry, and totally broke my heart. The main character Tangy Mae has determined to break through even though she has to deal with so much strife.
Her mother is a basketcase, even up to the end of the book she controlled her chi...more
I started reading this book and once I got into it, I was not able to put it down. I finished most of it in one evening. With that begin said, it was so hard to imagine what she went through growing up during that time.
This book made me laugh, cry, and totally broke my heart. The main character Tangy Mae has determined to break through even though she has to deal with so much strife.
Her mother is a basketcase, even up to the end of the book she controlled her chi...more
4 1/2 stars. The story is one of heartbreak, poverty, racism, abuse, violence and love. The characters are so vivid, so complex, that it is hard to believe that this is a work of fiction. Tangy Mae grows up in a tiny, dilapidated house full of brothers and sisters of varying shades of darkness and a light-skinned mother, who could pass for white. Tangy Mae is the darkest child. She is also the smartest of her siblings and desperately yearns for something more. Despite the violence, the incredibl...more
At first, I had a really hard time getting into this novel for some reason. There were so many people to keep track of, and I wasn't initially sure just where the story was going. Once I became involved in the plot, I found myself mesmerized by the seemingly hopeless plight of the Quinn children. I had reread White Oleander by Janet Fitch right before reading Darkest Child, so at first, it was easy to draw parallels between WO's Ingrid and DC's Rozelle. Both women are absolutely terrifying in th...more
I read this book with my book club Mocha Girls Read and it was our selection for Black History Month. I have to say this was a hard read for me. I had a hard time getting caught up in all the craziness of the characters especially Rozelle aka Mama.
Rozelle's character is an over dominating, bipolar woman who has ten kids by ten different men from working in the "farmhouse". I was slightly disturbed by the "we know but it ain't our business" attitude the various people took regarding her abusive...more
Rozelle's character is an over dominating, bipolar woman who has ten kids by ten different men from working in the "farmhouse". I was slightly disturbed by the "we know but it ain't our business" attitude the various people took regarding her abusive...more
This book didn't make much sense to me. It's filled with a bunch of low-life characters. If the author wants to suggest that the characters are the way they are because of racism, she didn't make the case. The main character, Tangy Mae, is sympathetic but what we are expected to believe about her just doesn't add up.
I didn't mind finishing the book because it's light reading (somewhat trashy and everybody likes a little trashy) which I got through very quickly and I wanted to see if the story wo...more
I didn't mind finishing the book because it's light reading (somewhat trashy and everybody likes a little trashy) which I got through very quickly and I wanted to see if the story wo...more
Oct 09, 2010
Pamela
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
afro-american-women-lit
Reading the "The Darkest Child" by Delores Phillips for the 2nd time was so much more revealing than the 1st time go-round. It was so much more detailed and graphic than the 1st. It wasn't that they weren't there, I was just more aware of the content than I was before. Ms. Phillips does a wonderful job of characterizing a mother whose not only disfunctional within herself, but possessive of her children and afraid that they will leave her. "The Darkest Child" - Tangy Mae - is so courageous and s...more
This was an interesting book. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean it was definitely readable and the characters were well thought out and believable. But the subject matter was a little disturbing. It's not the first time that I read a book like this so I'm not sure why it disturbed me so much. The mother in this story was downright scary!!! The children where each characterized in such a way that you wanted to cry with them, you felt the welts on their back, you felt the pain of the rapes,...more
This book has many layers: family dynamics, racism, civil rights, colorism, psychology, mental illness...the list goes on. This book really lends itself to discussion and dissection.
I went through it pretty quickly, wanting to know what happened next. That being said, this wasn't exactly an enjoyable story in the same way that Push (Precious) isn't an enjoyable story. It's not happy and it's not a light read. Still, it's worth reading and it's rich and layered. I'm not trying to be cute when I s...more
I went through it pretty quickly, wanting to know what happened next. That being said, this wasn't exactly an enjoyable story in the same way that Push (Precious) isn't an enjoyable story. It's not happy and it's not a light read. Still, it's worth reading and it's rich and layered. I'm not trying to be cute when I s...more
The Darkest Child was not what I expected .... As it took me on a whirlwind that I was not prepared for. I ached with sadness for these characters and all of the turmoil they each endured as a result of someone they loved and trusted....... Their mother. When you think of a mother, you reelect on love, kindness, protection, help, comfort, strength and the like. But this was not the case in this tragic story of 11 innocent children that were literally tortured by their mother and their love for h...more
Tragic. It's hard to believe such misery and horrifying "love" could exist, but I don't doubt for a minute they do out there.
I ran across this book on the Kindle completely by accident, and it was a quick read, mesmerizing in a strange way. One kept hoping for the best, and sometimes you got it, but a lot of time -- well, not. But there's a story here, and one worth reading.
Recommended.
Lori Anderson
Web Site
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I ran across this book on the Kindle completely by accident, and it was a quick read, mesmerizing in a strange way. One kept hoping for the best, and sometimes you got it, but a lot of time -- well, not. But there's a story here, and one worth reading.
Recommended.
Lori Anderson
Web Site
Blog
I had issues with this book. Mainly with the portrayal of the mother, who I felt was a one-dimensional caricature of the tragic mulatto. Her motivation to be so cruel to her children was not placed into a context other than that, which isn't creative nor productive. Then again, I didn't come away feeling like the book had a particular intention.
Points that I did enjoy about the book, however, were the attempt on the author's part to parallel the events in the main female character's family with...more
Points that I did enjoy about the book, however, were the attempt on the author's part to parallel the events in the main female character's family with...more
1 like · like · see review
I absolutely loved this book. The story takes place in the 50's or 60's and is about a single mother with a lot of kids, all by different men. She categorizes her kids by skin color. The very light ones she passes as white, the lighter complected ones she passes as cherokee indian, and the dark ones she calls negroes. The mother has very serious mental issues. She's abusive towards the kids and actually makes the girls prostitute for money! It deals with social, racial, sexual, and political iss...more
Book Recommendation: The Darkest Child, by Delores Phillips, is, by far, the best book I've ever read.
Every once in a while a great talent comes along and those lucky enough to be in its path know, with certainty, it's guided by a higher power. This is God's work, through Delores. Each page is truly a jewel. The writing simply shines; the story has burned a place in my soul, forever. A gift; it can only be described as a gift.
I eagerly await all of Delores' coming titles. God is not finished ....more
Every once in a while a great talent comes along and those lucky enough to be in its path know, with certainty, it's guided by a higher power. This is God's work, through Delores. Each page is truly a jewel. The writing simply shines; the story has burned a place in my soul, forever. A gift; it can only be described as a gift.
I eagerly await all of Delores' coming titles. God is not finished ....more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Mocha Girls Read: Book of the Month: The Darkest Child | 11 | 76 | May 17, 2013 09:49pm |
Delores Phillips was born in Georgia. She is a graduate of Cleveland State University and works as a nurse in a facility for abused women and children in Cleveland. This is her first novel.
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“What good are laws that cannot be read or understood, or a tongue that spews only hatred or ignorance? What good is the written word to an illiterate man?”
—
10 people liked it
“She denied and feared God in the same breath. She allowed our actions to shame her, and yet was void of shame. I truly believed there was something unnatural about her - a madness only her children could see. My yearning was not to understand it, but to escape it.”
—
5 people liked it
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