Dawn (Cutler, #1) in V.C. Andrews

Feb 28, 2016 Leigh rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, read-as-a-child-or-teen, 2019, 2023, old-favourites, before-goodreads, family-saga, mini-series-trilogies

I really hesitated to reread this series or anything written after the Casteel series. But after listening to an audio book of Ruby I thought this wouldn't be so bad so here we are. I remembered little of Dawn and it has been probably a couple decades since I first read the series and teenaged me probably sees things different than current old aged me. I knew she was kidnapped but that it wasn't an actual kidnapping and I remembered her mother dying while she was singing but that's all. So the s I really hesitated to reread this series or anything written after the Casteel series. But after listening to an audio book of Ruby I thought this wouldn't be so bad so here we are. I remembered little of Dawn and it has been probably a couple decades since I first read the series and teenaged me probably sees things different than current old aged me. I knew she was kidnapped but that it wasn't an actual kidnapping and I remembered her mother dying while she was singing but that's all. So the story opens with a poor but loving family. Ormand and Sally Jean Longchamp and their two children Jimmy and Dawn. Dawn looks nothing like the tall dark haired members of her family. She is small and blonde and has freckles. But she knows she is loved by her family. They are always on the move, most likely because they can't pay the rent at least that's what you think at first. Soon they move to Richmond the big city and Sally Jean discovers she's pregnant which throws things into a tailspin. She has a baby girl Fern, and soon Sally Jean becomes ill with a cough that won't go away. Meanwhile it seems their money problems are going away when Ormand gets a job at a prestigious school as a maintenance supervisor and this allows his children to attend this school. What follows is a nightmare for the two children as they are bullied and discriminated against by the school administrator who blames them for being bullied. But Dawn soon finds romance with Phillip Cutler and is allowed to shine in music class and soon will sing the solo in the school recital. Her mother is rushed to hospital that night and for the first time since Cory died, I bawled at a VC Andrews book. Reading about a lost mother even a fictional one, after losing your own mother is heartbreaking. So her mother dies and the story of the kidnapping is uncovered. Jimmy and Fern are rushed off to foster care, Ormand goes to jail, and Dawn to her new family. The wealthy Cutlers of Cutler's Cove. Phillip her sweetheart is her brother and her biggest tormentor at school Clara Sue is her sister. Her grandmother is a tough formidable woman who insistson calling Dawn, Eugenia her original name, her father a weak man who gives off strong Norman Bates vibes, her mother a weak neurotic woman who stays locked away in her room. It doesn't help matters that Dawn was told the news of her kidnapping by the least sympathetic police officer ever. Geeze don't they give these people sensitivity training? The girl discovered her whole life us a lie you don't have to be such a bitch. So anyway life doesn't get any easier for Dawn in her new life. She is turned into a chambermaid everyone hates her because another maid was fired to make room for her. Her father won't make time for her, her mother is a whiny selfish woman, her grandmother hates her, Clara Sue continues to torment her and Dawn stupidly believes she will stop and tries to trust her then Phillip refuses to give up on being her boyfriend and rapes her. And since this is VC Andrews her former brother soon becomes a love interest because that's a thing. It ends with Dawn learning the truth of her kidnapping and being shipped off to New York to a music school. This wasn't a bad book. It had some cringy moments, but was okay. Lots of parallels with other books especially Flowers in the Attic. An evil powerful grandmother, weak selfish mother, the threat of starvation one over cutting hair, one over a nametag, both beautiful blonde girls with an artistic talent of some kind. Of course there is a formula to these books. Dawn had me rolling my eyes at how stupid and naive she could be, trusting Clara Sue to follow through with promises expecting Phillip not to be creepy and gross. But hopefully things improve a bit for Dawn but my memory says it doesn't. ...more

Like · see review

Sep 03, 2020 Janet rated it liked it

Maybe I have read too many V.C. Andrews books? I just did not enjoy Dawn as I have enjoyed previous books by this author. The themes running through this book were all too familiar and predictable. This story does not introduce fresh ideas. It seems that the success of Flowers in the Attic means the author is reticent to digress from themes that made this book such a success. Unfortunately, by doing so, the storyline becomes too predictable and the excitement of reading on to discover the plot i ...more

Like · see review