Rating:  PENS!!!!

A Mother's Love

Come to Pakersfield, Georgia and meet the Quinn family. Told from the point of view of Tangy, who happens to be “The Darkest Child” in the family. This family truly follows the “blood is thicker than mud” motto. Not only do they share lineage they are all victims of their mother’s cruelty. Unfortunately we also find that not all of them have the ability to survive.

Growing up a Quinn child is a terrible burden to bear. Tangy’s siblings all have a little of their mother in them and it’s frightening. Her sister Tarabelle carries her mother’s hatred. Mushie, the eldest who has moved away carries a love for drinking and other womens’ husbands. Her brother Harvey is determined to beat his wife into submission. Martha Jean carries her mother’s jealous streak. Laura is a master thief.

Roselle, their mother, is undoubtedly the most complex character you will meet. She is an entanglement of hatred, bitterness, evilness, craziness and cruelty wrapped up in the package of a beautiful woman. She is determined to keep her children under her reign of terror. But they have other plans. A string of events will cause her children to fall away in a domino effect; and even “the little metal box under the floorboards” won’t be able to keep them in her grasp.

Delores Phillips’ debut novel, The Darkest Child is nothing short of a masterpiece. Her writing style puts you in the mind of Toni Morrison and J. California Cooper. The Darkest Child will force emotions from you that are indescribable. Just when you think you can’t cry anymore or when you finally feel that there is hope you realize you were wrong. Dark yet enlightening. Cold yet touching. Never before has a novel been written that finishing is required and no longer a choice.