The author's purpose in writing the book is to entertain but also to somehow inform the readers. In the book Darkest Hour, the author shows the life of a wealthy family and how they lived their lives each day. The book mostly talks about the life of one of the family members, Lillian. Lillian is a girl full of hopes, dreams, and happiness; she is also a very smart and beautiful girl as we see in the book "I wouldn't be quite five when the school year began. She's so bright." We also see in this book the relationship between Lillian and her older sister, Emily. The relationship between this sisters is not quite the best because apparently Emily doesn't like her sister Lillian and it seems that she is jealous because her Lillian is very smart. This book definitely causes an impact on the audience. Even though the story is not real, many readers that have siblings can relate to the story. In real life, sometimes people don't have a good relationship with their siblings but they still love each other. In this book, the relationship between Emily and Lillian is not quite normal because Emily is not only jealous but she does whatever she can to accommodate Lillian, as we see in the book, "Miss Walker doesn't like spoiled children" she would even hurt her if she can for example, "I looked up at her and saw a strange smile on her lips. Before I could retreat, she tugged me hard and I slipped off the rock and fell forward". In several occasion sisters don't like each other but they wouldn't try to harm each other but in this case Emily does. This book will have a lasting value because after reading this book, many sisters can make their relationship better. The book Darkest Hour is well written. The book is easy to read, but it offers a variety of vocabulary and different sentence structures. Even though the story is about the life of a family and the conflicting relationship between sisters, the author makes it interesting to read. The author provides dialogues between the characters such as "well I'm not going on the wagon, Emily said defiantly. I'm not a baby." "Let her walk, Papa declared. If that's what she wants to do". In this book, we can not only see what's happening with Lillian, the main character but we can also see what is going on with the rest of the characters' lives and that makes the book very enjoyable. The book was very captivating, personally I could not put it down. The way the story begins it's very interesting because at first you would never imagine that the story would end like that. The book it is definitely not boring because it doesn't only shows the life of Lillian but the lives of the other characters too. Even though this book is about the life of a family and their relationship, is not boring because it provides dialogues such as "Well, I'm not going on the wagon, Emily said defiantly. I'm not a baby. Let her walk, Papa declared, If that's what she wants to do". There is drama and turning points in the book that makes it very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to a friend because is not boring, is enjoyable,and intriguing. Darkest Hour is a book easy to read that has drama and turning point. In the middle of the book we see people turning against Lillian and how dramatically this affects her. Darkest Hour is great book to read.
This was actually the first VCA book I ever read. I didn't even know a ghostwriter was involved in this or that VCA was dead. I found out soon enough. but I enjoyed this book nonetheless and wanted more.Naturally, this started me off on VCA. At that point, the Logan series wasn't yet finished. The first few books I read were not in order, but now, having read ALL of the VCA books from the Dollangangers through the Logans, I am very happy that happy chance delivered this book into my lap!While some people didn't enjoy the Cutler series because Andrew Neiderman wrote it, I had a good time with this series, and Darkest Hour served as an excellent prequel to a good series. VCA might not have written this, but she did leave behind notes and outlines and I think Neiderman did a fine job of applying them for this series, though this book does leave a few unanswered questions. This book highlights Lillian's youth, but it doesn't really explain why she treated Dawn that way - the poor kid had NOTHING to do with things that happened in the past! Not liking Laura Sue was no excuse either, and why name the baby after the sister she loved so much? This book could have gone more into that, because it ends long before all the family drama started, so I would have loved to see Lillian's POV about her daughter-in-law.Overall a fine book, it is a shame that Neiderman stopped putting so much effort into the books after he completed the Logan series, though... I especially loved all the titles in this series because they fit together so well!
What do You think about Darkest Hour (1993)?
Once again, as in other books in this series, I have found minor discrepancies in the story, which annoy the heck out of me. I mean, come on, you can't get someone to thoroughly proofread your book? But besides that, I was also very disappointed by the fact that this book did not really explain to us our Lillian turned into evil Grandmother Cutler. Yes, she's been through a whole lot of s**t in her life, but even at the end of the book, she still seemed to be a kind hearted individual. What happened?! I feel jipped!!
—Princess Consuela
Guess I'm reading the series backwards haha. This is the first of the Cutler series I've read.From the minute I started this book, to the minute I put it down, there were tears in my eyes-not a comfortable feeling! There were too many unfortunate deaths in the book- sure stirred up alot of uncomfortable feelings for me! I was uncomfortable from the very beginning because I knew Eugenia was going to die eventually and I wouldn't be able to take it. THen Niles- that was a WTF moment for me (although I knew he'd die too-the back of the book reveals that-but why in that manner?). I HATED HATED HATED Emily's treatment of Lillian and in general, have great contempt for that character. Such an annoying prude.Also, I didn't like the part where Lillian mentions something about her adoptive parents (her aunt and uncle) never really being able to love her- people adopt kids all the time and love them. Though, as a young girl, those questions and concerns do come to mind. I HATED her father too, and although her raped her twice when he was drunk, I didn't like how he couldn't even apologize, or even own up to his actions. Utterly disgusting.Generally, this book was an easy, quick read. I read it all in one sitting. THe reason for the one star rating was that it was painful to read, far too much tragedy for my liking, and I tend to get emotionally invested in my books. I mean, why couldn't they kill off Emily instead of the good characters like Eugenia, her mom, etc. Lack of remorse by Emily and her father towards the death of their family was unbearable as well.
—Paris Jade
In my opinion, "Darkest Hour" was the best book in the Culter Series. However, I hated the ending! The readers never find out how Lillian, or Grandmother Culter as known in previous book, became so cruel and bitter! Lillian is a very likable character in this book, but the author never relayed the events that made her snap and turn evil. That irked me so bad! Other than that, it was a very quick book anf very blunt! I'm still horrified when I found out that Niles fell from Lillian's room, broke his neck, and died. :( It broke my heart.
—Ivyanna
