Heaven

Of all the folks in the mountain shacks, the Casteels were the lowest — the scum of the hills.Heaven Leigh Casteel was the prettiest, smartest girl in the backwoods, despite her ragged clothes and dirty face...despite a father meaner than ten vipers...despite her weary stepmother, who worked her like a mule. For her brother Tom and the little ones, Heaven clung to her pride and her hopes. Someday they'd get away and show the world that they were decent, fine and talented — worthy of love and respect.Then Heaven's stepmother ran off, and her wicked, greedy father had a scheme — a vicious scheme that threatened to destroy the precious dream of Heaven and the children forever!School Library JournalYA Heaven Leigh Casteel (her brother calls her Heavenly) could never understand why her father and ``mother'' seemed to hate her until, on the eve of her tenth birthday, her grandmother tells her that her real mother was a wealthy Boston woman who inexplicably married backwoodsman Luke Casteel and then died in childbirth. Her death left Luke hating Heaven and mean to his next wife. After his wife leaves Luke, Heaven, now 14, and her brothers and sisters are sold by Luke for $500 each. Heaven is ``adopted'' by cruelly sadistic Kitty and her weak younger husband Cal. While with them, she loses some of her innocence and trust. This novel is basically a melodrama sprinkled with wretched attempts at backwoods dialect and filled with incredible characters like Heaven, who is impossibly passive and naive; Luke and Kitty, who are larger-than-life-size monsters; and Logan, a cardboard cutout of a teenage girl's first love. Awkward writing, crude plotting, sick situations and unbelievable characters, however, will not deter teenage girls who love the combination of brooding sexuality and outlandish occurances that have become Andrews' trademark. Betsy Shorb, PGCMLS, Md.