Dawn
by V.C. Andrews
★ Top 25 book of 1990 · #17 on Best Books of 1990
Dawn Longchamp thinks she has finally found stability, until police accuse her father of kidnapping her as a baby and her brother Jimmy is taken away. Placed with the wealthy Cutler family, she faces cruelty and must uncover generations of lies.
Best for: Readers who like emotional family dramas full of dark secrets and hidden lies.
Dawn is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar.
What Dawn is about
Fourteen-year-old Dawn Longchamp has grown up on the move with her parents, Ormond and Sally Jean, and her older brother Jimmy. When her father takes a janitor's job at an exclusive Virginia school, Dawn and Jimmy enroll there. Dawn's singing talent is noticed, and she draws a kind admirer in Philip Cutler and the cruel attention of his sister Clara Sue, who calls her white trash. Jimmy watches Philip warily. Then the family's fragile footing begins to give way, and secrets about where Dawn truly belongs come to light.
Begun by V. C. Andrews and completed by Andrew Neiderman after her death, this 1990 novel opens the five-book Cutler series. It explores class divides, grief, and the search for a real home. Readers who like emotional family sagas with a touch of gothic drama will feel at ease here.
Dawn on the Best Books of 1990
Dawn came out in 1990. Of the 39 books first published in 1990 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #17 on our Best Books of 1990 list.
Why it made the list: 272 readers have shelved it on Open Library. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1990 list
- The Beauty Myth : How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Naomi Wolf, #15
- The Sleepwalker Robert Lawrence Stine, #16
- Postmortem Patricia Cornwell, #18
- Stormy Surrender Patricia Wilson, #19
See all Best Books of 1990 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1991.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 242 want to read it, 13 are reading it now and 17 have read it, according to Open Library.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 62 | 55% |
| Reader love | 36 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 51 | 20% |
Questions about Dawn
When was Dawn published?
Dawn by V.C. Andrews was first published in 1990.
Was Dawn one of the best books of 1990?
Dawn is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar. 272 readers have shelved it on Open Library.
Why is Dawn on the Best Books of 1990 list?
272 readers have shelved it on Open Library.
More of the best books of 1990
- Good Omens Terry Pratchett, #1
- Jurassic Park Michael Crichton, #2
- The Eye of the World Robert Jordan, #3
- The Witching Hour Anne Rice, #4
- Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, #5
- The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien, #6
See the full Best Books of 1990, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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