Dark Angel is a novel by V. C. Andrews first published in 1986. The second in the Casteel Series. It's the final book that V.C. Andrews wrote before her death at the end of 1986.
Continuing where Heaven left off, with Heaven traveling to Boston to meet her glamorous maternal grandmother Jillian, and her step-grandfather Tony Tatterton, the owner of a prestigious toy company. Staying at a snobby private school and forced to abide by Tony's stern order to cut ties with her Casteel siblings, Heaven finds her only friend in Tony's reclusive younger brother Troy, whose air of melancholy and mystery draws Heaven ever closer to him, even as Tony warns her to stay away. Unknown to Heaven, there is more to her mother running away than she ever could have thought, and the reasons aren't pretty.
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Heaven asks Jillian point-blank "Was Tony the reason my mother ran from this house?" Finally being forced to acknowledge the truth drives Jillian hopelessly insane and even—somehow—undoes years of plastic surgery to reveal her true age.
- Delicate and Sickly: Troy is an ill boy, having had many allergies and long illnesses as a child. While he is still legitimately ill with many chronic ailments, his childhood experiences left him something of a hypochondriac who believes that he is too sick to enjoy many activities and that he will die young. Heaven manages to talk him out of some of his hypochondria, though he does have some genuine health crises.
- Heel–Face Turn: Toward the end of Dark Angel, Luke Casteel straightens out his life, becomes a devoted husband, father, and provider for his new family, and feels enough remorse to attempt a reconciliation with Heaven. When she (justifiably) refuses to forgive him, he still helps her fulfill her dream of finding her Boston family.
- Important Dyejob: Having been told by everyone that she looks exactly like her mother except for her dark hair, Heaven dyes it her mother's shade of ash-blonde as a symbolic gesture of reclaiming her Tatterton heritage. It ends tragically when her hair distracts her father Luke at a critical moment, leading to the death of her beloved brother Tom.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Dark Angel reveals that Tony is actually Heaven's real father, and in fact him raping and impregnating Leigh is what caused her to run away in the first place.
- Older Than They Look: Jillian is in her 60s by the time Dark Angel starts off, but still looks absurdly young. When she has her Freak Out near the end of the book she loses her youth and finally starts to look her age.
