Heaven Casteel - Heaven

Heaven

The first novel of the same name, Heaven, commences with Heaven and her family's pitiful struggle against poverty in the hills of the West Virginia mountains. Heaven, her father Luke Casteel, her stepmother Sarah, her four half brothers and sisters, Tom, Fanny, Keith, and Our Jane, and her grandparents live in a one bedroom shack in the Willies, the mountains above the town Winnerow.

Scorned by the people of the valley as being "hill-billies" and "hill scum", Heaven's pride remains intact, although she is wounded by her father, who ignores her as if she does not exist while lavishing attention on the other children. One night, Heaven's granny takes her to the graveyard and shows her a gravestone with the word "Angel" carved upon it. Heaven learns that the reason for her father's animosity is that her birth caused the death of her real mother, Luke's first wife, whose real name was Leigh VanVoreen, but everybody in the Willies called her 'Angel'.

Granny then presents Heaven with her mother's valuable heirloom suitcase, which contains her mother's rich clothes, the like of which Heaven has never seen, and what soon becomes Heaven's most prized possession, a portrait doll that was modeled after her mother. The doll's face is a mirror of Heaven's, except that the doll has silvery blond hair.

Heaven flourishes into a gifted student, and she and Tom treasure books and excel in English. Fanny, however, is more interested in boys than books, and acts up with Heaven, constantly reveling in their father's attention. But it is when Heaven meets and captures the heart of Logan Stonewall that Fanny really begins to cause trouble. She always wants what Heaven has, and this becomes a reoccurring theme in their relationship. Logan and Heaven become childhood sweethearts and pledge their hearts and lives to each other. However, Logan is the son of the local pharmacist, and his wealthy mother scorns Heaven as an ignorant hillbilly.

After the premature death of Sarah and Luke's fifth child, Heaven's grandmother passes away, causing her grandfather to become senile. Sarah falls into a deep post-natal depression and then disappears, leaving a cryptic note that seems to indicate suicide. The children are left to fend for themselves when their father abandons them as well. Heaven becomes a surrogate mother, skipping school in order to take care of her brothers and sisters, insisting that they attend school even if she cannot. When Luke returns, he brings the devastating news that he is ill with syphilis and that he plans to sell his children for $500 a piece on Christmas Day in order to fund his treatment. Heaven watches heartbroken as her family is split up and sold off. Keith and Our Jane are sold to a wealthy-looking couple, which gives Heaven some comfort as Jane is very attached to Keith. Fanny is sold to the town pastor, Reverend Wise. Tom is sold to farmer, Buck Henry.

Heaven is sold to Kitty and Cal Dennison, who live in Candlewick, a sub division in Atlanta. Separated from her siblings and her beloved Logan, Heaven soon realizes that she has been bought as a slave for Kitty, who detested Heaven's mother for marrying Luke, as she was in love with him. After aborting his baby, she discovered she was unable to have any more children and therefore bought Heaven as some sort of twisted revenge against her father. Kitty abuses Heaven physically and emotionally, even scalding her in a burning hot bath to "cleanse" her of her hillbilly dirt, and burns the beloved portrait doll of her mother. Despite all this, Heaven finds some comfort in her relationship with Cal.

Cal lavishes attention on Heaven, buying her clothes, and treating her to all she has been denied in her deprived upbringing, such as films and fine restaurants. Vulnerable and longing for a father figure, Heaven laps up this attention, and is unable to defend herself when Cal's attentions become sexual. When Kitty becomes seriously ill, he seduces Heaven. She is shamed and devastated, blaming herself for what happened, unable to understand why he did this. When Cal announces that they are returning to Winnerow so a dying Kitty can see her parents, she seizes the opportunity to see Logan. However, when she confesses what happened, he runs from her leaving her alone in the world. Heaven is temporarily reunited with Tom, Fanny, and her Grandpa, but, still bitter and hateful, she avoids her father. Upon Kitty's death, Cal abandons her, and she boards a plane for Boston to find her maternal grandparents.