Cover Image: Betty

Betty

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Member Reviews

“Boys are like that. Always tryin’ to pretend they’re savin’ girls from somethin’. They never seem to realize, we can save ourselves.”

First of all, HUGE thank you to @orionbooks for this review copy! Chalk it up now: Tiffany McDaniel is a REAL bonafide talent. The Summer That Melted Everything was not a one-off masterpiece - McDaniel is here to stay.

Betty is a coming-of-age tale based upon McDaniel’s mother’s upbringing in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Heavily infused with the stunning storytelling and culture of the Cherokee people, Betty is the story of the Carpenter family.

In a nutshell, if you loved TSTME, there’s a great chance you’ll fall head over heels for this story too. Once again Tiffany manages to explore a multitude of heavy themes including rape, incest, sexual abuse, racism, poverty and so forth, through her beautifully poetic prose. But as you can see, there are many trigger warnings for this one!

One of my favourite things about McDaniel’s work so far is the depiction of the magical father-son/daughter relationships she writes into her stories. Personally this is a sensitive spot for me, having lost my father at a relatively young age, so I take extra pleasure in reading about and imagining what such a relationship could look like. This book is sad. It’s heartbreaking and tragic, it will break your heart in two, but Betty’s relationship with her father is one of the lights that shines through all the darkness. As is her relationship with her sisters (most of the time!).

Admittedly it took me a while to get into Betty at the beginning. I struggled a little when it came to grasping the Cherokee culture and history as I’m simply not familiar with it, but once I did, those stories were very moving.

McDaniel is quickly becoming an all-time favourite author - I’d recommend this one wholeheartedly! (But be mindful of the trigger warnings, of course) 4 stars.

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I've tried getting into this one and I know of a lot of people who adored this book. I just couldn't quite get into it. Maybe one day I will try picking it up again but it's a big one and quite a commitment to read. Hopefully I can get into it at some point as I would love to understand the hype.

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Can’t believe it took me this long to read this book! It was so beautifully written, despite it being one of the most heart wrenching novels I’ve read this year. Would love to see a Betty film adaption!

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This book was well written, but ended up just not being for me. It wasn’t a book that drew me in and made me want to keep reading. I have however recommended it to friends who really enjoyed the novel as it is more their taste than mine.

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Great book, really enjoyed this one. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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This novel of family, of fathers and daughters especially, interweaves story telling, spirituality, and the small and big things that bind us together. In many ways, it is beautiful, but there is also devastating ugliness that is so overwhelming graphic you'll likely need to put it aside for a bit. Unfortunately, for those touched by trauma, there are many triggers. It is hard to say I loved this book because of the unending heartbreak and devastation it carries with it, but there are also so many beautiful moments, especially between Betty and her Cherokee father, that there is some sort of wacky balance created. I usually read a book in 4 or 5 days, and this took me over 2 weeks, but I'm not sorry I spent time with this novel and tis author. Thank you NetGalley ad publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

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This book is desperately sad but amazingly written. My only quibble is with a bow that seems tied too neatly at the end. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

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judging by the cover, which let’s be honest we all do, one might think this is a sweet and lighthearted novel about a girl named betty. i’m here to tell you - no. no that’s not at all what it is. this novel is extremely heartbreaking, raw, honest, descriptive. it is triggering. i’ll list content warnings but if you identify as a woman there is 100% you’ll be triggered and honestly i dk how anyone won’t be reading this. i was addicted to this novel but also my anxiety has been high while reading it the past few days.

given all that, i want to read this again. i love Betty, and her dad. the family themes, the siblingness in this story, the stories within the story, the honor of Native traditions and medicines, the love, the horror. read it.

cw: rape between family members, child death, parental death, violence, racism towards Native peoples of america, animal abuse, child abuse, suicide, homicide, child molestation, bullying, misogyny, mental illness, medical trauma, grief

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I loved this book and the story stayed with me long after I finished reading this book. I cried while reading but I would highly recommend it!

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Betty is a beautiful story of an Indigenous American child from girlhood to young adulthood. Every member of Betty's family is unique, and their stories are incredibly powerful and heartbreaking. As much as I'd love to recommend to everyone, though, this book is a tough read. The tragedies that occur are.. disturbing.
While part of me wishes that I had gotten more of Fraya's story or more time with Betty and her dad, I liked how it was laid out. The pacing ending up working, and Betty was someone to root for and love.

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Betty is beautifully written. The language and story telling transports you to Southern Ohio. The story is imaginative and moving often times I had a pang of sadness for the characters and the events that are occurring within their life.

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Betty is a girl of mixed racial identities. She is strong and she is tough. I very much enjoyed getting to know her throughout this novel. She is one of the most interesting characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. I'd almost characterize this novel as being a character portrait.. and an interesting one at that. I was never bored and I was sad when the book ended. I will certainly miss Betty.

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This book is PAINFUL and perfect. McDaniel’s writing is unparalleled. I previously read and loved The Summer That Melted Everything and I will now purchase and devour anything this author puts out. She’s somehow managed to intertwine non-fiction and fiction, all while speaking up on racism, bodily autonomy, consent, and family. A must read.

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This book is heartbreaking, raw, upsetting, uncomfortable, masterfully told. I did struggle with the length, some of it felt like it really dragged. Overall though this is a fantastic work of contemporary fiction.

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This book absolutely destroyed me. The author was kind enough to send me a signed copy and I will treasure it always. Please see attached FIVE star review.

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I would like to thank Penguin Random House for providing a digital copy of this novel via NetGalley as part of BookExpo Adult Buzz Panel. Betty tells the story of Betty Carpenter, who is born in 1954, in Ozark Arkansas, to a white mother and Cherokee father. She is the 6th of 8 children. The story follows Betty's life mostly in Breathed, Ohio from childhood to late teens/early adulthood. It is structured into several parts, each covering a certain time period in Betty's life. There are also short newspaper articles from the local paper which set up a mystery about the source of random gunfire. I felt these articles were effective in that they told a short little story that was tied to the overall plot. So they enhanced the story rather than feeling separate from it. This novel was a tough read as there is a cycle of trauma and loss throughout the book that is narrated in often, brutal detail. The characters believe they are cursed. There is an ongoing theme of how abuse and trauma can be passed on through generations: how it can persist for so long and how the abused can become abusers themselves. The descriptions of abuse were difficult to sit through as the reader becomes quickly invested in the lives of these family members and wants them to escape the cycle. The members of this family often face their issues through art, whether that's painting, writing, singing, or making wooden figures. Art is a definite coping mechanism for these characters as they face racism ,sexism, physical and sexual violence as well as loss. The author effectively depicted the thinking of victims of abuse and showed in many heart-wrenching ways how this abuse is able to go on for so long. Betty is a tough story to get through but one that is powerful in its exploration of the cycle of abuse and how as humans, we use art to get us through the most horrific of events.

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Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is a masterpiece. Beautifully written- gut-wrenching and heartwarming all at once. This book should come with a warning label though as this family experiences more tragedy than one could imagine.
Betty was the sixth of eight children, born in a bathtub in 1954. She was raised for most of her life in the foothills of the Ohio Appalachians. Her father Landon Carpenter was a proud Cherokee who explains his family’s tragedies through inventive stories which are rooted in nature and recall Cherokee legends. Her mother, Alka Lark was a shattered, hollow victim of her childhood. While her siblings looked more like her mother, Betty’s resemblance to her dark-skinned father made her a target of racism from her community and her own family. Ultimately, this is a story about resilience. Betty, while battered and bruised by life, remains strong and fierce. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

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WARNING: If you aren't prepared for your heart to be shattered repeatedly then go ahead and pass this one up. I am not exaggerating in the slightest... this book will wreck you.

I loved this book but I HATED Betty's story. I hated her story because it broke my heart...healed it and then broke it over and over again. I have never in my life read a more miserable and tragic account of life that somehow stays beautiful.
I found myself saying "that poor child" and "that poor family" more times then I could count. Betty is fiction but is heavily inspired by author Tiffany McDaniel's mother and family. Betty is a story of life, love, loss, abuse, racism and poverty. It is a complex story that takes you on an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.

I wont sugar coat it this book is brutal and its not for everyone. There was multiple times where I had to sit my kindle down and walk away. I chose to stick with it even because even though it was horrifying it was rewarding. Betty is one of the darkest coming of age tales I think ever written.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This was an especially hard book to rate because I adored McDaniel's debut, and it was really difficult for me to admit that this book just wasn't having the same effect on me. The writing is lyrical and flowery, but where in The Summer That Melted Everything I became absolutely immersed in the narrative, here I felt sometimes like the author was trying too hard, like I had found myself in an experimental creative writing class.

Also, I think there's such a fine line between bravely tackling difficult issues like racism, incest, rape and animal abuse, and throwing them all in there for shock value. This one leaned toward the latter for me. I felt strangely... annoyed by the author's continuous stream of tragic events.

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This book. Wow. Incredible.

Betty is actually the authors mother and it is based on her real life. If you read Tiffany McDaniel’s first book, The Summer that Melted Everything, it takes place in the same town and you’ll discover a link.

If you and I ever sat down to a conversation back in 2016, chances are I probably brought up The Summer That Melted Everything and gushed over it for a lengthy amount of time.

So when I received an ARC of Betty, I nearly passed out. I’m obsessed with Tiffany McDaniel’s writing. I’m also a glutton for books that bring me emotional pain, and this one brought it. You guys, I read to CRY.

I would like to say, I do not recommend this book for everyone. There are a lot of triggers and really disturbing scenes that had me burying my face in absolute horror. If you’re like me and tend to go towards the painful, dark and traumatizing... you’ll enjoy this book and the gorgeous writing.

Trigger warnings: rape, abuse (to people and animals), incest, racism, suicide attempts, murder, drugs and over dosing... it’s a very heavy read.

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