“Betty. Little ol’ me. I was born in 1954 in a dry claw-foot bathtub in Arkansas. When Mom went into labor on the toilet, the closest place she had to lay was in the tub. In the face of Flossie’s jealousy, I was named after Bette Davis.”

This book got me all tangled up in emotions – sad, angry, disgusted, happy, love; it pulled at my heartstrings as much as tore it into apart . McDaniel’s writing is breathtakingly beautiful; it sings and paints. She’s definitely born with the gift her Papaw Landon and her mother, Betty, who were storytellers in their own right. It’s no wonder her debut ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’ had won the hearts of so many readers, and become the recipient of the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. I intend to read this!

‘Betty’ is based on the author’s mother and her life as a mixed-race girl from rural Ohio. Believe it or not, ‘Betty’ was written nearly two decades ago, when the author was 18, but was rejected by many agents and publishers who considered the novel too ‘dark’, and even suggested her to change her mother into a man. How times have changed in the publishing industry! Do this today, and you’d be cancelled.

In the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, in the fictional Ohio town of Breathed, in a little Victorian-inspired two-story home in Shady Lane, were Betty and her other 5 siblings, her mother, Alka, a white woman, and her dad Landon Carpenter, a Cherokee Native American who worked in the mines.

Betty and her sibling’s lives were filled with stories told by their loving, doting father. Stories about birds, plants, rocks, and Cherokee legends like Selu, whose blood seeped into the soil could grow everything, or stories he created out of nothing like The Restless Star Catchers who can never stop flying because they have to catch stars which can never stop falling.

When Betty was bullied at school for her dark skin, when she was consumed by her family’s secrets, when she was overcome by troubles and worries, her father would unburden her with his stories. Naturally, the book opened with one of them – about his heart being made of glass, and within the glass is the bird God caught in heaven. When Betty asked why did God put a bird in there, he said,

“So a little piece of heaven would always be in our hearts. Safest place for a piece of heaven, I reckon.” And the little bird is a “glitterin’ bird and her whole body would shine like little fires of light the way Dorothy’s ruby slippers did in that movie.”

This book was heartbreaking, at times, unbearable; there was hate, anger, jealousy, bitterness, violence and abuse, but there was also so much love and compassion shown in the family. When you thought Alka was cruel, you’d be shown her tenderness and your heart would ache for her; when you thought Fraya was weak, she’d surprise you with her strength and tenacity, and when you thought Lint was always lost, you’d see how smart, strong and intelligent he was. And Betty, she was the sum of them all; always their squash, the protector, the one “who stretches her leaves to shade the ground and fight off weeds.” And Landon, their father, he was definitely the heart and soul of the family.

‘Betty’ is about a family who, despite their idiosyncrasies, despite their secrets so dark that could drown them all, learned to cope and survive with what they had – each other, stories and nature. The novel also gives voice to all victims of rape and abuse, and to all the Bettys who are told they don’t deserve anything good in this world, that they are worthless, that they should just sit at the sidelines and watch the world go by.

Yes, ‘Betty’ was a really tough, challenging read. I had to pause many times and walk away from it, sometimes doubting myself to finish it. But I knew I had to. I wanted to. I wanted the abused to know I’m here, I see them, I hear their cries. I want them to know their voices count and that their stories matter.

This quote was one of the most heartbreaking in the book: “The heaviest thing in the world is a man on top of you when you don’t want him to be.”

This was a heart-shattering coming-of-age story, but one that was also filled with love and compassion written in the most captivating prose. McDaniel, thank you for sharing with us Betty’s story. It’d live in me for a long time.

I was gifted a free eARC of this book by a kind, brilliant, influential book blogger with the author’s permission, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

I have much more to share about this book on my blog. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time!

Full review on hookedonbookz.com

“A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.”

Where to even begin with this one?

When Tiffany got in touch with me, she made sure to mention that this book would appeal to a horror reader – such as myself. And let me tell you, she was right.

I’m not talking about the typical haunted houses, possessions, or creatures… no. I’m all too comfortable around them, they’re old friends of mine.

What Tiffany was talking about is something deeper, scarier. True horror, in my opinion. The kind of horror that breaks a grown man.

“You give me a wall, and I’ll give you a hole. You give me a window, and I’ll give you a break. You give me water, and I’ll give you blood.” —BETTY

This book is pure magic.

The characters are so real and alive that you can almost feel their presence. The story flows beautifully through Tiffany’s writing.

‘Betty’ is one of the best books I’ve read in 2020.

Quite honestly a perfect book.

5/5

The good news is that I still haven’t read ‘The Summer that Melted Everything’. And now I’m even more excited to check it out.

Thanks for sharing your magic with us, Tiffany.

I’m conflicted. I loved Landon Carpenter, he’s one of the best book dads I’ve come across this side of Atticus Finch. But is he still a good dad if he does not notice how desperately unhappy his children are? Or was it something just not spoken about during the time? Does that excuse him though? Does the fact that he told good stories cancel out the evil that lived under his own roof and that he never knew about?

I don’t know. I liked him, but I also felt that I was giving him a pass that I didn’t feel inclined to give Alka. She is bruised too, from the cruelties within her house, but she’s also thorny, and hard to like. I loved all the kids save one, especially Betty and Lint and Trustin. I liked the story, even though it’s all about violence, against women, against Native Americans, against animals, against children. Someone has to witness it. (It’s also not like any of it has gone away).

But it’s a hard book to read. It took me a long time to get through this because I couldn’t read more than 2 chapters at a time, even when nothing bad was happening on paper because the promise of it was still present. The only reason I grit my teeth and finished it today was because I was committed to provide a review. I’m glad I read it, but I’m also very glad that I am finished with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

This is the first book I've read by Tiffany McDaniel and I know it will not be the last. Her writing is absolutely beautiful and while this certainly was not necessarily the easiest book to read, I found myself totally captivated.

This book is based on the author's mother and is narrated by Betty. It is a coming-of-age story of Betty, though it starts by telling us the story of Betty's parents and then we get Betty's whole family story. It is both heartwarming and harrowing what this family has gone through and having it told through the eyes of Betty makes it stand out all the more.

The characters in this story, Betty's family, come alive and are so richly drawn. I know this is one story I will not be forgetting, not only because of what this family experienced but also because of the masterful way the story is told. This is not necessarily a story of family drama but rather a story of family trauma. We see the pains of one generation being passed on to the next. It all combines to tell a such an immersive story.

All in all, this is a book I know I will not be forgetting. It's one of those books that is not meant to be rushed through, but rather to take in slowly. This story broke my heart but it also left me feeling a little bit hopeful at the end and I loved that. I know that I will definitely be keeping Tiffany McDaniel on my list of authors to read - I so enjoyed her writing.

HAPPY PUB DAY (!!!) to dear, dear Betty. What a treasure this novel is. Betty has no peer in my eyes, and Tiffany McDaniel has established herself as a clear and important voice in literature today.

Betty is breathtaking from start to finish and in so many different ways. Firstly, the writing is beautiful. The way she describes the lush landscapes and sprawling setting of the Appalachians is subtly woven throughout the narrative and yet poetically portrayed.

Despite its beauty, this book is dark. It digs deep and heavy into the family dynamics of rural Americans in the 1940-70s, and many of the truths revealed are bitter and ugly. While portraying horrifically vivid scenes of rape and incest, the timing of the plot is well-planned. I felt like I was just beginning to sympathize with and become emotionally invested in the characters just as they were starting to break my heart, or have my heart broken for them.

Betty also reveals to us a culture that is vastly underrepresented in the canon of American literature today--that of Cherokee people living out their culture and traditions in the face of extreme discrimination, and how they cling to their roots and to the land for comfort, hope, and provision. Through the character of Dad and his relationship with Betty, we can see how values and traditions of this beautiful culture are passed down through generations, despite the horrific oppression and prejudice that they face in continuing to practice their traditions.

This is a beautiful book. It is an important book, and I am so thankful that Tiffany McDaniel wrote it and that I got to read it.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for an advance copy of Betty in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by McDaniel but I intend on going back and reading The Summer that Melted Everything. When I was first contacted by Tiffany to read her novel I was not expecting such a gut punch, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. This is Betty’s story. It’s a hard story inspired by the authors mother of a dirt poor family living in the foothills of the Appalachians. Betty grew up in a house with eight children to a Cherokee father and White mother. While her siblings take on their mothers attributes, Betty looks like her father. She grows up hearing stories of Cherokee legends from her father, and stories of dark warning for her mother on just what life as a woman is like. This book isn’t easy. While its filled with love, it’s also filled with abuse, animal cruelty, mental health, and racism. But it’s a story that should be read. Sometimes life isn’t easy and we have to step out of our comfort zones and see just how hard it can be. While there were times I cringes and was even brought to tears, I am glad I read this novel. Thank you to Tiffany McDaniel for the review copy and thank you for this story.

4.5/5

I’m left utterly breathless. What an immense story contained within a singular family. I don’t know if there’s a way to adequately prepare someone to go into this novel, but here I’ll do my best.

“You know what the heaviest thing in the world is, Betty?”

This book was the quiet before the storm, and then it was the storm itself. Tiffany McDaniel‘s writing is exquisite. There’s a way that authors-who-are-also-poets write that’s almost immediately identifiable. It felt like every other line contained something that I want to scribble down and store away for later. But as soon as I found myself falling into a rhythm, the song quickly shifted into a new movement, and I was thrown off the beat. As easily as she can sweep you away, McDaniel can yank you suddenly back into your body.

Betty follows the life of Betty Carpenter and her family as she grows up in the fictional town of Breathed, Ohio. Her father, Landon, is Cherokee and her mother, Alka is white. Every significant moment in their lives from the time the two of them meet until the final pages of the book is documented by their youngest daughter, Betty, as she learns about who she is and what her place is in the world. Most of these lessons are hard, made harder by the time and location she resides in. But they are also made easier by the fortifying nature of some of her family members and ancestors.

This is not a story of family drama but one of family trauma. It’s also the story of all the beautiful things that grow in the cracks between them. In the Carpenters, we watch as the scars of one generation are passed on to the next. It can be hard to reconcile when a person unloads that pain onto someone they’re supposed to love unconditionally. Can you forgive someone that’s tried to drag you down with them, if they thought it was the only way they could keep from drowning? Can any amount of understanding make it okay? It will never be okay.

Parts of this book were devastating. Other parts were enchanting. I don’t want to giveaway any plot, but I also don’t want someone to go in entirely blind. Give yourself the emotional space to fully immerse yourself in the story. There is grief and there is joy. There are storms and there is solace. There are beginnings and there are endings. We can’t choose what we inherit or from who, but we do have some say in what we do with it.

The moment I started reading this novel I knew it will be hard for me to write my thoughts just like what happened to me when I read The Summer That Melted Everything. Sad and Beautiful, these are the words that will stay in your heart when you read this. A book that has so much to offer, so much that the world must know.

The author has the power to drown her reader in emotions, emotions that will make them love everything in this book. A very vivid description of life that will surely take your heart away.

This is a story of a girl named Betty. As being different as what the world tried her to say, she found it difficult to life with all the stones they are throwing her. She is a representation of the women in the world who suffers cruelty because of her appearance and status in life. With her father who guides her as she grow she finds bravery and love. She learned to forgive people who hurt her and fight for the people she love.

Every character in this novel has a story to tell, each of them highlights issues that are rampantly being ignored in our society until now. This novel will surely cut your heart open and touch your soul. There are so much emotion and lessons to learn. A book that talks about cruelty of life especially women and people in color.

In this book you will also find connection with nature and how beautiful life is, even how much cruelty it contains.

Readers today needs an author like Tiffany, who writes truth ang highlights important topics like inequality, racism, harassment and many more.

McDaniel’s books is a whole package. Truly diverse in every way. TSTMET and Betty will always have a special place in my heart. This book have taught me to value life and love yourself and the people around you even more.

So much emotion, lessons and love for this piece.

If you are looking for a diverse book, this is for you. Be ready to dive into emotions and be carried away.

***please consider that some parts of this book might trigger anxiety or might be heavy for some readers. Read it with caution.***

This is a difficult book to review because it covers a lot of very heavy topics… to say that I loved a book that is so full of pain feels shallow and callous. So instead I will say this - Betty is a love letter, from an author to her mother.

Betty (the book) is based on the real life of Betty, Tiffany McDaniel’s mother. I cannot imagine a more personal experience as an author than to give life to your family’s stories, to dive deep into the lived experiences of those who came before you, and to seek to understand and honor them through your own words.

This is a very heavy read - I’ve listed quite a few content warnings at the bottom of this review for those who find them helpful - but it is also an immensely beautiful story. Tiffany McDaniel’s writing is captivating, lyrical, and profoundly emotional. Her words carry so much compassion and love, in Landon’s stories, in Betty’s thoughts and feelings, and in their small moments of joy… but also in their moments of trauma and pain.

This book is one of the best coming of age stories I think I’ve ever read, but it is also an incredibly raw and honest exploration into complex family dynamics, trauma, identity, and regionalism and racism in America.

Growing up in North Carolina, I spent quite a bit of time in the Appalachian Mountains, which I think explains my love for books set there. Appalachia is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts of the America, but many who live there endure extreme poverty and lack basic access to quality healthcare, education, housing, etc. In Betty, I found that McDaniels was able to capture that dichotomy with candor and respect, and without glorifying or fetishizing poverty in ways I’ve seen other authors do.

Because I am not an Indigenous person, I cannot speak on the lived experiences of the BIPOC characters in this book, so I will yield that conversation to own-voices bookstagrammers with firsthand understanding and experience.

However, I do think that the discussions of racism against Black and Indigenous people in this book are a candid look into the lives of those living in Appalachia during Betty’s formative years and could inspire a lot of constructive reflection and discussion on how Betty’s experience (and the experiences of others around her) is unique to their time period, region, and personal experience, but is also representative of a greater system of injustice and inequality that persists even today.

I am so grateful to McDaniel for sharing her beautiful book with me. I am forever in awe of her incredible talent and dedication to this story. This is a heavy book, but one that I found to be immensely impactful and will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend this book to fans of Appalachian literature, coming of age stories, and anyone who simply loves beautiful writing.

CW/TW - racism, slurs, murder, lynching, r*pe, miscarriage, child abuse, bullying, animal death

Betty Carpenter is the daughter of a Cherokee father and a white mother and one of eight siblings. She was especially close to her father and loved the tales he told about their heritage. Her family, which faced many injustices such as racism and poverty, causes her to see abuse and experience loss both inside and outside of the family. Those events are extremely traumatizing and throughout it all she remains resilient.

This dark beautifully written slow burn story had beautiful characters that jumped off the page. The reader sees the main character’s strength as she manages the most difficult moments

I was honored when the author reached out to me and provided me with an ARC to review. After reading the synopsis, I was immediately interested in the story, especially since it is based on the author's mother's (Betty) life. Within a few pages, I realized how talented of a writer McDaniel is. Her prose is gorgeous and lyrical and memorable. Every word choice is thoughtful- while the setting and characters are thoroughly described and are so vivid that I felt that I had walked into Betty's world, the amount of description never felt extraneous or excessive. Each of the characters was given the attention they deserved and I felt that I was able to understand them through Betty's eyes.

There were many things that I loved about Betty (the novel and the person). But when I finished reading, the thing that has stuck in my mind the most is Betty's resiliency. Despite the losses, difficulties and heartbreaks, Betty perseveres and moves forward. She still sees the world as a beautiful and magical place, even when its cruelty and violence threaten to tear her apart. Her spirit and her love for her family are what sets her story apart and why I am so glad that this story was shared with all of us through her daughter Tiffany.

Betty was haunting, beautifully written and emotional and a story that I will not forget

Betty is not a title for the faint of heart. Trigger tags are a necessity when recommending this powerful narrative about race, poverty, familial abuse, and the power of narrative. That said, this title has exceptional literary merit and is worth examining time and again.
Born in a bathtub, the daughter of a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is a born writer. While her large family shifts from town to town, the constant is the stories her father weaves into every facet of the family’s life. Her father’s stories are urgent, his interpretation of the world through these stories demand to be believed and he instills this in Betty.
When Betty begins to experience and discover the inequities of the world and abuse within her family, the only way to heal and comprehend is through writing her own narrative.
This is a powerful and imaginative book. Well worth the read.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an e-ARC of Betty in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings: Racism, Animal Death, Homophobia, Self-mutilation, Abortion, Suicide, Rape, Child Molestation, Child Death, Drug Overdose

As can be seen in the content warnings, Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is an extremely heavy read. None of the warnings from the author & other readers could have warned me enough when it came to this heart-wrenching journey. In the mood to cry? Betty might be for you.

I have heard nothing but good things when it comes to McDaniel’s debut, The Summer that Melted Everything. I have yet to read it, but trust me, it skyrocketed to the top of my TBR after reading Betty. The author knows exactly how to piece together words in order to create a beautifully crafted story. A word artist, if I do say so myself.

I realized then that not only did Dad need us to believe his stories, we needed to believe them as well.


Betty was born to a Cherokee father and a white mother, along with her seven other siblings. The Carpenters not only live with the struggle of poverty but are often faced with racism, loss, and so many other tribulations. Betty’s father, Landon, stands as a backbone to the Carpenter family & often shares stories — these stories often providing inspiration or strength for his loved ones.

Tiffany McDaniel came to me with Betty knowing that I was a horror fan & would probably be able to stomach what occurs in this novel; seeing as I’ve read some dark things in my time. & yes, I was able to handle the content. However, Betty was a reminder that real-life and humanity is much scarier than anything most horror authors write.

With almost every chapter, my mouth would fall open in shock and I had to treat myself to multiple self-care breaks. This review is not to scare you away from picking up Betty, but instead to let you know that you’ll most likely leave this book with a lot of emotions. And quite honestly, any author that can have that much of an impact is doing a Hell of a job.

Betty deserves all of the praise; the writing is mesmerizing & the story will stick with you long after you put it down.

Tiffany McDaniel’s incredible novel Betty broke me. It’s the coming-of-age story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954, Betty, the sixth of eight children, was raised for most of her life in the foothills of the Ohio Appalachians. Her father Landon Carpenter is a proud Cherokee married to her mother, Alka Lark, who is white. While her siblings look more like her mother, Betty is most like her father with dark skin.

The family is poor but Landon provides his children with inventive storytelling rooted in Cherokee myths and legends. From blazing stars to a bird living in a glass heart, the stories are magical. Betty develops a creative mind and becomes a storyteller in her own right. The support and love, especially from her father, does not prepare Betty for the hatred she faces once she enters school. Betty experiences racial hatred not only from the other children but from the faculty. While her mother tells Betty that she is not pretty like her sisters, it is the sweet and wonderful relationship with her father that keeps Betty strong and believing in herself.

Betty comes to learn the truth of generational abuse hidden within her own family shaking her entire foundation. It is way too much for a child to deal with this type of trauma and it’s very hard to read about it.

Betty is based on the author’s mother Betty and her family which makes the story even more heartbreaking. The writing is stunning and lyrical. I kept noting favorite passages when I realized almost every word in this book is worth savoring. It is rare for a book to stir up so much emotion. I highly recommend it but there are some upsetting passages that might be too much for some.

I am so glad that the author reached out to me to read Betty in advance of its publication. Thank you, thank you Tiffany McDaniel. And thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley.

Every once in a great while, a book will come along that blows me out of the water and delivers a solid punch to my gut – Betty is one of those books. Simply put, this is really a 10-star read and has bumped itself up into my top 5 reads of all time.

“A girl comes of age against the knife. She must learn to bear its blade. To be cut. To bleed. To scar over and still, somehow, be beautiful and with good enough knees to take the sponge to the kitchen floor every Saturday.”

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter, a girl born of a white woman and a Cherokee man. She is the youngest girl and the only one of her six living siblings that strongly resembles her father. The majority of the novel takes place during the 1960’s in the fictional, southern Ohio town of Breathed and follows Betty from the time she is seven until she is eighteen. Betty has been raised on the stories of her father’s people and the strength she inherits from powerful Cherokee women; likewise, she has been raised on the stories of her mother’s people and the the abuse her mother suffered at the hands of her family. The dichotomy of these truths allows Betty to see the horrors that are happening within her own family and surroundings.

While Betty encapsulates the sense of time and place with McDaniel’s understanding of certain rural truths: mental illness was not a topic to be discussed and women being inferior to men, chief among them; She presents these truths in a manner that allows us to recognize that time has not erased these problems. The curtains may have changed, but they still cover the same old dirty windows.

It should be said that Betty is not a horror novel, but rather a literary novel with horrific elements. It is beautiful, tragic, and gritty enough to surpass the works of Cormac McCarthy, Daniel Woodrell, or Stuart O’Nan. McDaniel handles topics of discrimination, racism, sexism, abuse, incest, and cruelty with a deft hand. She commands attention with her lyrical prose, vivid imagery, and powerful use of metaphors; she paints over all this with a watercolor layer of magical realism that both softens and hardens truths at their edges.

Betty is a tough read, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There were moments where I had to walk away for a little while and come back to the book the next day. The reality that Betty endures would have broken me – she is a far stronger woman than I am. Having said that, the moments of beauty and strength are more powerful than the enduring tragedy of the Carpenter family. There are passages and images in my mind that will stay with me forever. If you read one book this year, please, read Betty.

This novel devastated me. Tiffany McDaniel has written such a relevant yet obviously personal story about sexism, racism, abuse, and domestic tragedy that I really wasn't expecting to be so moved by. I will admit it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I finished it in a couple of hours. Such a harrowing read at times but a necessary one I think, even if just for the beautiful, compelling writing.

Feedback given directly to author...................................................................................................................................................................................

"The thing about Breathed is that she gives you both the ripe fruit and the rotted in the very same bite."

Betty is not for the faint of heart. I think it broke a bit of my soul and kept the pieces for itself. McDaniel's writing is as hauntingly poetic as it is devastating in the way it weaves such layered and complex commentary into a disturbing story. While her previous work reminded me of The Crucible and Invisible Man, this one was reportedly inspired by the life of the author's mother and was more reminiscent of The Bluest Eye with undertones of Virginia Woolf's more contemplative essays in its rhythmic lyricism.

In 1954, Betty Carpenter was born half-Cherokee into a family full of holes and a world made for heartache with words bursting out of her skin. Her mother was a haunted house and her father was doing his best to keep a fire in the hearth and the roof from caving in. Despite being dirt poor, he worked to keep food the mouths of his their children and to nourish their souls with stories of their heritage. Betty listened the best, she looked to her father's stories to help the harsh world around her make sense and let his tales give inspiration to her own as she journeyed from childhood into adulthood.

This story hit me differently than The Summer That Melted Everything. While they are both exemplary pieces of heavy-hitting literary examination of the human condition, I couldn't devour this one as quick and constant as I did the other, not because it wasn't just as good-- it was--but in different ways. This book was mentally and emotionally exhausting for me. The sheer pain and sorrow exhibited in the pages pushed me to the very edge of my breaking point many times, going as far as to consider whether or not my heart could take another word, only to have the next paragraph offer the smallest glimpse of hope that was so raw in its beauty that it made me keep going. Hurt and grief and sickening devastation haunt this story, but so do love, laughter, and triumph. The good chases the bad until the bad circles back... but which one will catch Betty?

A very lyrically written coming of age novel that often times reads like a memoir. Tiffany McDaniel took inspiration for writing Betty from the story of her mother’s life. The daughter of a Cherokee father and a white mother living in the mid 1950s, Betty’s life is filled with tragedy and loss.

This was such a hard book for me to finish. Reading Betty left me emotionally and physically drained. It’s not an easy read, it’s a story that is filled with tragic events and loss surrounding a numerous family struggling to survive in America in the mid 50s. The book does an incredible job in painting the rural life of a family at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains struggling to keep their Cherokee roots and traditions in a society filled with racism and discrimination. We can see the struggles especially from Betty and her father, Landon, whom are constantly ostracized for their ways of thinking and acting. What I loved about Landon was how much he refused to let go of his culture and how much he tried to instill pride of his roots in his daughter Betty, whom, because she takes after her father so much, is the one who suffers from racism the most, even from her own family members.

Like I said, a hard book to read most of the times because nothing ever seems to go well for our characters, especially for Betty. There is no respite for any of these family members. I kept waiting for the silver lining of the story but as the pages went on the darker they got. I don’t know if this is one of those books where you take something out of the story or you are left with a feeling of content. It’s one of those experiences you wish you didn’t have to go through, just like you wish the things happening to the characters weren’t things that occured in our real world to so many people. The racism suffered by Betty and her father for their Cherokee blood, the intergenerational trauma, the constant violence against the women of this family by men who were supposed to care for them and protect them, and the unjust treatment from society against anyone who broke the mold or was different from the ‘american stereotype’ are some of the things that Betty sheds a light on.

Tiffany McDaniel writing strength is clearly her purple prose filled with visual imagery. Telling the story of an entire generation and bringing each single character to life with such vibrant personalities is not an easy task, and yet McDaniel excelled in that department as well. I loved her debut novel ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’, so it’s no secret I’m a fan of her writing style but this book was hard for me to digest, suffocating at times, hence the rating. I wish we could have seen more of those joyful moments in Betty’s life or at least know that after those bleak last couple of chapters she went on to have a wonderous life, but the book ended without us readers being able to enjoy that pinch of happiness for a character whose life was filled with nothing but tragedy. And to finish this review off, I’d like to add another quote that as simple as it is, it strikes home for many of us:

‘You know what the heaviest thing in the world is, Betty? It’s a man on top of you when you don’t want him to be.’

Sometimes books come your way in the oddest of circumstances. Be it a friend mentioning they loved a book and sending you a second copy, or you see a book getting buzz and it's randomly in a Free Little Library as you walk by.

Or, in the case of 'Betty,' the author has reached out to a fellow reviewer due to geographical similarities. In this instance, Tiffany had reached out to my friend Miranda Crites, as Miranda lives in Appalachia. Unfortunately, Miranda was unable to get to it by release date, so she offered it to the KR team. I'd seen 'Betty' mentioned a few times, but when I read Edward Lorn's review, and then saw Laurie's (aka Barks) I knew I needed to review this.

Miranda emailed Tiffany, who emailed me and voila, review copy on the Kindle. But that wasn't just it. Tiffany and I exchanged a few emails back and forth, and wouldn't you know, we also shared a number of similarities about where we'd grown up. While my early years were in BC, Canada, geographically - with the mountains - it was all so similar.

What I liked: If a book can physically manifest dread through an electronic reading device, this is the book. 'Betty' reads like a non-fiction book, where details are told matter-of-factly while the story rumbles along. Autobiographical in nature, we follow along with a family often one page at a time.
McDaniel has created something special here. Characters that evoked emotions, We have it all here. Coming-of-age, grief, trauma, abuse. We get to see how the world around these characters causes such pain, but unlike novels that focus on a small chunk of time, we get to see how these small ripples from a specific day, form into waves over a lifetime.
Am I saying anything specific about this book right now? Yes and no. This is a book that is very hard to review with specifics, as it is a book told through a perspective like the game of dominoes. Once the first piece falls, everything comes tumbling after.
So, I will say this; Betty arrives to a white mother and a Cherokee father. A one night stand that ends up getting her beat by her father, who in turns gets beat by Landon, the Cherokee man. This sets the stage early for what the reader will be in for. The moments of beauty are often a cloud sitting at the edge of the storm front behind it.

What I didn't like: This book was a masterpiece. I struggle sometimes with books this well written. That may not make sense to some of you, but I was intimidated at times with how well written this was. I'm not a smart enough reader (or reviewer!) to fully verbalize what I'm trying to say, but there are moments in this book that are so crystal clear, perfect, you'll need to set it down, go back and reread it.

Why you should buy it: I've long wanted to take a crack at 'The Summer That Melted Everything,' as that book is always hailed as amazing. It wasn't until I started reading this that I put two and two together and realized it was the same author. Sad, I know! So, if you read that and loved it, I can't see how you wouldn't love this. It does take place in the same town, but I can't say whether any characters appear in both. McDaniel is an amazing author, that is evident from page one, but if you are looking for a captivating and emotionally devastating story, 'Betty' should be high on your list of books to read.

** This review will feature on Kendall Reviews! **