"I remember the fierce love and devotion as much as I remember the violence."

Betty is an unbelievable story of the author's mother's upbringing. She has a white mother and a Cherokee father and in the 1960s in Appalachia this created issues for Betty. She and her siblings navigate through troubled times, some better than others. The relationships Betty has with her sisters is quite endearing at times, I definitely laughed out loud a few times at their shenanigans.

While there is a lot darkness in this book (DM me for trigger warnings) there is also a lot of light. Betty's relationship with her father is special and their connection is profound.

On to the narration...y'all, it was out of this world. Hands down one of the best narrators I have ever listed to. Dale Dickey is an actress that you've likely seen in a few things and has the PERFECT voice for this book. She made this story come to life and I was so submerged in the story I found myself walking around doing chores and having to stop and sit to just cry (which I did twice) or laugh (which I did a lot).

The book is literary fiction/rural fiction/coming of age that reads like a memoir. I found it reminded me in a way of The Glass Castle meets Educated but only portions because Betty was so much more.

Thank you to @aaknopf for reaching out and giving him a free copy to review.

"I realized then that not only did dad need us to believe his stories, we needed to believe them as well. To believe in unripe stars and eagles able to do extraordinary things. What it boiled down to was a frenzied hope that there was more to life than the reality around us. Only then could we claim a destiny we did not feel cursed to."

Betty is born in 1954 to a Cherokee father and a white mother. she is born sixth in the line up of eight brothers and sisters and the only of her siblings who inherited her father's looks. Betty grows up living with a mentally-ill mother, and a father who teaches hope and beauty through his fantastical stories. Their life is one of poverty and brutal hardship. The family is living in the shadow of past traumas and  unprocessed familial grief. 

	Do you know that feeling you get when you have cried very hard for a sustained amount of time and you sit in the aftermath of all the tears. sticky-faced, blurry-eyed, gulping breaths like you're starving for air? That is how I felt reading this book. Like a good cry, I felt both better and resigned to everything I had witnessed through the brutal telling of this story. 
	This is one of those books that I am deeply grateful I pushed through and finished because the writing was incredible...but... It was deeply difficult to finish. I had to set it down for a couple weeks and read something else for awhile. When I returned to the read I had hoped I had gotten through the most brutal parts... I had not even scratched the surface. This book pulls no punches and the redemptions of its characters comes at the curtain call of the story; too little too late to do much more than mop up a drop of blood on the outskirts of a massacre. 
	 This novel was a wasteland of hopelessness. The fragile hope of this story came solely from the stories Betty's dad told his children. Stories of Eagles that carry your sorrows to the heavens so you don't have to hold on to them. Stories of magical books with stories written in flames. beautiful stories, unrelenting in their deeply hopeful messages and rich with faith for a better world. I clung to the the stories Betty's father told as a refuge from the full on emotional assault of this novel in the same way that I imagine his children found pockets of respite from their life long storm of grief and hardship. The magic of this story is this father's love. The undoing of the reader is that his love is not enough of a protection against the beating fists of destruction.
	I don't think I will ever forget this story and the longer I sit in the finale of it, the more spectacular it seems. 

Thank You to Knopf publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

McDaniel writes an amazing story that is heart wrenching. It was hard to read about so many different types of abuse that happened to one person. It was very harsh and hard to get through the entire book.

Once upon a time an author contacted me and asked if I’d read her debut novel ‘The Summer That Melted Everything’. I was interested in the devil that walked as a boy in coveralls that was invited to the town of Breathed, Ohio by a man named Autopsy Bliss. The book was brilliantly written and I couldn’t stop talking about how much the story within touched me. Years later, this same author would contact me again with a story that she wanted to share. She trusted me to take care of this story because it meant a lot to her.

The story that I read...I did not know what to expect. I promised Tiffany I would have it read and reviewed by its publication date of August 18th. The same day my children went back to school, “distance learning”. I had good intentions. Then I started reading. I read and read some more. Stopping to screw up my face in frustration. Slamming my fists down at the injustice. Then around the 30% mark, I cried. I cried for Freya. I cried for Betty. I cried for Trustin and his drawins. I cried for Yarrow and Waconda. I cried for Flossie and Nova. I didn’t stop crying. Wracking sobs exploded out of me from what felt like every chapter. I cried for the Carpenter family. I cried for the love given by Landon to his children. I cried for the love that was hard pressed from Alka. I cried because this story has so much in it. So much love and loss. So much family and flames. No family should have to endure this much pain.

I promised a review on the publication date. I couldn’t deliver that promise because there was too much at stake. This story isn’t one that you read in between chores and emails. This story isn’t for the flippant, casual, pick up on occasion reader. This story is one that you feast on. You start off being polite, taking small bites with a fork and knife. Cutting off bite sized pieces and thoughtfully chewing before swallowing. But soon you are diving in head first. Silverware forgotten. You snarl at interruptions. You’ve become so focused on the need to eat you don’t stop at just the meal, but start eating the plate too. Through the broken teeth and cut up gums you chomp. Then comes the napkin and tablecloth. Soon you are feasting on the table. Your belly is fit to burst and still you continue working your way down each table leg. Tears flow freely now as your swollen and splintered lips try to close over more and more. You are finally left with the chair you are sitting on. You contemplate if the chair too needs to be consumed, but you’ve found yourself at the end of the story.

The story is powerful like Cherokee women. They are the ones that plant the seeds. Only they can grow a garden. Men can only dig the holes.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget this story of Betty, little Indian to her father, squash to her sisters. She might have hated herself when she was younger, but grow up to be a warrior.

Thank you Tiffany for trusting me with your mothers story. I will cherish it. I will learn to be braver. I will continue to love and forgive and grow.

“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.”

McDaniel writes a story that is NOT for the faint of heart (animal abuse, sexual assault, physical abuse runs rampant), but these tough moments and topics do not give this book a sense of voyeurism but really shape the story. Filled with moments of familial tenderness and terrible, painful moments that make it hard to breathe, Betty is the character driven novel that I didn’t know I needed.

What a STUNNING novel. From the first few lines, I knew I was going to love this to pieces. Betty had it’s fingers gripped tightly around my heart through the whole thing. I’m sorry not really if you know me in real life, because I am going to be shoving this novel in your face and demanding you read it.

Thank you thank you thank you to Tiffany McDaniel, Knopf Doubleday Publishing & Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Can a book be both beautiful and brutal at the same time?  I wanted to read this book because my mothers name is Betty and I live in Ohio. But I must say what happens in this book is nothing like what I have ever experienced. It reminded me of the Glass Castle or Educated but so much more magical and intense and violent.  So many terrible things happen to the female protagonists that I feel many will have a hard time getting through the book. But the relationship with her father gives hope that she will survive her family hardships. The cover and family photos are exquisite and add so much to the book. Thank your for the opportunity to review and thank god this is not my story because it is almost unbelievable in it’s brutality with just tiny glimmers of hope and beauty

Betty was hard to read.  Not because it's bad, but because it's almost disturbingly good.  As a white reader, I can only imagine what it would have been like to live in Betty's world.  It's harsh, dank, and spoiled constantly by those around her.  But it's also a wonderful read that everyone should partake in.



5/5 Stars

I cannot say enough good about this book.  This is one of those books that you live and breathe while you read it.  I was drawn in and read it in two days.  An incredible, rich, vivid tale.

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is a masterpiece. 

“Some blamed God for taking too few. Others accuse the devil of leaving too many.”

“What do you do when the two people who are supposed to protect you the most are the monsters tearing you to pieces?”

“Truth is, we were cursed the moment we were born girls. Cursed by our own sex and sex itself.”

I am left speechless, drained and not able to move. I just want to savor every word and reflect back on every sentence I just read over the past few days. I am hung-over. Tiffany McDaniel there are no words to describe the book I just finished. Betty is a masterpiece written straight from the center of the heart.

Betty is based on the life of the authors mother. Betty Carpenter was born to a Cherokee father and a white mother and was one of eight children raised in the Appalachian Mountains. Betty is brown skinned like her father while her siblings are white skinned like her mother. Betty especially hits home due to the excessive racism that is happening currently in our country. Racism so raw, so horrific that it cuts to your core. 

The stories Alka Carpenter tells Betty rip her apart, leaving her tormented, while the stories  Landon Carpenter tells Betty are told to build her back up, give her confidence and give her self worth. His stories are poetically beautiful and were my favorite part of the book. 

Be warned that this is a very difficult read with topics of rape, racism, sexual abuse, animal abuse, violence, suicide and incest. 

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an ARC of Betty in exchange for an honest review. I am looking forward to reading The Summer That Melted Everything her earlier novel.

"She danced like a wolf with a secret."

Every so often a book comes along that grabs ahold of your soul and never lets go. I enjoy a lot of books, I love a lot of books, and, in fact, it takes a lot for me to dislike and even more to downright hate a book. But, rarely, do I come across books that affect me so deeply. Last year, it was The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, and this year it's undoubtedly BETTY by Tiffany McDaniel. 

BETTY is a story, and not just a story but a s-t-o-r-y, based on Tiffany McDaniel's own mother, Betty and her family as she grew up. This book is labeled as fiction/historical fiction so it's obviously quite clear that some of it may be exaggerated. However, if only 20% of what happened in this book happened in real life, that's still way too much for one little girl. And, an even bigger testament is that even if this book is 100% fiction (which it's not), it would still be magnificent. 

Inside? You'll find abuse, love, racism, and magic. You'll come away with very strong feelings about every member of Betty's 10-person family and I can't say for sure, but that seems like a pretty difficult thing to do. 

I was originally drawn to the Appalachian setting of the book being a Tennessee girl. I really enjoyed this part too as well as the deep and rich Cherokee teachings and stories. 

This book is sad, like really sad. But, it is raw. And, those are the best kind of words in my opinion. 

McDaniel is clearly a master of words and a weaver of stories. If the part about Betty being a writer is true then it's clear she passed it on to her daughter. And, I do wonder if there was a purpose behind the title being in all capital letters? From what I can tell, Betty (the person) is a force to be reckoned with and deserves to "take up all the space." I like to think that's why all capital letters, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. 

And, if I haven't sold you yet. I was gifted an ebook copy of BETTY, but will be ordering a physical copy as well as McDaniel's other novel, The Summer That Melted Everything.

This was a compelling read, and I was really invested in following the narrative as we moved though Betty’s life. I did feel the severity of the violence erred on the side of trauma porn, and without perhaps the context as to why that was used (i’ve searched many interviews and the author‘s website for why this specifically was written to no avail) and perhaps my read would have benefited from an author note speaking to this and the way that Cherokee culture and stories are used (and where the line of research versus fiction was drawn).

I really enjoyed the way stories and documenting stories was written—the jars Betty would write her stories in and bury, the “goodnights” that she and her sisters would write each other and save in jars. I also love the way the theme of colorism was explored, and the nuance in the relationship Betty had with her father (particularly in contrast to the brutality in the way her mother treated her).

3.5/5 stars

Betty Carpenter was born to a white mother and a Cherokee father. Soon enough she learned the hard way what it’s like to be different in a society that didn’t appreciate such a thing. And while her family home was a sanctuary, their dark secret could obliterate her childhood before she was ready to face the world.

This book brought out some intense anger in me with how the characters were treated because of their ethnicity or gender. Some scenes were hard to read and unfortunately, these are things that are still happening in the current world.

There were a lot of the life lesson stories imparted and sometimes it just went over my head with the frequency and length. I did love the family bond they had especially between Betty and her dad. And the bond also became the source of heartaches throughout the book.

Betty is a tale of self-identity. It would appeal to readers who enjoy a coming of age family saga.

What an absolute treat! This book will be talked about for years to come! Easily my Top read of 2020, perhaps of all time. 

Thank you to the author and her Beautiful Family.

Betty is a coming-of-age story based on Tiffany McDaniel's mother and her upbringing in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. What I loved about Betty was that while McDaniel's mother was woven throughout the entire book, it was also about the Carpenter family as a whole. One thing that intrigued me was the fact that this was the first time I have read a book where interracially the relationship was between a white woman and someone of Cherokee descent.
Tiffany McDaniel covers heavy topics such as incest, rape, sexual abuse, poverty and racism. And while those topics tugged at my heart, I was able to continue reading the story. The way that the theme of magic was written in the book was also a favorite of mine. 

While Betty will break your heart, the relationship between Betty and her father will be worth the emotional ride.

Phew. This is one of those books where you need to take a step back and regroup after reading. 

It’s incredible. It's a deeply personal, complicated love letter to the authors own mother and reflection on her culture. It's also an own voices indigenous story, a perspective we don't get to hear enough of. 

The story examines Betty’s relationship with her Cherokee father and white mother. She grew up in the Appalachian mountains in Ohio amid poverty, violence, and racism during the 50s and 60s. BETTY is a reflection on her life during that time.  There’s no way around it- this book was brutal. At the same time, parts were so gorgeously written I had to stop and drink it in. I loved Betty’s relationship with her father and her culture- he shares his view of the world through his stories, which encourages Betty to chronicle her own. The family members go through extreme struggles-poverty, violence, abuse, rape, you name it, yet the characters are so well crafted you can’t help but root for them. This is not for the faint of heart- there are many trigger warnings, including animal abuse that I didn’t see coming. Still, if you liked Educated or The Glass Castle, I would recommend this. It’s fiction, but feels very real. This is a book that will stick with me a long time.

Wow. I'm sitting here struggling to put this review together. The author originally reached out to me inquiring if I would like to review the book. As she put it, it wasn't being billed as horror, but most certainly contains things that horror fans would appreciate, which is why she thought I might enjoy this book. Wow, was she right. Tiffany McDaniel is one hell of a writer and I dug the hell out of this one

First off, let me start by saying I had zero idea what to expect, but what I can tell you, is that i most certainly didn't expect that I'd walk away believing this to be one of the best books I've ever read. Beautiful prose coupled with just awful, awful things that will quite literally have you stopping for a breather. This reminds me alot of a video game series, the last of us. And I don't mean that because of story similarities, I mean it because the things that are happening in this story are absolutely appalling things that make you question how this can be so good, but you don't know if "enjoying it" or "having fun with it" are the right words.

I want to caution anyone who may read this book, it's not an easy read, but what it is for sure, is one of the best books I can ever remember reading. Top of lists change all the time, I've got a feeling that this is a book that will always be at the top of my best books i've ever read list. This was my first Tiffany McDaniel novel, but it most certainly isn't the last.

Betty Carpenter is one of eight children born to Landon and Alka, a Cherokee man and white woman in the 1950s. Betty is a force to be reckoned with as she grows in Appalachia Ohio, tormented by her classmates as her skin is darker than her siblings and even they tell her she’ll never be beautiful. Betty loves her father and doesn’t understand her mother as she comes of age in this heart wrenching novel, trying to save her siblings from horrors beyond anyone’s comprehension. ⁣
⁣
I was enthralled with this novel from the very first pages and could not believe the lyrical words my eyes flew over. This story is incredibly difficult to read but immensely powerful as you run alongside Betty, helping her father pick herbs for medicine, trying to understand her mother’s depression, and keeping secrets she doesn’t want to for her sisters. This is an amazingly written book that you do not want to sleep on! I seriously can’t recommend this book enough. A family saga like no other, with the feel of books I’ve read and loved before in the background. For lovers of The Glass Castle, Educated, The Immortalists...do not miss out on this one!⁣
⁣
𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝗪𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: there are numerous graphic triggers in this book. I’ve added it to doesthedogdie.com so please refer to that as needed.⁣
⁣

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is an excellent novel about a poor family who has a Cherokee father and a Caucasian mother.   The family faces many horrific challenges .  The children that have darker skin in the family, especially Betty, experience prejudice from both classmates and authority figures.  He dad calls her his”little Indian” and he wants her to be proud of her heritage.   Being a woman during this time period also poses another challenge to Betty.   Woman are considered second class citizens.   Betty’s sisters are all very unique and much different than her.   She has an older brother who is very devious and demanding and a younger brother who appears to be learning disabled along with the possibility of having mental illness.  The stories told about Cherokee folklore are very interesting and allow the reader to learn about what some Cherokee ancestors truly believed.   I throughly enjoyed this novel.   I predict it will be a best seller!  There are so many themes delved into in this novel that make it satisfying until the very last page.   I would like to thank Tiffany McDaniel, Knopf publishing, a division of Penguin Random House abd netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Trigger warning: this book talks about racism, have graphic scenes about bullying and violence, talks about child loss, abuse, suicide, and also has homophobic lines that are part of the story.

Back in 2016 I read McDaniel's debut novel The Summer That Melted Everything and it is now one of my all time favourite reads. I knew then that I want to read everything she publishes in the future.

This year we were lucky to see her second novel published, Betty, that was in reality the first novel she wrote several years ago.

Betty is based on the life of Tiffany McDaniel's mother, and even though it is fiction, many scenes and most of the story are based on the real life.

Therefore I decided I won't give this book a rating.
I have a rule that I don't rate non fiction, and because this novel is based on someone else's life, I don't feel comfortable to judge the story.

However, I will tell you my feelings and experience with it.

Betty was extremely emotional and heartbreaking story.
I saw people compare it to A Little Life, the book I still haven't read, but it is well known for the sadness, so it makes sense.

I think it is important to say that this is own voices in a way. It talks about the girl who is Cherokee (her father was Cherokee and mother was white).
I know it's not the author's job to teach us but we should all inform ourselves, but I still want to mention that I learned from this book more then I have before from movies (we don't learn American history in Croatian schools).

I still can't believe how racist people were and how awful they treated people just because they had different skin color and came with a different culture.
I still can't believe the cruelty Betty had to go through, and my heart was breaking for her.

There are also some parts in the book that were extremely difficult to read.
I had to stop at some parts and even skipped some because they were triggering for me (suicidal thoughts plus difficult relationship with mother).

This book is very important, but not everyone can handle it, in my opinion.

I read in an article that it took 10+ years for the book to get published, and I believe now it is good time for the Betty to come out, when more people want to read about different cultures and diversity, and when own voices are finally heard.
I also think that Betty should have been promoted more, because it deserves more attention, but I hope as people'll read it they will talk about it more and it will get the recognition.

The last thing I want to praise is McDaniel's voice. Her style is lyrical and beautiful, but also very forward.

I would recommend this book to lovers of literary fiction, but also to readers who'd like to read diverse books.
But guard yourself with some tissues because you'll need them!

Betty tells the story of the Carpenter family and all of their trials and tribulations as a mixed-race family - Betty's mother is white and her father is Cherokee - in Breathed, Ohio during the 1950s and 1960s. It is a story of pain and suffering and growth, as told through the narrator, Betty, as she writes and buries the secrets of her family. This novel was inspired by the author's mother.

"Our fathers all give us somethin', but so, too, do our mothers."

This book was ugly & beautiful, devastating & uplifting all at once. Love permeated throughout this story, despite the dysfunction, despite the depression. It reminded me of a mash up of Where the Crawdads Sing & Educated. The characters, for the most part, were beautiful and forlorn, and I know their stories will haunt me for some time. Please note that this book will not be for the faint of heart. It was, by no means, an easy, light-hearted read. In fact, there were many parts of the book that physically hurt to read. But it physically hurt more, knowing events in this book were inspired by the author's mother's life. I'd love to know where the story delineates fact and fiction... but maybe it's better not to know. I was enraptured by Betty's father's stories and teachings, and, if those are true to the actual Betty's life, she is incredibly lucky to remember them all. This was a painful read, but a great read as well.