A sincere thank you to KVPA and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Daffy and Arc are twin sisters born a minute apart. They're highly imaginative and are able to turn their squalid, savage surroundings, living with essentially absent, addiction-ravaged parents, into something beautiful. The novel takes readers back and forth from Daffy and Arc's brutal childhood to the present, where young women, including their friends, are starting to disappear, only to be found murdered in the nearby river. Based on the true stories of the six missing women in Chillicothe, Ohio, this novel is a raw, emotional tribute to missing women everywhere.

This book was DIFFICULT to read, in the best way. It's an important story, a story that's true for many families and friend circles, towns, and communities. It explores the savagery of addiction and how it can completely consume a person's life, relationships, and mind. It explores the terrifying things that children and adults endure in times of desperation and poverty. It explores the general air of apathy that surrounds the disappearances and murders of "junkies," "druggies." and "whores" who are considered as little else. It explores the effects of the ghosts and demons that we carry with us for years and decades. The writing was beautiful - hauntingly so. McDaniel's talent for such raw, emotional writing is indescribable. Like I said, this is a very difficult novel to read, but it's a story that needs to be told.

Please check content warnings before reading this book, as it contains significant depictions of drug use and abuse, rape, sexual assault, animal cruelty, murder, and miscarriage.

This was really good. Considering the research the author did for this story It did not disappoint. Started a little slow but picked up at 50 percent.

Everything that Tiffany McDaniel writes is profound. I can’t say enough about this book. This story pulls on the reader’s heartstrings and gives life to women who were easily written off by society. It is what I’d call “Great Lakes Grit” at its finest. Arc and Daffy and their friends are characters that will be etched into my bones for years to come. I cannot wait to see what this author writes next, and have no doubt it will be amazing. All the stars!

After loving Betty and letting it absolutely destroy me last year, I knew that I needed to get my hands on this one. Tiffany McDaniel's writing is one of a kind and makes someone like me who normally struggles with books longer than 300 pages absolutely DEVOUR this 450+ page book in a matter of days. Tiffany used inspiration from the Chillicothe six from her home town to tell this powerful story of two twin sisters who have been surrounded by suspicious murders and believe they are next. This book was incredibly raw, and heartbreaking, and so entertaining! I could not put it down.

🦋 ON THE SAVAGE SIDE 👩🏻‍🦰

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5)

Synopsis: Twin sisters Arcade and Daffodil create an imaginary world as they grow up to distract themselves from the violence, poverty, and drug epidemic that envelops Chillicothe, Ohio. As young adults, they do all that they can to survive as they spiral into a heroin addiction and their friends turn up dead in the river one by one. Inspired by the real unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six.

Review: There’s a harsh dichotomy between McDaniel’s wise, lyrical prose and the gruesome violence the characters experience on a daily basis, but I think it works to tell this story. The author weaves threads of magic and folklore throughout the novel to the point where you question what’s real and what’s imagined. The mother-daughter relationship is gritty and sad and I haven’t seen such a honest reckoning with that since the film Moonlight. The river is essentially a character in the book. Mamaw Milkweed is the only responsible, loving adult in the book and I wish there was more of her in it.

On the Savage Side was released 2/14 and is available everywhere. Many thanks to @netgalley and @aaknopf for allowing me to read a digital copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

CW: murder, death, grief, drug abuse/addiction, recovery/rehab, graphic physical and sexual violence, prostitution/sex trafficking

I’ve been excited to read ON THE SAVAGE SIDE from the very early days of finding out that Tiffany McDaniel was coming out with a new book: I absolutely loved and devoured Betty, and fell in love with the author’s heartbreaking story and beautiful writing.

With this book, I was only aware of the story being based on the true crime murders of the Chillicothe Six, but thought this was a great take on it!

*many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This was amazing. Heartbreaking. Beautifully written. A step beyond Betty, my favorite of Tiffany McDaniel's so far. This has cemented her as one of my favorite authors of all time.

Arcade and Daffodil (Arc and Daffy) are twins, born to addict parents, living in poverty and hearing stories and tales from their Mamaw Milkweed. Life was hard and its no wonder that they ended up being ensnared by the heroin addictive lifestyle they shared with their aunt and mother. This book was extremely difficult to read and is even harder to review. It was beautifully written by Tiffany McDaniels but the content was so sad and horrifying, especially the ending. I felt horrible for Arc and Daffy and the life they lived. I believe this is being categorized as a thriller but I didn’t find it to be at all so that may be a little off putting for some but I wouldn’t go off that. If you like well written, sad books this is for you! 😂I’m rounding up to 4 ⭐️. Thank you NetGalley and Knopf publishing for an arc copy of this book.

This book is haunting and beautifully written. The ending brought me to tears. The author writes about the Chillicothe six in the beginning and then takes us into the lives of six fictional characters living in Chillicothe being targeted by a serial killer. We get to know each women and their lives in and out of active addiction. Humanizes them rather than just labeling them as addicts. Both the savage side and the bright side of them all. An amazing read!

Un altro doloroso capolavoro dell'autrice di The summer that melted everything, che precisa come un bisturi disseziona il dolore e la crudeltà che si nascondono dietro i singoli individui, la famiglia e la società che ingloba tutto.
Leggerla è un atto necessario, come pulire una ferita che non si sapeva di avere.

This book just wasn’t for me. I thought it was going to be one thing going in and I wasn’t a fan of where it went. I didn’t like the writing and didn’t connect with the characters at all.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I have read by Tiffany McDaniel. I am usually not a fan of flowery writing, but the connection to real life events made this work for me. Even though the writing is disturbing at times, I found that I kept wanting to keep reading. I do recommend this book, but it is a very sad and heartbreaking story.

Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

This book was quite something in the way the author showed how your background can be such a strong determinant of your life. For the twin girls, Arcade and Daffodil, their life seemed doomed to fail, but as always, the girls held out hope for the future. They lived for awhile with their grandmother who nurtured them with stories and love, but ten their drug addicted prostitute mother and aunt wanted them back.

The girls were subjected to the drugs, the Johns, and most of all to the poverty of being in a family of chaos. They do invent stories, imaginary places to escape to but life doesn't get any better. They became what they most desired not to be.

I don't think I have ever read are more depressing story and although it sounds nightmarish, the author loosely based her story on events which happened in a small Ohio town.

The Chillicothe Six, were disposable women, and just like to women in this tragic story, they lost their lives. I had to wonder what these girls would have become if born in a different environment or at least to someone who cared.

It's chilling tale, one which Tiffany McDaniel does great justice to with her many punches to one's gut.

Thank you to Tiffany McDaniel, Knopf Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this hard hitting story which published in February of this year.

After the popularity of Betty I knew I wanted to pick up this new release from Tiffany McDaniel and boy does she deliver. As expected, On the Savage Side is beautiful and painfully relatable. I can't wait to read what she does next.

I had high hopes for this one. And I bloody loved it. McDaniel may not write stories to everyone’s taste as they tend to gravitate towards severe hardships and trauma but she is one hell of a writer.

Once again, a book featuring sisters that I adored. Arc and Daffy are twin sisters and live in Chillicothe, Ohio with their mother and aunt who are both drug addicts. I loved Arc so much 💔

The narrative is brilliantly done and interspersed with a medical report every time a victim is found in the river. Despite this being fictional, McDaniel dedicated this book to “the Chillicothe Six”, the six women who disappeared or were murdered between May 2014 and May 2015 in this small rural town.

It also has some fascinating facts which I ended up googling and I would recommend you read the transcripts that I accessed on the NPR website about Hitler’s addiction to drugs. I was also recommended the non-fiction read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe which I heard was brilliant and has been added to my list.

Back to the savage side, it’s not an uplifting read, but rather a stark glimpse of what drug addiction and being born in a drug addicts‘ household looks like. And it’s not pretty…

But what a read!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to @aaknopf for the gifted book! It is out February 14th. It took me about 150 pages to really get invested but once I got to that point, I read the rest of it much quicker and ultimately loved it! This book is a brutal look at drug addiction, prostitution, and murder in a rural community. This is not a traditional “who-done-it” type mystery, but if you go into this expecting a more literary story, this should be a great read.

This story is narrated by Arc. She lives in Chillicothe, Ohio and has a twin sister called Daffy. She grows up with a mom and aunt who are addicted to heroin and a dad who dies when she’s young. Her grandma, Mamaw Milkweed, helped raise Arc and Daffy until she is lost to an accident. During the book, we span into the twins’ young adulthood, as they fall into the cycle of drug use, like their parents. It shows the difficult realities of how hard it is to recover from addiction.

This book is a look at crime and how society tends to care less about those involved in things like sex work and drug use, even though these people are loved too and matter to people. During this book, Arc finds a body of a woman in the river. Several other bodies are found there as well, coming from the group of women that she is friends with. While these crimes are reported, the local law enforcement doesn’t do much to investigate them and it’s clear that their attitude is that these women were hurting themselves anyway through their drug use so they probably died from something related to that. And even if there was foul play, they still don’t care because they were “just another addict.”

My only quibble is that I wanted closure about the killer. That’s definitely a personal thing, though, and I understand that a large part of the point of the book is that these crimes often do go unsolved due to the lack of caring about the victims so the ending makes sense when thinking about that.

I definitely recommend this book! If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts! I struggled with Betty and never finished it, but this is making me want to revisit it.

Words to describe this book: haunting, brutal, emotionally draining, gut-wrenching, gripping, beautiful and moving.

Please be aware of the trigger warnings (such as rape, torture, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and child neglect) before reading this book.

Beautifully written, loved the poems, and the links to nature. There should be warnings about the content of the book including child abuse. It was sadness, upon sadness, upon sadness, with little to no hope.

I really loved “Betty” so when I saw Tiffany McDaniel had a new book I was super excited. On The Savage Side once again did not disappoint. The book grabbed my attention from the beginning and didn’t let go even after it was over. This story really draws on the trials and tribulations of what it means to be a woman. Tiffany McDaniels is a sensation and such an excellent writer.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐈’𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑💔

Also 100% the most painful. But the writing😩😩😩😩😩. Hands down, this book is a gut wrenching work of genius. It’s utterly brilliant.

Reader be warned: only embark on this journey if you’re ready to have your heart broken💔

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭:

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is an exquisitely written, brutal book about the horrors of addiction, abuse, prostitution, racism, poverty, and lost innocence. It follows two twins, Daffy and Arc, as they grow up in Chillicothe, Ohio. The twins cope through magical thinking and imagination leading to a very whimsical writing pattern that starkly constrasts their day to day horrors. I will say it again: this book is BRILLIANT.

𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒆, 𝒑𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂, 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

This is an incredibly challenging novel to read. It took me the better part of 3 months to get through. I had to take breathers ALOT.

I think reading powerful books like this one breeds empathy and understanding of the human condition past what we may know in our own lives. I highly encourage you all to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet.

Take care of yourself while reading it, or read it with a buddy. I’m always here to discuss and talk so don’t be a stranger if you do pick this one up. Thank you @stephonashelf for helping me get through it!! It’s tough but it’s beautiful.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is actually based on the true and unsolved case of six murdered women but it truly does not read like a true crime novel, it’s so much more.

I started with the physical copy and then switched to audio. Listening to the novel helped me get through it🎧🖤