Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

331 reviews

sgupte's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Racism, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Incest

amy_hensler's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual violence, Child death, and Racism

pomoevareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I am broken. This book tore me apart and took me 9 days to read as I could only manage small amounts at a time. With that said Betty is also written with such beauty.

Betty is born to a Cherokee father and a white mother and has many siblings. After the death of two of her siblings the family moves to Breathed, Ohio where they move into a house where bullet holes have penetrated many walls and the previous family disappeared without a trace. Her father Landon makes special teas and medicine for the community and they live a life just getting by. Landon shares Cherokee stories and culture with his family. Each of the children are washed in the river when they are born and given a special skill or interest. Nature forms a great part of family life and the daughters even make a stage of sorts where one of them acts, one of them sings and Betty is a writer who writes her stories there and puts them in jars and buries them. 

Each chapter begins with a verse from the bible which I found rather interesting given the family is not religious. It is clear that Christianity has informed them in their upbringing in ways but Landon also tells his children about how indigenous people were removed from their land by colonizers and how religion was forced upon them. 

This book is not for the faint of heart. Pretty much every trigger warning that exists happens in this book. I will try and capture them all on StoryGraph but know this going in. I was prepared for the human ones but not the animal ones. 

Having recently lost my father, the notes on grief, particularly at the end of the book left me bawling.  “No water is ever at rest” speaks to the grief of losing someone special to you. “The waters will never be still.”

Having previously loved On the Savage Side and now with this experience, I hope to pick up McDaniel’s earlier novel The Summer that Melted Everything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Incest, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Child death, Addiction, and Death of parent

jnsonney's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Racism, Rape, and Suicide attempt

callie_pearce's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Incest, Addiction, Classism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, and Lesbophobia

hankatcol's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Incest, Racial slurs, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Abandonment, Blood, Self harm, Sexual violence, Racism, and Murder

bourricote's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautiful but some chapters are hard to read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Death of parent, Blood, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Child death, Animal death, and Rape

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

linaboa's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Racial slurs, Rape, Animal death, Racism, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

salt_y's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Incest, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Self harm, Abortion, and Sexual assault

mmitch10's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

I really struggled with deciding how to rate and review this book, especially after seeing so many rave reviews. There were elements that were powerful and heartbreaking  so I wanted to love it. Ultimately, I was left somewhat disappointed with the storyline and writing. How the family talked to each other, especially to Betty, felt so unrealistic and even how Betty spoke and acted was completely out of step with reality and her age. 

There was so much potential for strong character development but somehow everyone felt flat. Even the father was so promising and was a great opportunity for hope amid all the pain and trauma, but even he was one-dimensional.

Was he so lost in his own world he didn’t know what was happening in his family or did he know and instead of doing something just chose to talk to Betty? I know trauma and abuse makes people behave in ways that is hard for outsiders to understand, but this just didn’t sit right with me.

In the end it was just one trauma after another with little plot or hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Self harm, Racism, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse