Reviews with content warning for Addiction - On the Savage Side

This book was a very hard read for me. It’s very dark and there are so many triggers. Please be aware before you dive into it. That said, this book was so beautiful! Arc and her twin sister go through so much! I just wanted to hug them and make it all better! The way the girls handled their traumas and abuse was just so beautiful, yet sad.

It did take me awhile to read this because of the themes. The author did a very good job writing this. I will think about this story for a very long time. I really want to read more from them. I didn’t see the twist in the book, and the ending was beautiful.

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pomoevareads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Not for the faint of heart, On the Savage Side, Tiffany McDaniel’s upcoming book is affecting and important.

Loosely based on the Chillicothe Six, an unsolved case of missing and murdered women in Chillicothe, Ohio, this book is narrated by Arcade Doggs, who goes by Arc. Arc and her twin sister Daffodil (Daffy) spend their earliest years with their grandmother who gives them all the love they need that their parents can’t give them because of poverty and addiction. When Adelyn and Flood Doggs convince Mamaw that they are sober and ready to show their daughters a wonderful life, the girls go to live with them. But addiction is a mean thing. It is not long before the girls are being raised in an environment of sadness, addiction and sex work. A police officer who comes to the house at one point makes a comment on his way out to his partner that in a few years they will be returning to arrest these young girls for the same things their parents have been doing. Talk about being set up for failure…

The story moves between time periods and focusses its lens on the girls. When we come back to see the young women in early adulthood, they are living the same tragic life that their mother and their aunt live. Going to the river with their friends is a past time, sitting in an old half buried car, getting high. The women call themselves the Chillicothe Queens. Each of the women in this story have a very distinctive character and we see their most human side. They deal with bad johns, family, children and pregnancy in addition to having hope, creativity and strength of character.

When a woman is found floating in the river, a new era in this small Appalachian town has begun. Soon one of the group disappears and turns up in the river and the group fears for their safety from the River Man. Reports to police are not taken seriously. Police comment on the risky lifestyles that the women lead as reasons to not assume they are missing.

This is not a whodunit, although there will be many suspects. This story is to show that the women who have gone missing or found murdered were human beings. They were mothers, sisters, and daughters.

I would recommend this book for people that understand hurt, enjoy Appalachian stories, true crime stories, detailed characters, great writing, and have good self-care practices as this one could be triggering for many.

Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. On the Savage Side comes out February 14, 2023.

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aghoststory's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I was not ready for this new Tiffany McDaniel’s book, ya’ll. It completely wrecked me.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is the second novel I’ve had the honor of reading before it hit shelves and I think it is my favorite. It is inspired on an unsolved murder case of the Chillicothe Six - six women who went missing in the rural town of Chillicothe, Ohio between the spring of 2014 and summer of 2015. Following twin sisters, Arcade and Daffodil, ON THE SAVAGE SIDE weaves the story of the two sisters as they navigate friendship, generational trauma, poverty, drug abuse, and sex work.

I feel like I can’t truly do it justice talking about this work because it is so layered. I think it's really about many different things that are adjacent to the lives of the sisters. McDaniel is a master storyteller. Her work is thoughtful and gut wrenching in the most satisfying of ways. Everything falls into place in ways that are unexpected. Her lyrical prose is stellar and truly her own.

This a heavy read that is full of darkness lurking in every corner, but there is also beauty and hope. There is so much respect and love in the writing of the Chillicothe Queens, the young women who find themselves forever intertwined with the twins and us, the readers, too.

On THE SAVAGE SIDE is beautiful, haunting, and a stunning tribute to the forgotten. You’ll never forget it.

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shelby1994's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to the team at Alfred A. Knopf for this ARC - out 14 February!

(pls check the TW for the book at the end!!)

In her latest book, Tiffany McDaniel has returned to Appalachia, where everything smells like death. The paper mills, the used needles, and the stiff girls being pulled from the river. Inspired by the true unsolved mystery of the Chilliconthe murders, McDaniels digs into the relationships forged within generations of addition and between the forgotten women who go missing every day.

First the good - ‘Betty’ was a masterclass in lyrical writing, and this is more of the same. Every sentence is a poem, and every paragraph a hymn to the natural world. Water babies - this one is for you. McDaniels obviously cares deeply about the story she’s trying to tell, and there is never once any “icky”, exploitative feeling that comes from a lot of the true-crime shows, books, and podcasts that we get.

Where this one didn’t work for me in comparison to ‘Betty,’ or in comparison to other books that center addiction, is the same reason why I’m sure so many people will love this. This book feels like series of poems and lyrics in search of characters that never fully materialize for me. Daffy and Arc spend their lives crocheting beautiful alternate realities to the hell they live in. Delusions and stories are what keep them tied to the rocks pulling them under, but they’re also the things with wings. Unfortunately, when half of a story feels like a daydream, it’s easy for the reader to lose focus too.

Read If You:

– Have a healthy fear of spiders

– Love “My Dying Spirit” by Greyson Chance

– Want more Appalachian Gothic on your bookshelf

TW: Addiction, Child abuse, rape, animal cruelty

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hippiequeen's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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