Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

398 reviews

shesalwaysreading's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

3.5 stars. Well this was DARK, my friends. I can read about awful humans all live long day but thank goodness this is fiction because the graphic animal abuse and animal death was so unnecessary. This is a great story and it’s well written but I’ll never read another book from Tiffany. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Incest and Rape

katiecentabar's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

4.25

A coming of age story, devastating and full of magic. 

I would have rated higher except I didn't love the use of past tense. I understand why it was used as a device, but it left me with the feeling that there was going to be a shift in story that never came.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Incest, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Self harm

josefina_na's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Incest, Child abuse, Racism, Rape, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse

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

tesscooooo's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Incest

lee_ann_a's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

Jesus Crimson.  That's really all I can say about this book. 

Y'all, I love tragedy and dark stories and trauma porn, or whatever you want to call it. I like stories that dwell on the shitty part of life on this planet. A Little Life is my favorite novel, so that's my point of reference when I tell you that this book was almost too much for me. I barely finished. 

I can tolerate a lot of human abuse and horror but on top of that, this book has outrageous scenes of animal abuse that permanently scarred my soul.  And the worst part about it, is that this is an actual recounting of the life of the author's mother. BLESS IT.  To the actual Betty this book is based on, I'm so so so sorry that you had to live through that hellacious childhood and I hope your adulthood was exponentially better.  Thank the stars for your father, the only bright light in this whole story. 

At times the writing was melodic and Landon's stories were surreal, but I can't even give this book a start rating because I don't know how. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Rape

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