Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'
Betty: The International Bestseller by Tiffany McDaniel
273 reviews
kridenour's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Mental illness, Blood, Suicide attempt, Rape, Classism, Racism, Grief, Death, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Abortion, Bullying, Child death, and Death of parent
angrylittlegartho's review against another edition
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Classism, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Rape, Incest, Violence, Racism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Self harm
kirsty26's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Child death, Animal death, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Child abuse, and Racism
benchless's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
To be a woman in this novel was to suffer.
"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."
"By that time, I was at a point in my life where I had a very particular image of God in my head. I imagined God was a woman in a torn satin bed jacket with falling curlers in her messy hair. She sat in a bed of dirty sheets, surrounded by a canopy of sheer curtains spiders clung to. She ate chocolates from a box until her teeth were rotted and the box was empty, ready to be piled with the smashed boxes already on the floor. Blush was streaked across her cheeks like something trying to run away. Lipstick bled outside the lines of her lips as if they were melting. She was a woman used and left by humanity in ways only we know how to consume and leave."
With all this suffering, I was amazed by how much hope remained threaded throughout every chapter. Why? Betty had the most loving, imaginative father you could imagine. He was a Cherokee man married to a white woman in a time when nothing kind came from having brown skin. He struggled and failed to give his children what they needed at times, but he persevered and loved them all, even the bad ones. He filled their minds with the most beautiful stories that tried to make them feel special and worth something in a world that was constantly pushing them down.
"The first woman was given antlers on her head to branch her power out into the world," he said, digging the rake deeper. "Slugs are frightened of that power because they are spineless creatures, and all spineless creatures are frightened of a woman's power."
"He would stretch her hands out to either side of her. 'You're my centimeter, inch, and foot. The distance between your hands is the distance that measures everything between the sun and the moon. Only a woman can measure such things.' 'Why?' Fraya asked to remind herself. 'Because you're powerful.'"
"He kissed my forehead. 'I don't know if I've ever told you that I love you, Little Indian. I don't know if I've ever said those words.' 'You said them every time you told me a story.' I looked into his eyes...'Have I ever told you I loved you?' I asked because I really didn't know. 'Every time you listened to one of my stories.'"
The relationship between Betty and her father is built on these stories, and they get Betty past all the hurdles of "coming of age against the knife" to become a writer herself. I adored him and Betty, and I left this book with great respect for Tiffany McDaniel's family history.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Racism, Incest, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Addiction, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy
apairofducks's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Self harm, Incest, Physical abuse, Death, Racism, Grief, Domestic abuse, Rape, Suicide attempt, Child death, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
michelles_book_nook's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Pedophilia, Child death, Violence, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Racism, Murder, Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Abortion
polly_baker's review against another edition
- 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
I absolutely loved Betty. Her first person narration, channeled through McDaniel's lyrical prose, amplified the wonder, the confusion, the joy and the hurt that punctuated her childhood and adolescence.
It is all at once a celebration and a damnation of the things we acquire, generation to generation. Parallels are drawn between the indigenous wisdom Betty is gifted from her Cherokee father, and the generational trauma she endures from her mother's abusive past. Betty's narrative gives voice to the many children who bear the burdens of their elders, carrying pain silently, burying it in jam-jars deep beneath the ground.
Betty's father is portrayed through her child's eyes as god-like and mythical, strengthened through his indigenous stories and the knowledge and reverence he held for the Earth. The Cherokee heritage is celebrated and foregrounded, even amidst a world working its hardest to erase it. Betty struggles with her identity as tales of the matriarchal power and strength of the Cherokee collide with a patriarchal and capitalist America, which systematically dismantles indigenous pride, and cultivates shame in its place.
It is a challenging read (worth checking the trigger warnings for) as Betty has borne witness to a multitude of traumatic incidents during her upbringing. But this is not trauma porn... Betty is based on the story of McDaniel's own mother, rooted very much in reality and in the shaping of Betty Carpenter, a new favourite character, and human, who I already deeply miss.
<i>“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.”</i>
Graphic: Sexual assault and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, and Suicide attempt
elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Self harm, Torture, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Gore, Ableism, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Incest, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Rape, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Colonisation, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
jco1016's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Death, Child death, Abortion, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Bullying, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, and Suicide attempt
quartir's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Incest, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Abortion, Death, Gaslighting, Child death, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Murder