Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

114 reviews

cheyarsen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

This book wrenched my soul from my body. Everything hurts. This book isn’t for the faint of heart, but everyone should read it because the message is important. It’s a coming of age story about a girl who survives so much, told through the eyes of her younger self and her daughter’s writing. Please check the trigger warnings before going into this one, it’s a tough one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Bullying, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Abortion, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Child abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Drug use, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Classism, Animal cruelty, Murder, Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Racism, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

mik_yekcuts's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

It has been a long time since a book has moved me like this. I was completely wrapped up in it. I cried many times, laughed, felt sick, felt enraged. I was never bored. A shocking but beautiful true story filled with trauma, heartbreak, cruelty, but also joy and hope and kindness. Masterfully written. I will be thinking about this for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Death, Abortion, Rape, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Incest, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

This book contains very graphic incidents of child sexual abuse, incest, rape, and animal abuse.

jordyfrombookclub's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Abortion, Child abuse, Sexism, Abandonment, Child death, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Torture, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

This book barely lets you come up for air. It ties you up with a thin chain of hope and beauty as it drags you rampant abuse and family trauma. Not for the faint of heart (me).

fraggle1982's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Racism

airr's review

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Rape, Alcohol, Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death, Toxic relationship, Racism, Animal death, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Medical content, Gun violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

jacq_s's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

Moments of really beautiful writing, but overall very heavy handed with unrealistically profound monologues coming from every character. Horrific accounts of violence/abuse and animal cruelty. Truly loveable characters mixed in with the awful. It stuck with me and will, but felt like the book really beat its message into me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Incest, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abortion and Alcohol

booksillremember's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

It's as lyrical as it is lifelike, as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, full of love and kindness and the most harrowing events I've ever read about. It hits hard, even more so given it's based on McDaniel's real family story. (Go to tiffanymcdaniel.com for more background information and pictures).

The father-daughter bond is one of the most beautiful I've seen, yet I was annoyed with the father for his 'delusional treatment' of reality - until it started to make sense. 

I'm glad McDaniel finally got to publish this book after 20 years of fighting for it and being rejected because a 'boy protagonist would sell better'. And I'm grateful to the women who shared their stories.

This book would have been 5 stars for me if it had been 150ish pages shorter. It was quite hard to get through because it felt repetitive to me. I understand that this repetition might just be there to capture the nature of growing up financially poor and naturally rich in the Appalachians.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Racism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Violence, Incest, Self harm, Rape, and Sexual violence

mald626's review

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual assault, Bullying, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, Sexual violence, Death, and Abortion

Moderate: Grief, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

alysereadsbooks's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

I loved this book. Heartbreaking and devastating but rich. I loved to learn about the perspective of Indigenous people and generational trauma. **Check trigger warnings before reading***

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Incest

Moderate: Abortion, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, Grief, Death, Rape, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Bullying, Death of parent, Medical content, and Incest

Minor: Drug abuse

abbiemaines's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad slow-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

This book is very very well done and will certainly stick with you for a very long time. A unique “coming of age”. I caught myself getting emotional several times. Make sure to read trigger warnings if you feel that these could apply to you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Child death, Incest, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Addiction, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Rape