Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Betty, by Tiffany McDaniel

87 reviews

emmahamel's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Abortion, and Pregnancy

helloitsjulz's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.75

This book was almost perfect, and I believe it will become a modern classic. I think it needed an editor in a few parts - the bible versus and the newspaper didn't work for me. I also felt that there were a few times where McDaniel qualified the absolute bombs she was dropping. Say it with your chest!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Drug use, Racism, Child abuse, Incest, Racial slurs, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Self harm, Blood, Drug abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

zaracampbell's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Possibly the most beautiful prose I have ever read. Easily in my top 3 books ever. 

Grappled with some very dark themes with authenticity and honesty. A testament to the raw and inherent strength of women, even more so in a time period that discredited their power.

I never wanted this book to end. It was one of those books where you want to highlight everything and commit it to memory so you never let the words leave you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Self harm, Racism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Grief, Physical abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Blood, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship

molliundera_'s review

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Violence

dws's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Ableism, Grief, Child abuse, Racism, Sexism, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Incest, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Pregnancy

savvylit's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

2.0

What I liked: Betty's father, Landon. He was the most fully developed character and a uniquely beautiful example of fatherhood. It's not often that a father is portrayed so well in literature. Landon's patience and compassion for his children was truly wonderful to read about.

What I didn't like: everything else. This book is incredibly long and yet it is nothing more than a catalog of suffering. Trauma porn, if you will. There is very little plot or characterization that isn't directly connected to something traumatic or awful happening to Betty or one of her family members. Just when it seemed like a character was finally becoming more than two-dimensional, they often (spoilers!!) died instead.

Oddly, even though Betty is clearly the focus of this book that's named after her, she also remained an enigma with a sad lack of characterization. Her purpose in this novel ultimately just seemed to be to suffer and bear witness to the incredible trauma of the rest of her family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Rape, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Racism, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Grief, and Child death

aaafton's review

challenging dark emotional 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: Suicide, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Incest

Moderate: Self harm and Abortion

Amazing book but a LOT of graphic things that can be hard to read.

mmccombs's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

I normally love books that hurt me but… something didn’t land for me with this one. Every single chapter seemed to house a new horror that Betty had to witness or experience, and I guess I can’t say too much because this is based off of real life, but it was just brutal. And it was brutal in a way oftentimes smothered what light and love did exist in the story. I never felt like I understood Betty as a person outside of the tragedy that was her life (and mostly she was just recording traumatic events that happened to her family members, so I thought it was weird that she was the narrator, the emotional weight just wasn’t quite there ever??). Landon was the most interesting and well rounded character, and even then sometimes he just felt like a caricature of a person (and like… did he know and not do anything about it?? Could that have been investigated a bit deeper??). I didn’t understand the newspaper clippings/the final reveal at the end, it took up a lot of space for very little pay off. The writing was beautiful and I loved what this book had to say about storytelling, but I’m unsure if this was worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Pedophilia, Abortion, Death, Incest, Rape, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Racism

brodway's review

challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Rape, Racism, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Incest

Minor: Drug use

pippamillerxoxo_'s review against another edition

emotional informative sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Grief, Child death, Hate crime, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Incest, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Blood, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment