A review by booksillremember
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

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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