Bookseller Reviews
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Betty will capture your heart...
The dark stories told by her mother and beautiful, poetic stories told from heart by her father made Betty who she is.
This is a dark, heart breaking stor... READ MORE
A Gut Wrenchingly Beautiful New Classic
I am at a loss for words to say how much I love this book, but I am going to try. This beautiful, raw and brutal book could not have been any better. The ... READ MORE
Betty, the strongest girl in the world
Betty is a story about female power. About how women face many hardships from birth until death, but it never makes us weak. Though some men may attempt to... READ MORE
EYE OPENING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING
Thanks to the publishers for a 'read copy' Betty,A story of a girl from mixed heritage,White and Native American, the prejudices she faced together with ho... READ MORE
Heartwrenching .
This book is a real rollercoaster of a novel. Based on the story of her mother Betty is one a child of a Cherokee father and American mother. Inheriting mo... READ MORE
Heartbreakingly beautiful
Betty is a heartbreaking but beautiful read! It is harrowing, brutally honest, and completely raw in the way it portrays the realities of life growing up i... READ MORE
A timeless, breathtaking coming-of-age tale.
This is the kind of book that will stay with you forever. It places an unforgiving lens over the devastating effects of generational trauma - of course it’... READ MORE
A brutal commentary on the reality of growing up as a woman in this world.
"Nailed to the cross of her own gender, a girl finds herself between the mother and the prehistoric rib" pg 279
Set against the backdrop of Breathed, Ohio... READ MORE
Blistering and beautiful
This is, quite simply, one of the best books I have read this year. A blisteringly powerful, beautifully written story about Betty, a girl with a white mot... READ MORE
Beautiful, powerful and heartbreaking.
One the best books I read in 2022. Tiffany McDaniel's excellent 'Betty' was beautiful, powerful and heartbreaking.
Can't wait to read what she does nex... READ MORE
My favourite book
I adore Betty. I have read it twice in the past year and I imagine I will read it about once a year for the rest of my life. I have read few books that I l... READ MORE
Synopsis
Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for August 2021
Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.
Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.
A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
- ISBN: 9781474617543
- Number of pages: 480
- Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 32 mm
- Weight: 360g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allA fine written piece and a true description of life
The moment I started reading this novel I knew it will be hard for me to write my thoughts just like what happened to me when I read The Summer That Melted... READ MORE
Great book
Wonderful heartbreaking book loved it beautifully written and brutally honest story of family siblings and growing up highly recommend
Beautiful and heart-breaking…
An utterly magnificent novel which is filled with both a vast sense of sadness and unrelenting joy and strength that breaks through. Betty is the coming-of... READ MORE
Gripping plot with a quietly beautiful sentiment
Tiffany McDaniel has bravely drawn from her actual family history and infused it into her fictional world (the setting is used in her previous novel The Su... READ MORE
Incredible
I've noticed a pattern.
My favourite books of all time are the ones that make me cry.
This one though, made me cry tons.
The writing is absolutely beauti... READ MORE
I lived her life through her writing
One of the most beautiful books I have read. It had me gripped from the first page. It is beautiful and heart wrenching at the same time. Prepare yourself ... READ MORE
enjoyable & in places traumatic family saga
BETTY by Tiffany McDaniel
`BETTY` is one more in a long line, of family-saga genre novels. It is set in a small time USA town, called `Breath-ed`, during t... READ MORE
Best book of 2021
This was by far my favourite book of 2021. You can tell this is a deeply personal story for McDaniel as she is able to bring her characters to life to an a... READ MORE
A soon to be classic!
Betty is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel chronicling the experiences of Betty (based on Tiffany McDaniel’s mother) and her family as they navigate racism... READ MORE
Enchanting and Sad
I felt like Betty started off as a bit of a slow burner. McDaniel’s really took her time to explain the family tree and dedicated many chapters setting the... READ MORE
Rich in culture and magical realism
‘A girl comes of age against the knife, Betty’.
~
Born in 1950s Arkansas, Betty is the daughter of Landon Carpenter, healer and storyteller, and Alka, a br... READ MORE
haunting and heartwrenching
i absolutely loved it. the writing is dream-like and poetic but the book touches on some tough themes. not an easy read but absolutely worth it - i can tel... READ MORE
Gut wrenching
Be prepared to cry!
Traumatic
I’m not sure where people see the beauty in this book. I personally found it a traumatic, horrendous story including inter-family sexual abuse and death. I... READ MORE
A haunting book
Read Betty and it left me almost traumatised. Disgusting racism, horrendous incest and human cruelty. Kittens in the blanket and tying a child to the rai... READ MORE
Deeply moving.
Wow! I’m not really sure where to start with reviewing this book! It fairly took my breath away!
This is a book based on the author’s mother, Betty.
Be... READ MORE
Devastating and Utterly Beautiful
This was an absolutely devastating read. I was shattered by the time I had finished it. Betty is the daughter of Landon Carpenter, a Cherokee man with a wh... READ MORE