Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

40 reviews

pomoevareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

I am broken. This book tore me apart and took me 9 days to read as I could only manage small amounts at a time. With that said Betty is also written with such beauty.

Betty is born to a Cherokee father and a white mother and has many siblings. After the death of two of her siblings the family moves to Breathed, Ohio where they move into a house where bullet holes have penetrated many walls and the previous family disappeared without a trace. Her father Landon makes special teas and medicine for the community and they live a life just getting by. Landon shares Cherokee stories and culture with his family. Each of the children are washed in the river when they are born and given a special skill or interest. Nature forms a great part of family life and the daughters even make a stage of sorts where one of them acts, one of them sings and Betty is a writer who writes her stories there and puts them in jars and buries them. 

Each chapter begins with a verse from the bible which I found rather interesting given the family is not religious. It is clear that Christianity has informed them in their upbringing in ways but Landon also tells his children about how indigenous people were removed from their land by colonizers and how religion was forced upon them. 

This book is not for the faint of heart. Pretty much every trigger warning that exists happens in this book. I will try and capture them all on StoryGraph but know this going in. I was prepared for the human ones but not the animal ones. 

Having recently lost my father, the notes on grief, particularly at the end of the book left me bawling.  “No water is ever at rest” speaks to the grief of losing someone special to you. “The waters will never be still.”

Having previously loved On the Savage Side and now with this experience, I hope to pick up McDaniel’s earlier novel The Summer that Melted Everything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Incest, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Child death, Addiction, and Death of parent

callie_pearce's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Infidelity, Fatphobia, Incest, Addiction, Classism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, and Lesbophobia

salt_y's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Incest, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Self harm, Abortion, and Sexual assault

ccate's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Alcoholism, Bullying, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Abortion, and Animal cruelty

lgiery's review

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

"Betty" draws from the author's mother's childhood, blurring the lines between biography and fiction. Despite this, I found many scenes unbelievable. The characters were flat and lacked depth, and I missed their complexity. 

Additionally, some scenes of abuse, violence, racism, and sexism seemed unnecessary and insensitively executed. There is also so much cruelty packed into this book with very little human complexity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Rape, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Incest

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Homophobia

stellahadz's review

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

5.0

I can't start this review without saying that Tiffany McDaniel is an immensely talented writer. You can tell that she really put her heart into writing this book, which is based on her own mother's early life. The prose is beautiful and lyrical, contrasting deeply with the heartbreaking story. This is an unforgettable book. Every character feels so real, and every event in the story of their lives makes the reader feel real anger, sadness, and joy right along with them. 

This is easily one of the best books I've read this year, and I can see it becoming an American classic. I highly recommend it, but I also suggest reading the trigger warnings beforehand, since it contains *many* emotionally heavy topics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

mbrunner's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Incest, and Abortion

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Sexism, and Self harm

elliott_the_clementine's review

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-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

I will leave this book unrated. Incredibly written, painfully dark, and intensely important. Please check the trigger warnings before reading. 

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Content Warnings

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

ellysiap's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-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

“The heaviest thing in the world is a man on top of you when you don’t want him to be.” 

Some of the best writing I have read in a while, every line was meant to be felt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Rape, Racial slurs, Death, Abortion, Blood, Bullying, Sexual violence, Child death, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Classism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

aliciawithoutkeys's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Sexism, Child death, Incest, Grief, Racial slurs, Animal death, Self harm, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Drug use