Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

JOINT REVIEW~BETTY

Note to self. When @mrfeditor recommends a book it’s going to be phenomenal, thank you for sending it to us. This hugely successful novel was published in the summer of 2020 to widespread acclaim, and is now out in paperback. 

We follow the eponymous hero, Betty, from her birth in a bathtub through her teen years as she battles discrimination, misogyny, and poverty. The plot is all consuming, breaking your heart yet somehow leaving the reader hopeful. The prose has a poetic, hypnotic lilt that I have never seen in the same way, with the detailed text enriched with Cherokee wisdom.

A family saga containing ALL the trigger warnings (violence and child abuse feature) it is particularly profound when you discover that this is based on the life of the authors mother. The enormous resilience in the face of such brutal adversity is what I found truly breathtaking. It was hard to read but Betty spoke to my soul by the end. I wanted to hug her. Tightly. When I finished this book in the early hours, I woke my kids up to give them an extra cuddle ~ Chaya

Betty. Woah. I mean, this book is an actual rollercoaster, it’ll have you upside down, inside out and back again. Spectacularly written it is completely harrowing in parts and at times, I had to put it down because it all got a bit too much.

But Betty, she just made me want to pick it right back up again. So strong, so wise and so determined in the face of adversity, she will take you on a journey that I defy you to forget. 

I was in the Appalachians in the 1950s and 1960s with Betty and her family the whole time I read this. In fact nature is almost a character in itself in this book, together with Cherokee culture, which glows lyrically under the author’s hand. 

This story of courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship is not for the faint hearted. But, once you’ve read it, you’ll find your own heart has somehow grown with the twists and turns of Betty’s life ~ Sophie. {Ad:PR Copy}