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although ‘betty� is the first book that tiffany mcdaniel wrote, it took almost 2 decades to be published as it was considered ‘too dark�, ‘too personal�, ‘too female�, and mcdaniel was told it would sell better if it featured a male protagonist instead. these comments entirely miss what gives the book its beauty and power, as ‘betty� is a fictionalised account of mcdaniel’s real family history and cherokee heritage with her mother betty carpenter at the forefront. along with a haunting coming of age tale, it’s also a story about survival against racism, poverty, patriarchy, and the cycle of abuse that runs throughout generations of women.

the writing in this book is absolutely beautiful, and i was in awe of how mcdaniel could craft such pretty, poetic sentences to juxtapose the darkness of the novel. all of the characters are so well-crafted and complex that you spend the book constantly sliding between the scale of love and hate for them (apart from one character in particular who you just absolutely despise, iykyk). betty as a character is one of the strongest and most resilient i’ve ever read about, and mcdaniel writes her coming of age so well, accurately capturing the change in mindset you experience as you grow older and gain maturity. there was so much emotional depth in this book and so many sweet familial moments, particularly through the character of landon, betty’s father, who really is a source of comfort throughout the whole novel - to betty herself, her siblings, and also the reader.

however, to put it simply, this book is brutal - rife with violence, tragedy, and abuse, and mcdaniel doesn’t shy away from any of this. this book (annoyingly) made me cry a few times, and if you know me, you know i never cry at books, so i think that gives you an idea of how tough it is. there are MANY trigger warnings for this, so i’d recommend finding this book on storygraph as it provides a list of trigger/content warnings. but despite all the heartache and darkness, ‘betty� is still a beautiful and poignant coming of age story all about resilience and survival in the face of tragedy, and if you can handle it, i couldn’t recommend it more.