Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Tiffany McDaniel, and Netgalley for an advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

On the Savage Side, Tiffany McDaniel's third novel, is loosely based on Chillicothe Six murders. It follows twin sisters Arc and Daffy Doggs as they grow up in Chillicothe, Ohio. The girls are neglected, live in abject poverty, and are surrounded by drug use, addiction, prostitution, rape, and more. On their 20th birthday, while celebrating with a few friends, Arcade and Daffy find the body of a murdered woman discarded in the river. As more of their friends go missing.

Tiffany McDaniel's writing here is lyrical, poetic, haunting - overwhelming. That plus the actual subject matter left me unable to finish this book. The book is categorized as literary fiction and mystery/thriller, but there's not really any of the latter that I saw in the 50% I read. The absence of any real mystery or thriller (though there is a significant twist in chapter three), isn't what kept me from finishing this book. It's how bleak, utterly depressing and hopeless it all was portrayed, with so many examples being repeated over and over. Overall, this is a harsh, bleak tale of women caught in the throes of addiction, selling their bodies just to get by, living in squalor, with no hope of improving their situation and how we as a society generally ignore them.

As someone that suffers from depression, reading is my escape. Reading On the Savage Side was difficult. I didn't look forward to it. It wasn't a book I could read in one sitting and when I was done each day, I was left more depressed than when I began. Despite all this, I still hope to go back and finish, because I feel like I'm missing out on something if I don't.

Trigger warnings - the whole book is essentially one big trigger warning:
drug/alcohol use/addiction, sexual assault, child molestation, rape, murder, domestic abuse, violence

4 stars
Recommended for fans of:
Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Mysteries

4.5 stars. I knew what I was getting myself into having previously read Betty, but damn if this didn’t still surprise me—I audibly gasped at least 10 times throughout reading.

This book is really beautifully written but incredibly heartbreaking. Much like Betty, this book comes with just about every trigger warning possible and is pretty gruesome and bleak. I really loved all the characters in this book—they’re complicated and flawed and this book really gave them their stories in a world that doesn’t. I spotted the twist coming but still was surprised at it and the subsequent ending. McDaniel does not pull punches.

This book has the same flowery language as Betty which did make it a little slow in some points, but overall this is one that will stick with me.

This novel will turn you inside out, and the end will keep you up at night. I found that I needed to take "On the Savage Side" in small bites, but when I wasn't reading it I was wishing I were. Twins Arcade and Daffodil Doggs come from a chaotic and addicted family, with only their grandmother, Mamaw Milkweed, there for them. She fills their lives with beauty and love, all the while reminding them that "in life, there is a savage side and a beautiful side." She uses crochet to show them that while the top of the square looks perfect, but the underside is tangled and messy. The idea is to tuck in the stray threads and awkward stitches to make the savage side the best it can be.

As Arc and Daffy's lives spin into horror, they are always looking for the beautiful side, through poetry, nature, kind relationships with others in their situation. This hope is the most heartbreaking part of the book, and what will keep you glued to the page and invested in their story.

If there were a recent book to compare "On the Savage Side" to, it would have to be "Demon Copperhead," or "Shuggie Bain.". But Tiffany McDaniel's novel is even more heart-wrenching. She's a brilliant writer, and "On the Savage Side" is unforgettable.

Inspired by the unsolved murders of the "Chillicothe Six", McDaniel crafts a brutal yet tender story centered on twin sisters whose friends start disappearing and later turning up dead in the river. Women who typically don't get stories told about them, because they're sex workers, addicts, and dirt poor. Women who don't have many choices because of those circumstances.

The first chapter was very dark. The young twins are with their mother, and it's hard to figure out if they're playing or something darker is going on. It's the latter, and immediately we are scared for these girls, horrified at their mother. The story gets darker and darker. Beautiful prose describes increasingly ugly situations, with hope scattered throughout. The twins have each other, their fantasy worlds, a caring grandmother, and separate passions as they grow up, friends in similar situations. We see what they make of their lives with so little, some relief from the relentless darkness.

By focusing on the women, McDaniel tells a different story than the ones we're used to. Compelling and powerful, but one of the bleakest and most violent books I've ever read. It's going to stick with me for a long time.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

✨Ｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ✨

On The Savage Side 📚 by Tiffany McDaniel (thank you @netgalley for the #advancedreaderscopy of this book!)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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After reading a cute rom-com book, this book was starkly different and a difficult read at times...

This book was inspired by the true crime story of the Chillicothe Six, a story of six women who went missing in Chillicothe, Ohio. I went into this book thinking it would be a true crime novel, but instead, I was surprised to see it's an emotional coming-of-age story of twin sisters growing up in a town full of violence, drugs, prostitution, abuse, and poverty, written in a very poetic sort of language I haven't seen many authors be able to write well.
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The fantastic cover for On The Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel made me think of twins or multiple personalities. It made me read the blurb and grab a copy. You can judge this book by the cover, because it tells of what is to come, psychological chills that made many emotions rise to the surface. Sorrow, disgust, happiness, wonder.

In the beginning, and throughout the book, we smell the stink of the papermill. Arcade and Daffodil, along with their mother and aunt, live on the wrong side of town and when it snows, it snows ash from the papermill. I worked at one in Alabama, so I know exactly what she is talking about, the indescribable stench and the car being covered in ash. It creates its own ecosystem.

I was confused, and I believe that was a good thing. It meant I wasn’t able to figure out what the hell was going on half the time. Getting lost in the mind of drug addicts I find unable to describe.

The family are drug addicts, and I think you can guess what everyone thought of them…disposable. When the first girl was found in the river, they rolled right by it. Add another, and another, and another….Who will find out what happens to the lost and the forgotten. Everyone deserves a life, for someone to care about them.

Arcade and Daffodil broke my heart. They pretty much raised themselves, with the help of a loving grandmother who painted a future full of dreams and imagination. Their father had died when they were six years old. Their mother and aunt were sex workers and drug addicts, so that doesn’t bode well for them and their friends. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve being acknowledged as human beings.

Tiffany McDaniel paints pictures, some pretty and some ugly, but she does it with such panache the characters come to life. The evil oozes off the page as much as the sweetness of the girls and the love of their grandmother, who is the most positive person in their life.

Tiffany draws me in deeper and deeper. The more I read, the more involved I get. I cannot say enough about the writing, getting lost in the words. I am having difficulty describing all my thoughts and feelings. It’s wondrous and awful, disturbing and inspirational.

The sketches gave me the creepy crawlies, and that sure fits the story. Six young girls, living a horrible life but finding moments of brightness and love, breaking my heart and for those who preyed on them there is nothing bad enough. Sometimes I saw those spiders moving…my skin crawling and tears in my eyes.

Tiffany McDaniel had me surfing the internet, not only for The Chillicothe Six, but references to other things that made me curious.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

I really wanted to like On the Savage Side, but frankly, I was mostly confused. There is an element of magic realism, the story timeline changes, the way people talk felt like it was in riddle form for me. I was intrigued to learn more about the Chillicothe murders, but despite trying more than once to get back into this storyline, I wasn't able to. Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Apologies that I don't have better things to say!

Sadly, this book was not for me; the writing style is beautiful and the premise is incredibly intriguing and I have never heard of the Chillicothe six and was really interested to see how the book would involve this. However it didn’t have anything to do with this and instead seemed to be more of a depressing memoir of Arc’s life and the many tragedy’s in it, with some murder mentioned occasionally. I think if this was more like the description I would have liked it a lot more, but this was not the book I thought I was going to read. I do think there is an audience for this but it wasn’t me as I expected a mystery/thriller.

“Who do you tell about the demons, when the demons are the ones that you tell?”

The above was the one thing that I thought best summed up the crux of this beautiful yet devastating story inspired by the six women known as the Chillicothe Six. Their murders are still unsolved, and McDaniel has written a story that honors them while they still await the justice they deserve. Folks, you need to be prepared going into this one, it is not an easy read but it is an important and captivating read. Addiction is messy and hard, but it is never that person’s intent to fall into it willingly, and McDaniel does a phenomenal job of capturing this throughout the book.

The story focuses on two sisters, twins Arcade and Daffodil, who are born one minute apart with fiery red hair that matches their personalities, and they are inseparable. They have grown up with their mother and Aunt Clover, both are addicts, and their grandmother lives close by and checks on them regularly. We follow the twins into adulthood, when the first body is found in the river, and as others are found there as well, Arcade is forced to try keep everyone safe (and sober) so no one else goes missing.

I can tell you this will most definitely be in my top reads list for the year, it is such a well written and thought provoking read. It is hard, heartbreaking and tough to get through, but once you do, you will have an appreciation for the addict, the loved ones around them, and an incredible sadness that despite the hope they have, they don’t always move from the savage side to the beautiful side until their life on this earth is no more.

Thank you to PRH Audio for the ALC and to NetGalley / Knopf for the digital galley to review.

On the Savage Side by a Tiffany McDaniel will live in my head for quite some time. A heartbreaking, beautiful look at addiction that raises the question of why there must be an effort to humanize those struggle with addiction. The women of this novel got under my skin, making me feel connected to them, their dreams, and their efforts to escape “the savage side “ of living with trauma, abuse, and poverty. Arc Doggs and her twin sister, Daffy, along with the other Chillicothe Queens speak in poetry, connecting to the feminine power of the earth and sisterhood just as the world works to negate their power. Framed around the real life unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, McDaniels focuses not on the deaths and identity of the killer, but on the lives of the women who others saw as expendable. A searing portrait of opioid addiction in small towns, McDaniel does not shy away from telling the truth of the savage side while painting it with beautiful prose. This book broke my heart. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the eGalley.

The town of Chillicothe sits along the Scioto River in Ohio, roughly 50 miles south of Columbus, the city in which I reside. I’ve visited the town and remember it well, as I remember the deaths and disappearances of the Chillicothe Six – six women who disappeared between the spring of 2014 and the summer of 2015, many of whom were sex workers and drug addicts. Four were eventually found dead; two have never been located.

So to say I felt an immediate connection to Tiffany McDaniel’s brilliant new novel, "On the Savage Side," would be the truth. I did – instantly – and this connection is why the book will haunt me to the end of my days.

Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, "On the Savage Side" is the story of Arcade and Daffodil, twin sisters growing up in the town of Chillicothe, caught in a familial cycle of drugs and prostitution. Life is by no means happy for the sisters, but they’re surviving. Until one by one, the dead bodies of their friends are found floating in the Scioto River, and Arc and Daffy are forced to face their past in order to outlast a killer.

The women in McDaniel’s novel are victims of the most unforgivable crimes -- parental neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse – all while battling addiction and resorting to sex work in order to pay for the drugs their bodies need. It’s heartbreaking to read and horrifying to imagine. And it’s made even more devastating when their deaths are ignored and deemed not important enough to investigate because the women are addicts and prostitutes.

But they’re people, too. They’re loved by others. They’re mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. And their lives and deaths matter.

McDaniel has written a beautiful and unforgettable novel, one that, as I said earlier in my review, will stick with me. She has given a voice to not only the women of the Chillicothe Six but to women all over the world who find themselves in similar life situations. She puts poetry in their hearts and bares to us their souls.

And to all these women, know that I see you. I hear you. And I will remember you.


My sincerest appreciation to Tiffany McDaniel, Knopf Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

I would like to thank Alfred A, Knopf for providing a digital copy of this novel from Tiffany McDaniel. Having read Tiffany McDaniel's previous novel Betty, I was curious whether the author would explore similar themes in this novel. The short answer is yes, she does. They both deal with trauma and explore how unfairly women are treated by everyone in the story. Still, this novel stood out to me more than Betty. The Savage Side uses a real criminal case, The Chillicothe six, to tell the story of two twin sisters raised in Ohio who experience an endless cycle of abuse in many forms. After several of their friends, all women and sex workers, go missing and are later found deceased in the river, the sisters fear they may be next. The women tell everyone around them of the immediate danger their lives are in but their voices are not heard. And ultimately that theme is at the core of this story. The mystery surrounding the identity of the killer becomes secondary to the plight of these women as their concerns are ignored at every level.
Early on, the narrator tells us she will perish. There is a frustrating inevitability that permeates throughout the story-- knowing she as well as the other women could have been saved if only someone had listened. Yet, there is also this light coming from the women. They have dreams and aspirations and in a fair world, would get to see those through. This is the duality of The Savage Side. Women looking at the bright side of life even in the darkest times, even when their fates are sealed by a world that doesn’t care about them. I highly recommend this novel.

I was really excited to read this book but I only managed to make it a third of the way through. This book is so outrageously depressing that I could not keep going. The book is all about twin girls whose family life is horrible. Their dad is dead and their mom and aunt that they live with are horrible drug addicts that don’t care about them. The only person who cares about them is their grandmother and then she gets hit by a car and dies. The only glimpse of the future you get is just that the girls grow up and they’re drug addicts. The writing in this book is great but for me the subject matter is so off putting I couldn’t finish it.

Special thanks to Knopf, ,Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

All you folks at Goodreads, if there is one book you read this March, let it be this one. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Tiffany McDaniel is a master at describing, addiction, prostitution, "the johns", the imagination of creative children who happen to be twins in this book and a serial killer.

This book is loosely based on the unsolved true serial killings of The Chillicothe Six, this book will blow your mind. Its uniquely written, the characters are fleshed out, the surroundings of a lake are eerily depicted.

I'm not telling or spoiling this book. I think it may be my favorite book of 2023 and I'm saying this very early in the year. 5 stars. I wish I could give it 100.

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley and most of all Tiffany McDaniels. I cannot wait for her next book!

This was a five star up until my least favorite trope showed up with 20 pages left :(

I loved the writing, although at times I felt like the floweriness of the writing didn’t suit the subject matter. I loved the characters, who felt fully fleshed out and developed. I didn’t like the chapters from the perspective of them as children as much, but that’s just personal preference.

Wow, this book had my jaw dropping....what a story! It's original, thrilling, and my interest never waned.

I received a gifted eARC copy of ON THE SAVAGE SIDE by Tiffany McDaniel – thank you to the author, Knopf and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review! loved the author’s BETTY so was excited to see her new release coming out.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE by Tiffany McDaniel is a literary thriller set in a small town in Ohio. Arcade and Daffodil (Arc and Daffy) are twin sisters with each have two different colored eyes but on opposite sides. They grow up rough with addict parents, living in poverty. When they are taken in by their grandmother they have a period of peace and security where the girls can learn to dream of a better future.

In the background of their story, women are going missing and bodies are beginning to be found in the river. Arcade is our primary narrator, telling the story of the women in her life who keep disappearing and her own struggle to keep her life and her sister’s safe.

This book is full of trigger warnings so do look at those before picking it up. I am not usually someone who worries about such things, but this book was very heavy and I did have to set it aside for a time when I was not in a headspace for a really sad read. The way the author describes everything is beautiful and also brutal. The fact that the story of these murders is based on the true story of women killed in Ohio makes it even more sad.

Arc and Daffy are surrounded by heartbreak and loss and while they are trying to keep themselves away from the addiction that wrecked their family, it is an ongoing struggle. I loved the relationship that they have with their grandmother and with each other and how that does bring joy into their life. The title actually comes from the grandmother teaching the girls crochet which was a nice moment as I was learning myself.

While this book did take me a while to finish just based on life, it was well worth the read. I found this to be a bit more literary and mystery than thriller, but it was a mystery that did keep me hooked and wanting to read more. I will absolutely pick up more from Tiffany McDaniel in the future!

Based on a true story..this book pulls a punch. It's heartbreaking to follow the women's stories you will leave with a heavy heart.
Has a lot of Triggers and very hard to read imagining that this actually happened.
The most powerful book that I've read this year.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel is not for the faint of heart. Set in an Ohio small town and inspired by the real-life unsolved murders of six women known as the Chillicothe Six, On the Savage Side explores how heroin addiction can rip apart a family and a community and how predators are lurking everywhere, just waiting to snatch up the pieces. It’s both a disturbing and haunting story, probably one of the darkest I’ve ever read.

The story follows Arcade and Daffodil (Arc and Daffy), twin sisters who are born to heroin-addicted parents. As their parents struggle with their addiction, life is pretty rough for the family, and when their dad dies from an overdose when the girls are six years old, things go from bad to worse. The one bright spot in their lives is their beloved grandmother, Mamaw Milkweed, who showers the girls with love and affection and teaches them the lesson that life has both a savage side and a beautiful side and that the key to life is to make the savage side beautiful. Mamaw Milkweed uses the underside of a crochet square she is working on to illustrate her point, tidying up the dangling strings to make both sides of the square beautiful. Arc and Daffy take this message to heart, and using their vivid imaginations, they try to find the beautiful side of every savage thing they witness in their young lives. Some of the loveliest moments of the book are those scenes between the girls and their grandmother, and those moments where the girls are weaving together imaginative stories to try to make life seem a little less horrific.

McDaniel makes it so easy to fall in love with Arc and Daffy and to mourn the loss of their innocence as their mother sinks further and further into her addiction with each passing year, even turning to prostitution to help pay for drugs. It’s absolutely heartbreaking when the girls start to follow in their mother’s footsteps, both in terms of drug use and prostitution. When a serial killer starts dumping the bodies of young women into the local river, the story takes on an even more ominous tone. I loved that Arc makes a vow to keep her sister safe – their bond is another one of the beautiful moments in the book – but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel like the odds were stacked against them, especially when their town is filled with predatory, sadistic men, any of whom seemed like a likely suspect, and no one in the town seemed all that invested in finding out who the killer is.

The story is filled with twists and turns and I don’t want to give any of those away, so I’m going to pivot from the plot to talk about the writing. This may be one of the darkest stories I’ve ever read, but it’s also one of the most beautifully written. I loved the balance between the beautiful and the ugly moments of the story, and found McDaniel’s storytelling to be truly captivating and downright poetic at times. In particular, there are several chapters sprinkled throughout where the river itself becomes a character in the story, describing the women’s bodies as they are dumped into the water.

Filled with just about every trigger warning imaginable, from drug abuse and sexual abuse all the way to animal cruelty, On the Savage Side won’t be for everyone. But if you like a haunting and emotional read that takes a raw and unflinching look at a dark subject matter, On the Savage Side is a must-read. I know it’s a book I won’t be forgetting about anytime soon.

I love Betty and that book was heavy so I would expect the same thing here but I think this is heavier and darker. Started this last week and half way thru it, reading it slowly.

Inspired by a true story about the unsolved murders of six women killed in Ohio, knows as Chillicothe Six, this book is a powerful elegy for missing women everywhere. Born into the life of poverty, addiction, prostitutes, twin sisters, Arcade and Daffodil born a minute apart, cling to each other, trying to survive. Together they create a world that turns the savage side to a beautiful one. A body of a local woman is discovered drowned in the river and soon more bodies turn up. As Arcade reconciles with her past, the killer is getting closer and closer, making it hard for her to protect her sister, plunging them deep into the darker side.


This is a dark, gruesome and heartbreaking read. McDaniel writes in a way that makes readers feel its rawness and knows where to hit you in the right places. Lots of trigger warnings here: suicide, domestic abuse, prostitution, drug abuse, rape, murder - so thread carefully when you’ll read this one. I read this slowly and taking my time. Despite all of these, I find it compelling read. I love her writing and story telling. I didn’t expect a surprise towards the end. Though I know this is an ode to the murder and disappearances of Chillicothe Six, which until know remains unsolved, I would like to see some justice in the end even if in this fictional story.

Thank you NetGalley and for providing e-ARC in exchange for honest opinion.