first off the writing in this book is absolutely STUNNING and i need to read more from McDaniel asap (finally time to whip Betty off my shelf). this was a lot darker than i expected and is a really heartbreaking look at these girls who grew up in poverty with drug addicted families, desperate to get out, only to end up just like them. Daffy and Arc came alive on the page and i really viscerally felt for them as we move through different points of their lives.
I wouldn’t say the synopsis is misleading, however this definitely reads more like a dark coming of age story than a mystery, so don’t go in expecting a thriller - it definitely focuses more on following the lives of these girls rather than the murders. The only thing holding me back from giving this a glowing 5 star is that i do think it would’ve benefited from being cut down a bit, it reached a point where i definitely started to feel its length.

On the Savage Side is a dark, deeply disturbing, and painful story about twins Daffy and Arc, and their lives growing up in the shadow of a paper mill in Chillicothe, Ohio. The story tackles many tough subjects including rape, child abuse, drug use and addiction, infant loss, murder, prostitution, and so on.

I had expected there to be more of a mystery surrounding the book, as the description made it out to sound, but this is much more of a tome regarding drug addiction and sex workers. Yes, there is death, but it's not a whodunnit by any means. I would categorize this more as Literary Fiction or Drama than Mystery/Thriller.

This was my first time reading something by McDaniel, and while she is an incredible weaver of words, I definitely felt like I was trudging through the book. There were several points I was thinking about putting the book down, but continued on in hopes the mystery element would come more into play.

The only reason I feel like it deserves 3-3.5 stars is the ending. It definitely ended stronger than I anticipated.

Perhaps this book was a bit too heavy for my taste. Know going into it, it is a very tragic story and will not leave you with all the happy feels.

Thank you Knopf and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is heartbreaking and real and raw. It is inspired by the murders of six women in Chillicothe, Ohio which were later referred to as the Chillicothe Six. This story will haunt me for some time as it is told in their voices as they struggle with the loss of their hopes and dreams and even their desire to get out of Chillicothe someday.
Twin sisters Arcade (Arc) and Daffodil (Daffy) were born to their addict parents and raised by their Mamaw Milkweed, who protected them and loved them with all she had. Their mother turns to prostitution after their father dies and this just adds to the trauma that these girls have to live through and see on a daily basis. It shapes who they become, not just physically but emotionally and psychologically as well. Because their town is poor their friends are walking through the same fate as they are. They try to support each other and watch each others backs, but when the River Monster starts claiming them, the downward spiral goes even further and faster.
At its core, this book talks about empowering women and strengthening their relationships with each other and the damage men do to them and what they would look like without them. And how different their lives would be without the damage inflicted on them by men when they were too little to do anything about it and it really speaks to the fundamentals of relationships of life. You have to value them and respect the people you love. Especially the women in your life. Too often they are taken for granted until it’s too late.
Much like the authors previous book, Betty, I won’t be forgetting this story any time soon.
Thanks to Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

4.5 Stars

Life had been challenging for Arcade (Arc) Doggs since she was young. Growing up in a small town with a dysfunctional family, Arc, and her twin sister Daffy learned to get by to survive. However, things became even more complicated as bodies started to surface and threatened to upend their already crumbling lives.

This book touched on heavy subjects, and some parts were hard to read. I love when authors put their characters through a wringer, and these characters didn’t get a break. I felt strong emotions towards them with anger and sadness dominating. I enjoyed the overall story as I tried to figure things out along the way. Though I have to say, I wanted the ending to be more satisfying.

On the Savage Side is a story of survival and coping. It would appeal to readers who enjoy literary fiction with elements of crime and mystery.

I found this to be such a challenging, beautiful, devastating read. It is certainly a very dark and heavy reading experience and trigger warnings should be checked but it is like I said a beautiful read. I thought that the dream world that sisters Daffy and Arc create for themselves throughout was so heartbreaking and also shows how children cope with trauma. I loved Mamaw Milkweed. I loved the other “Queens.” This is such a powerful story about women and sisterhood and also about our ancestral connection to the land.

Set in Chillicothe, Ohio and based on real events, McDaniel has crafted a sleepy, crosshatched story weaving in and around the Doggs twins, Arc and Daffy, with dense, flowery writing leading the way. Though marketed as a mystery / thriller, there is very little by way of elements that serve those genres that appear in McDaniel's story.

Arc tells the reader in the initial salvo of this book that she is narrating from beyond the grave. McDaniel has Arc's telling of events unfold on a back-and-forth and all-around timeline, jumping between 1979, 1981, 1983, 1993, and 1994 (and so forth) with little regard to the reveal of plot or character development. It's a mishmash of sorts and adds to the dreamlike quality of the style McDaniel has chosen. When young women begin dying, their corpses found floating in the river, Arc must contend with all she has to lose and how little will be done to find out who is killing these girls.

This book is fairly dark and excessively bleak — it's bad on bad, trauma on trauma . . . leaving little to no room for subtext. I don't mind dark books, and I don't mind bleak, but to offer this story up in this manner, hand over fist, with nothing but darkness and shadows, changes the values of the hues and offers no entry for light to creep in. No depth can be attained without a broader range and finer distinction. With this dullness added to the weighty subject matter, the nuances are lost.

In addition, McDaniel mentions in an article with Columbus Underground she wanted to give these girls their own language, saying, "Of course it still had to be English so that the reader could understand it, but their language was through their imagination, it was through that mythology, and that was really how they spoke to each other in this place...." I never could get beyond the wordy, folksy language injected into everyone's speech. It was metaphor on top of metaphor — simile on top of simile — euphemism on top of euphemism — much of which was repeated throughout. This only reinforced that these people are poor and uneducated, and reduced them by doing so. Such romanticizations of the poor, the uneducated, and the drug-addicted women in this novel served only to further underscore a separation from any similarities you might otherwise find. Driving home this absurd poor-person Appalachian poet philosopher trope was more than I could mindfully or willingly navigate.

The titular "savage side" of life is compared to weaving in the ends on a crochet project and I really felt that.

First things first, this is not a mystery/thriller, which is what I was expecting going into this book. This is a particularly brutal depiction of addiction, sex work, and the way that society is willing to discard girls and women who partake in those activities. We're following Arc, along with her twin sister Daffy who grew up neglected by their heroin addicted mother, and how they too become addicted to heroin as teenagers. When the bodies of their friends start washing up in the river, Arc has to cope with the fear that she will lose the last remaining people that she loves and the knowledge that no one is going to do anything about it.

I want to state very plainly that this 2-star rating has nothing to do with craft -- this book is beautifully written. It's lyrical and poetic, and Tiffany McDaniel is able to infuse her characters with hope and whimsy despite their rather desolate circumstances. She also uses a lot of surreal imagery and complex symbolism without ever making the writing feel inaccessible.

The 2-star rating is more a reflection of how bad a time I had reading this book. This is truly the darkest book I have ever read, and spent the entire time feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin with rage, depression, and nausea. It's really not for the faint of heart. I also felt a pretty significant disconnect between the writing style and the subject matter. We're examining these grim, very real circumstances but the flowery symbolism constant in the prose and dialogue makes it feel almost fantastical. So even though this was inspired by the very real unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, it just felt like a horrific fever dream where everything bad that could possibly happen does, and then someone wrote some poetry about it.

This is absolutely not a bad book, but I really can't say who I'd recommend it to. I think if you have a very high tolerance for brutality, and really love purple prose, maybe this is for you! But please check content warnings before going in.

Non-exhaustive list of content warnings: substance abuse, addiction, violence, gore, sexual assault (including the repeated on-page rape of a child), animal abuse, miscarriage, murder

The writing in this book is five star perfection, it’s lyrical, haunting, raw and evocative.

The story is deeply disturbing, dark, and sometimes I had a hard time finding the small beautiful things within the pages.

However this is a story that is important and is based on true events and on relevant important issues.

Addiction has many faces but the ones we forget most are those of women.

This story spans the lives of twins Arc and Daffy and the heartbreaking upbringing and almost chances at a happy life that are stolen away again and again. There is then an even deeper dive into the cases of missing women in the Chillicothe, Ohio area and their connection to the twins and the inherent dangers of being a women without any agency.

Written in such a way that all the elements of earth are metaphoric in creating parallels to the women and their heartbreaks and truths leaving a very poetic prose.

McDaniels writing is truly her own beast and the way she creates tragedy is discernible, I had to set this book down many times to put my self back at ease.

Trigger warnings abound so please do your research or shoot me a DM.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own, this will out next week, February 14.

(4.5 stars) Wow. I challenge anyone to read this book and not be moved by the twins’ story. It’s a tale of addiction and murder so disturbing that you’ll never forget it. You can’t help but root for Arc (short for Arcade) and her sister Daffodil, fiery redheads with booming imaginations who are born into an addict household. Their mother a heroin user and prostitute, the twins find themselves unavoidably drawn into both worlds. It’s depressing to say the least.

According to the author (who wrote Betty, a book I loved), the inspiration for the story comes from the unsolved murders of six women in a small Ohio town. Arc and Daffodil and their four friends make an irresistible target for a killer, who murders the girls one after another and dumps their bodies into the town’s river. Arc, as narrator, allows us a ringside seat to the action, as she recounts the fates of her sister and friends, and simultaneously tries to save herself. But Arc is not the most reliable of narrators and there’s a reveal that causes the reader to question everything they have been told.

The writing is poetic at times, especially as relates to the girls’ imaginations. The twins draw and compose songs and poems almost frantically in the midst of their troubles. But overall, the tone is relentlessly depressing. I caution potential readers not to expect everything to be tied up nice and neat for the characters…or maybe that’s exactly what to expect. The story is true to its title – on the savage side. Highly recommended for those in the right frame of mind.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knofp Publishing for making this title available for review.

Not every book is an enjoyable reading experience, and this certainly wasn't for me. But not every book IS enjoyable. Some, like On The Savage Side, force the reader's empathy and moral values to be put under a microscope.
This is the story of twin sisters Arc and Daffy, born into poverty through addict parents. Their childhood is full of neglect and abuse, leading them straight to the same drugs their parents raised them under. When their friends start disappearing around them, and turning up dead in the river, Arc tries to find out who is hurting them.
This isn't a book where you find yourself rooting for anyone. I found myself nauseated at several characters lack of growth or perspective. But then I thought...that's definitely the point.
(Social media review to come this week)

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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So, you can tell from the title of this post [on my blog, it's called "A Funeral for Dreams"], that this is not a happy tale. The other big hint along those lines is the author's name. I'm sure that Tiffany McDaniel is perfectly capable of writing a fun romp of a novel—I just have no evidence that she's interested in doing so.

When you do see her name on a cover, you know a few things going in—the book is going to feature some sort of childhood trauma; the beautifully stylized dialogue (that doesn't even pretend to be realistic); and prose that can only be described as gorgeous.

Everything else may differ from book to book, but the above are pretty much a given at this point.

WHAT'S ON THE SAVAGE SIDE ABOUT?
We meet 6-year-old twin sisters Arc and Daffy on the day their father died. Believe it or not, this is likely the best their life is going to be for the rest of this book. They spend most of their childhood in a home with their mother and aunt (I'm very carefully not saying they were raised by their mother and aunt), prostitutes who spend what little money they have on drugs—heroin, primarily. There are brief periods where the children are taken care of by their grandmother—who is kind, loving, and able to take care of them—but those are brief.

We see them age—struggling to separate themselves from their mother and aunt, and eventually following in their footsteps in addiction and profession. As adults, Arc's focus is her (more fragile) sister's safety and well-being. It's because of Daffy that she finds a rehab facility, there's a (probable) serial killer out there leaving women's bodies in the river, and Arc is determined to not let Daffy become the next. Hopefully, she can prevent her friends from being the next, too.

Interspersed with chapters describing their lives (with some time jumping involved), we get some selections from their mother's diary—back when she was capable of keeping one. We see her struggle with addiction and knowing the danger she poses to her daughters (and I was so glad when the book gave us that—it was the first maternal action I saw from her, but we didn't get to see it for a long time).

We also get chapters describing the point-of-view of the river that flows near their town. How it reacts to being where the bodies of women are discarded, along with its thoughts on other things as well. It's these chapters—particularly early on—that give the novel its depth and perspective. It feels to me like those chapters are McDaniels speaking with the least amount of artifice. The river feels like her voice unfiltered through the devices she uses the rest of the time.

CHILLICOTHE, OHIO
Until I started this book, I knew Chillicothe, Ohio as the birthplace of Archie Goodwin of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books. I half-assumed it was a fictional location, and never bothered to look it up. Now I know that it exists, and I'm going to have a hard time reestablishing the positive associations I had with the name. It feels like a great place to be from, not a great place to be. I'm sure that it's a perfectly fine place in reality, but the small city does not come across very well in these pages.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT ON THE SAVAGE SIDE?
This was just a brutal read. Every time you get a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of a feeling that things might be okay for some of these characters—something snuffs it out. But there's another source right around the corner. But, to go back to that line from the novel I borrowed above—the book is full of funerals for dreams.

But there's beauty in the darkness. And a drive to keep persevering shared by the reader and the characters. I wondered more than once why some of them kept trying—but they did. The mother of one of Arc's adult friends is a strong vision of enduring love and hope—she's always ready to help her daughter no matter how tight the grip of addiction is on her at the time. She's always trying, always striving to give her daughter the care she needs—even when (especially when) there's no reason to think it'll do any good.

I mentioned a serial killer above—it's not a serial killer novel, though. It's a novel about the women that may be his target and their fears about it. But people looking for a Thomas Harris read will be disappointed. Actually, people looking for most things you find in typical novels will be disappointed. Many of the looming questions in our characters' lives are left unanswered. But you don't walk away frustrated that you don't get the answers like you would from other novels—because we're given answers to questions we never thought to ask. Some of those are more important, too.

Like always, Tiffany McDaniels delivered a book that's going to stay in my subconscious for a while—lurking there, making me rethink what I read from time to time. It'll probably stay there until her next novel comes along (Betty's been there for a couple of years, and really only was dislodged by this one—and The Summer that Melted Everything is still there all these years later). It's somber, it's sober, and it's difficult to read. But it's so worth it in ways I cannot adequately explain. It'll make you think. It'll make you feel.

I'm having a hard time articulating exactly why you should read this without getting into the details—if you've read McDaniels before, you know what I'm saying. If you haven't—it's time to.

Tiffany McDaniel wrote a heart wrenching novel that exposes what it is like to face addiction each day and what depths one has to go to in order to feed that addiction. This story follows a fictional retelling from the women known as the Chillicothe Six. This story has gorgeous writing but it is an absolutely haunting story. McDaniel does a wonderful job portraying what it is like to be born “on the savage side”. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite how hard the content was to read.

On the Savage Side is a thriller that Tiffany McDaniel loosely based off the true story of the Chillicothe Six from Chillicothe Ohio. This novel follows twins Arcade and Daffodil as they grow up in a small town in the Appalachia’s through the 80’s and 90’s. These twin girls battle abuse, poverty, and generational trauma that led their lives down the road to addiction. When the girls are older and in their early 20’s women in their friend circle start to go missing and their bodies begin turning up in the river. Sadly, no one notices or cares. The police force and the locals thought that they were drug addicted prostitutes and that they didn’t deserve the right to be investigated fully, it was swept under the rug. Once Daffy goes missing, Arcade begins the search for her missing sister through confrontation while battling her own demons and dark secrets

As a reader that grew up in a small Appalachian town there were some parts of this story that made me long for home. The way McDaniel personified the river and the forest as a woman almost moved me to tears. She captured the essence of what it is truly like to grow up in the area through the superstitions and hill magic of the character Mamaw Milkweed. However she didn’t shy away from the darker side of the area. The substance abuse crises that has tormented this beautiful land for decades. This novel showcased generational trauma and the effect that addiction has on future generations that is often shied away from. Throughout this story you couldn’t help but to root for these characters. You are able to see parts of yourself, or parts of someone that you love in the women written about in this book. You realize that they had hopes and dreams beyond that town and the needle, they just didn’t have a fighting chance.

I highly recommend this book. I will say that it isn’t for everyone due to the heavy content and the trigger warnings that I have mentioned below. It was thought provoking and could be used as a wake up call for women living on the “savage side” or for a call of action for the true Chillicothe Six to get the justice that they deserve. These women were mothers, sisters, wives, and friends.

Trigger warnings; heavy drug use, Child sexual assault, sexual assault, child death

“For all the things I have dug up, no one has come close to digging up me.”

Wow, what a your de force. I know people use that term pretty liberally, but nowhere else is it more apt than with McDaniel’s latest. This is a story inspired by the unsolved murders of women, yes, and have no doubt, those murders come across on those pages here, but at its heart, this the story of two sisters, twins who are halves of the same whole and who find themselves struggling against the world trying to snuff them out.

“The first sin was believing we would never die. The second sin was believing we were alive in the first place.”

Beware of the TWs as this provides an unapologetic and honest view into the realities of so many women, but especially those in small and poor towns. Used, abused, addicted to drugs and very often, murdered.

“PROBABLE CAUSE OF DEATH: Being a woman.”

So many of the passages were truly agonizing to read through. They’re important because they lend voice to the violence wrought upon women and girls, at the legacy and scars generational and family trauma can have.

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

While we follow Daffy and Arc from girls to adult women, what strikes me is all the ways they try to escape, how they try to rewrite the world around them. Theres moments of joy and love and hope, yet all too often, those are surrounded by their bleak reality crashing in. I don’t want to go too much into any plot points or events as truly this is just best experienced reading it yourself.

Not an easy read and not one to binge, the writing, structure, and storytelling is masterful. Though I do think this was a bit too long given how heavy it is, this will for sure top many best of lists.

Thank you pengruin randomhouse and prhaudio for my galley and ALC! The audio is mesmerizing and magical.

Whew. These characters came alive on the page - women who are often disregarded, disrespected, disparaged, and displaced. I kept putting this one down thinking it was too much for me to handle - and the next day I would pick it back up because of the concern and admiration and respect I had for the twin sisters in this book. McDaniel forces to NOT look away - to see what life is like - to smell it and see it and feel it. Heartfelt thanks to Knopf for sending me an advanced copy - this was something to experience.

"In life, there is a savage side and a beautiful side."

"Wings were the one gift we kept giving ourselves. Each year we would draw them with more feathers, hoping they would be big enough to be real. No matter how hard we wished, or how large we drew the wings, we never got more than a foot off the ground, the highest we could jump on any given day."

On the Savage Side is a dark, raw, and heartbreaking literary novel that leaves you speechless. I have read all of McDaniel's books and know going in it's going to be a very difficult book to read. On the Savage Side explores the past and present lives of 20 year old female twins Daffy and Arc. Once again McDaniel develops her characters in exquisite detail and weaves their stories effortlessly with such grace among these pages.

McDaniel continues to impress me novel after novel. After finishing this novel I felt empty and a piece of my heart was broken. I shed a few tears as the night wore on after finishing the book, realizing the amount of power and beauty this book had over me. This book will stay with me for a long time.

On the Savage Side is about the spiders that crawl within us and around us all the time. I help fight to get those spiders off the streets as a social worker. I haven't felt so connected to a story in a long time. Thank you Tiffany McDaniel.... I needed to be connected to a book again like this.

The poetry and lyrical beauty behind every word McDaniel writes will leave you breathless. This book was phenomenal and is by far one of my favorites for 2023.

Read THIS BOOK

5/5 stars

Thank you so much to Knopf and netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Tiffany McDaniel has once again opened my eyes, blown my mind, and broken my heart. Her latest, ON THE SAVAGE SIDE, is another example of her talent and skill in writing and telling a story. She cannot be bound into a single genre; her stories contain everything. The lives and power she gives her characters in this book is something unparalleled. I think this book will actually haunt me for years to come... and I'm not mad about it! This book will strike up emotions in you that you never knew possible. It is going to be one of the best books of the year!

After reading Betty, I didn't think McDaniel could match or exceed the heart felt passion and strong message. I was wrong.
There is so much in this book to make you wonder and think well after the final words.
It's strong where it needs to be strong, and vulnerable where it needs to be vulnerable.
It's a pretty involved book, so be ready to be enthralled with it until the end.
I'm going to leave it at that and let you discover this on your own.
Highly recommended.

Gritty, dark, and poetic, On the Savage Side is bound to be one of my most difficult, haunting reads of 2023. Even as I write this review, I am not certain how to rate this beautiful, horrible novel!

This is the story of identical twins, Arc and Daffy, and the women who surround them throughout their lives. Based loosely on the Chillicothe Six murders, Arc and Daffy bear witness to the horrors and dangers of addiction, prostitution and abuse, as they realize that the murders are left mostly uninvestigated and unsolved. The writing is beautiful, with many quotable passages, and written from the river's point of view at times. Simultaneously hopeful and devastating, On the Savage Side is not an easy read, wonderful though it may be.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for the digital ARC of On the Savage Side. The opinions in this review are my own.

I’m not sure I’m the target audience for this title. With that being said, it’s written very well and it’s clear the author has a poetic prose to her writing. There are many beautiful descriptions (specifically the afghan their grandmother knits with them). However, I found Myself not caring what happened in certain points of the book. Mama and aunt Clover were awful, almost unbearable to read. Which was maybe the point, I just Didn’t find it enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of this book.