I was not ready for this new Tiffany McDaniel’s book, ya’ll. It completely wrecked me.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is the second novel I’ve had the honor of reading before it hit shelves and I think it is my favorite. It is inspired on an unsolved murder case of the Chillicothe Six - six women who went missing in the rural town of Chillicothe, Ohio between the spring of 2014 and summer of 2015. Following twin sisters, Arcade and Daffodil, ON THE SAVAGE SIDE weaves the story of the two sisters as they navigate friendship, generational trauma, poverty, drug abuse, and sex work.

I feel like I can’t truly do it justice talking about this work because it is so layered. I think it's really about many different things that are adjacent to the lives of the sisters. McDaniel is a master storyteller. Her work is thoughtful and gut wrenching in the most satisfying of ways. Everything falls into place in ways that are unexpected. Her lyrical prose is stellar and truly her own.

This a heavy read that is full of darkness lurking in every corner, but there is also beauty and hope. There is so much respect and love in the writing of the Chillicothe Queens, the young women who find themselves forever intertwined with the twins and us, the readers, too.

On THE SAVAGE SIDE is beautiful, haunting, and a stunning tribute to the forgotten. You’ll never forget it.

I hate to say this, but this book did nothing for me. I absolutely loved Tiffany McDaniel's debut novel, "The Summer that Melted Everything", and I haven't gotten a chance to read her sophomore effort, "Betty" - but I had high hopes for "On the Savage Side". The main problem is the writing style. McDaniel is a gifted writer, but her prose is too flowery for my taste. She is such a descriptive writer, but this is her downfall. Instead of moving the plot along, she tends to over-embellish the details of things that don't add anything to the overall story. Too much exhibition. This book could've been something special, but the plot is so watered down by the prose. Also, this book is too long. It was such a struggle to get through, and the pay-off wasn't even worth it in the end. So frustrating.

Thank you, Netgalley and Knopf for the digital ARC.

On the Savage Side, written on the dark side, is a depressing drug, sex-motivated novel that reverts back and forth from before to present with prostitution more prominent on each page. It is not my cup of tea but the ending was a surprise although, pleasant?

When I first read The Summer That Melted Everything it changed the way I looked at reading and literature. Betty cut me to my absolute core, in a way I didn't know was possible. On The Savage Side has solidified Tiffany McDaniel as my favorite author (not that she had any real competition). I've referred to her many times as a literary wizard and this book has further convinced me that it is true.

The thing about Tiffany's writing… she tells the most heart wrenching stories with this dreamy, lyrical flow. She finds the beauty within the horrors that life throws our way, and turns it into these amazingly beautiful books.

She breaks my heart while simultaneously allowing me to see the beauty that hides within everything, and inside all of us.
On the Savage Side was no exception. A book focusing on addiction has the potential to be incredibly bleak. While this book was certainly dark, there is so much charm weaved throughout. You fall in love with these girls. You become addicted to their stories. You feel their pain, their grief, their strife, so vividly. You celebrate the highs and you certainly feel the lows.

I'd recommend this book to everyone who likes to have their heart shattered, and then pieced back together. Those who can see the beautiful side, through all that is savage.

Incredible book, ten thousand shining stars for Tiffany, once again.

On The Savage Side is coming out February 14, 2023 and pre-orders are now available!! Thank you Tiffany, Knopf and NetGalley for a copy of this novel! ❤️

“It’s easy for people to judge us. I won’t make excuses. I made the choice is to take the needle, but I will say an addict was a child once, too. We had hopes and dreams of being something more. Our dream wasn’t to give ourselves away. That much is true.”

What is there to say? Tiffany McDaniel is one of the best there ever was. I feel such a deep sadness after finishing On the Savage Side. I’m sad it’s over. I’m sad it happened. I’m sad I have to wait for more of her words and stories. I’m just sad. This book was beautiful. I think of Betty every day, and now I will think of the Chillicothe Six, too.

Wow. That was my initial reaction upon finishing this book, just WOW. I’ve sat with my thoughts for awhile, it’s been several days since I finished this one and I needed some time to process my feelings. I almost didn’t have a choice in the matter, the way that these characters and this story got under my skin and in my heart and head is unmatched and unlike any other experience I’ve had with a book before. It’s the kind of story you cannot escape. I took my time reading it too, and there were many reasons for that as well. The story the author tells is harrowing and uncomfortable to read about so as a reader you will need to take a breather occasionally. But it is important and necessary and I don’t think it is the type of book you’re meant to read in just a few sittings. You’ll need time to sit with the beauty of the writing. You’ll need time to process the horrors you just read about. You’ll need time to think about all of the women who live lives like this. You’ll just need time, but the time invested is so very worthwhile.

I don’t think it’s necessary for me to get very far into the plot itself because there is a special kind of magic in the way this story unfolds. I will talk about the characters and the way the author humanizes the victims of the River Man because it gave a voice to women everywhere. Arc and Daffy are followed throughout several years, through life and death. Through addiction and prostitution. Through loss and more tragic loss. If there is an issue that anyone could find triggering it is in here at some point, but again it is important. I can’t even begin to describe how phenomenal the authors writing is, she’s on a level all of her own and it’s incredible. It’s haunting and devastatingly beautiful and the kind of poetry that speaks to my soul. It was an honor to read this one, I won’t soon forget it and I’m glad I won’t.

"Sometimes the only thing left to do is to be a beautiful girl, nice enough not to scream when they break you over their knee."

I've read this author before and am just in awe of her talent. I feel like I want to read her books slowly and savor them, but at the same time I feel like I'm being repeatedly punched in the gut. Her writing forces you to be fully present, so you can't look away from the painful parts. And the painful parts are plentiful. There is a pervasive sadness throughout this book. Every page just reeks of desperation. SO many triggers, and so many parts that leave you despairing, and still it's possible to feel compassion for the pregnant woman wrapping the strap of her diaper bag around her arm to find a vein to inject.

"I will say an addict was a child once, too. We had hopes and dreams of being something more. Our dream wasn't to give ourselves away."

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf publishing for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Man, Tiffany McDaniel sure knows to how to create characters. Because Betty was based on her family, a part of me assumed that all the awful things that happened to Betty and the family were real, and that McDaniel just forced the trauma on us. However, after reading this, I am convinced that she may be one of the best authors out there because of how she writes about trauma.

This book will not be for everyone. There were parts that I could barely stomach, and parts where the nature metaphors and symbolism were too much for me, but I do think this is the kind of book that should be studied. I can imagine this being read in classes and becoming a classic for other writers.

After reading Betty earlier this year, I was over the moon to get my hands on the ARC of Tiffany McDaniel's next novel. And boys and girls, you need to get your hands on this book as well!

Finishing this book feels like letting out a breath you didn't realize you were holding for the 450+ pages this book consists of. McDaniel's writing grabs you by the collar, pushes your nose to the page and you'll keep it there yourself, because it's so hard to put this down once you start.

The story follows twins Arc & Daffy, growing up in a house in which they paint their own birthday cakes, where their mother hung their overdosed father's clothes as drapes and where johns visit their mother and Aunt Clover on a regular basis.

This book portrays the coming-of-age of two young girls who are doomed from the beginning, and their attempts to make the savage side beautiful. The book is heavy (reminiscent of Requiem for a Dream), beautifully written, unforgettable and unputdownable.

On the Savage Side is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish reading it. This book was beautifully written but also heartbreaking and hard to read. Can’t recommend it enough.

Absolutely stunning. I really do love this author and her work. I would highly recommend this one and I am so grateful that I could read an early copy. Betty by this same author was a favorite and this one is as well. Absolutely stunning work and I cannot wait to read more from this author. Pick this one up and you will not regret it at all. Highly recommend that you go in blind as I did this and was blown away

My highest praise. Hands down, has become my favorite read of the year and has placed itself as one of my favorite reads of all time. The most haunting and heartbreaking book I've ever read, My heart feels like it had been put through a paper shredder, pounded by a meat tenderizer, run over by a steamroller, then fed through a wood chipper. The pain of these women, of Arc, is palpable--because the stories of these women are true; this novel may be fictional but the pain and experiences are very real for women everywhere. I don't often feel emotional reading a novel, but this one I felt in the deepest parts of me.

Inspired by the Chillicothe Six, Tiffany McDaniel explores the lives of a handful of impoverished women in rural Ohio in On the Savage Side, as seen through the eyes of a young woman named Arc, twin sister to Daffodil Poet.

A native of Ohio, McDaniel draws on the real-life events surrounding the disappearance and murder of six women between 2014-2015. Of the six, four were found murdered, while the other two were never recovered. The case of the Chillicothe Six has not yet been solved, and On the Savage Side offers little in the way of even fictional closure. Set across a 20-year period from the 1970s and up through the mid-90s, the disappearances and murders serve as a backdrop to McDaniel's themes surrounding life as a woman in America, of powerlessness and addiction, and how women are remembered after death.

McDaniel's themes and observations resonate strongly throughout this work, and perhaps it's fitting that I finished reading this advance copy on Election Day, which many are calling Roevember given the recent dismantling of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. Women's rights are at the forefront of many voter's minds this midterm, to either protect those rights and women's access to health care, or to further strip women of their legal protections and reduce them even further. As we enter into yet another electoral battleground prompted by Republican's dystopian and omnipresent War on Women, McDaniel's thoughts and prose hit even harder. The women in On the Savage Side are addicts and sex workers, already little more than second-class citizens to the men around them, the men who use and abuse them with regularity and complete impunity.

Although their stories ultimately end in death -- we know this right from the beginning, where Arc reveals to us that her first-person narration is posthumous -- this is a story of their lives, of their struggles, and how their powerful imaginings and familial folklore sustain them and give them hope while life itself constantly strips away their dreams. It's a story about loss, but more importantly, it's a story about friendship and family, both blood and found, of kinships forged, and honoring the memories of those we've lost. There's promises of hope here and there, but more often than not hope is spurned by misfortune, because such is the way of life. On the Savage Side is also a clarion call, one that doesn't ask us to reflect on how we view the women in our lives and in our society, but demands it, loudly, forcefully, and painfully, in the knowledge that we can do better, even if that knowledge is just another piece of hope cast adrift and bloodstained by tragedy.

Tiffany McDaniel has a way of grabbing the reader and saying "hey, they are other people out here and they're hurting, listen to their stories." On the Savage Side is just that kind of story. We meet neglected sisters and our hearts melt then we see abuse and anger is generated. We read about prostitution and drug-trampled lives and we try not to be judgey. And we hold out for the hope that will certainly follow these little girls. And we hold out. And we hold out.
Rooted and inspired by the actual murders and missing women dubbed Chillicothe Six, Ms. McDaniel's is asking the reader to listen to their stories, to realize they had lives at one time, too.

Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for access to an early copy. All opinions are mine.

A devastating portrait of two little girls growing up in the most dire circumstances and the choices they make in to adulthood.
This is a tale of horrors, not ghosts or ghouls, but real horrors faced by many women everyday. The unseen, neglected and forgotten women. A tale of the harsh realities these women face and the people who believe they "had it coming" do to the choices they made and the only life they know.
With its poetic, lyrical prose this beautifully written novel will tear your heart out and leave you weeping for the lives of these girls.

I want to thank Tiffany McDaniel for reaching out to me. It was truly an honor to read your work.

I’m not sure there are proper words to describe this book. I hate to use the words “inspired by true events” for a book like this, but it was. The dedication in the beginning of the book was beautiful, and the last couple of pages hit home about how we treat people struggling with addiction.

The story follows Arc and her twin sister Daffy, who love their Memaw til she is killed in an accident, and are raised by their mother and aunt who are addicted to heroin. Their father was also addicted and died. It shows them growing up, their friends, and their struggle to survive.

I would say this is an extremely powerful book. It does require you to suspend belief, but what happens to these women happens every day.

Please pick this one up and read it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Call me a philistine, but I had several major issues with "On the Savage Side." First, though, let me say that I did love the first third or so. The depiction of the twin girls all but raising themselves in a house—not a household—occupied by addicts was both lyrical and painful, and their relationship with their grandmother a lone, vital, glowing hope spot. In fact, the prose throughout was beautiful and poetic, even when describing the ugliest of events.

And that is one of my problems with this book. Everything was described in heightened, metaphor-laden prose, so that well before the end virtually nothing stood out as special. And some of the language, to this cynical reader who has seen firsthand the damage of addiction, felt ridiculous. Calling shooting up smack "wearing crowns"? And having not just the first-person narrator but all her addict companions using the same overblown phrases? Having all the characters indulge in flights-of-fancy monologues? And on the few occasions when more common language was used, it came across as clunky. Do addicts really say "injecting" rather than "shooting up" or "mainlining" nowadays?

Then there were the dual denouements. Both came across as copouts to me, akin to what one might see in Creative Writing 101.

I get that "On the Savage Side" is meant to be, in the publisher's words, "a moving literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere." But maybe, instead of gussying up the reality of these missing women's lives, it had been presented, at least at times, in a less fanciful, "look at me, I'm poetic" style, this would have done the Chillicothe Six who inspired the book greater justice. Dressing up ugliness isn't fearless; examining it in its unvarnished form is braver.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf, for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A painful reality for disadvantaged women. On the Savage Side is based on the history of the Chillicothe woman - following the integral twins Arc & Daffy through their childhoods and adult lifestyle, facing challenge after challenge.

Without revealing the narrative, Tiffany McDaniel has an innate way to develop a powerful prose, every word has a purpose.

A sorrowful read, yet another unmissable tale by McDaniels. I am utter grateful to have gained access to the uncorrected proof copy, and I look forward to the release on the 14th February 2023. A big thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the copy.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE by Tiffany McDaniel, from beginning to end, is one of the most unsettling journey's I have ever taken. Like Tiffany's last book, BETTY, my favourite book of all time, this one also had me closing the book over and over again. And don't mean that in a negative way. There are just so many heart-stopping moments, so many unforgettable scenes. The writing is just mind blowing, and not just at times, but line after line. Then it all hits you at once.

It's a horror story full of love.
It's those aspirations in people you might think don't have any. A wake up call. A cry for help. A story everyone should read. One you will never forget.

And that's the message here.

You know, some stories go way beyond the stars. Not just in ratings, obviously, but to somewhere you've never been.


Never a truer word in this case.

An absolute masterpiece.

Do not miss this.

It is stunning to me how a novel about such heartbreaking women can be lyrical and gorgeous. The tale of the Chicolthe six is the story of women, queens, tied together like the string keeping their arms taught for the needles they inject themselves with. I believe in this world all problems should be viewed with humanity and compassion and this does that justice.