With only three released books, I honestly believe Tiffany McDaniel may well be the greatest novelist writing today. I don’t make these kinds of statements lightly. I believe it to be the absolute truth. The way she brings her tales to life so vividly on the page is magical and unique, yet reminiscent of lost greats like Ray Bradbury, with her uncanny intermingling of metaphor and myths and the kinds of stories passed down from generation to generation.
I’m not going to get heavily into plot, since this book won’t be released for a while. Instead, I’m going to concentrate on the intense feelings and emotions this new release stirred within me. . There is not a single wasted word here. . Every carefully crafted sentence serves a purpose. Her prose is breathtaking and beautiful. Her words lift off the pages and fill you with wonder and enlightenment.
There’s simply no one else out there writing like her.
On The Savage Side loosely retells the story of The Chillicothe Six. Six women, of impoverished backgrounds, who were all found dead in a local Ohio river. All victims of a suspected serial killer. These women, their lives lost to prostitution and drug abuse, were sadly forgotten for the most part, and this book is McDaniel crafting stories and lives for them. This novel served as both a love letter and testament for the lost and the forgotten. A tribute to those unloved, forgotten souls who never had a voice in life. People often forget we all start out as children, full of dreams and promise, but sometimes children are forced down dark paths due to circumstances out of their control. It is unfortunate that many forget this, as society often holds preconceived beliefs that people always have a choice in the lives they find themselves. And these people are often ignored or vilified. McDaniel humanizes the victims and provides a loving tribute to these six woman who never had s chance for justice.
This book is a devastating work of literature. Her previous book Betty nearly killed me. With this one. It felt like McDaniel was shoveling dirt over my head at the end of every single chapter. This book is horror, pure and simple. And having read a lot of horror over the years, I can honestly say no other book has even come close to burying itself under my skin and burrowing into my bones like this book. At times, I found myself feeling physically sick reading the words on the pages. McDaniel leaves little room to breathe. . So much darkness mingled in with such beauty.
This was a life changing work. One of those books that stay with you your whole life. There are things I will never look at the same way again after reading this story. A warning: this story contains every single trigger warning imaginable. Not kidding.
In closing, I hope everyone takes a chance and reads this incredible story , and both of her previous releases, because Tiffany McDaniel is one of our most treasured storytellers and her stories deserve a wide audience and all the awards there are to give. This ended up bring one of the best books I have ever read. No hyperbole.

Tiffany McDaniel's publishers would have you think that she writes literary dark family dramas.

Which she does.

But what some of you already know is that she is sneakily writing horror novels that are disguised as literature. Betty, for instance, is a horror novel.

And so is On the Savage Side.

Inspired by the true crime story of the Chillicothe Six, this is so much more than a serial killer novel. For one, it's the rare serial killer novel that focuses almost exclusively on the victims. This allows McDaniel to do what she does best: break our hearts. On the Savage Side also forgoes the police procedural aspect of most serial killer novels, which I've always thought disrupt the pace of the story.

The story focuses mainly on the friendships and addictions of the victims, and therein lies the strength of this novel. Dark and disturbing, but with beautiful writing.

Available on Valentine's Day (wtf...lol)

Tiffany, you're 3-for-3.