Un altro doloroso capolavoro dell'autrice di The summer that melted everything, che precisa come un bisturi disseziona il dolore e la crudeltà che si nascondono dietro i singoli individui, la famiglia e la società che ingloba tutto.
Leggerla è un atto necessario, come pulire una ferita che non si sapeva di avere.

This book just wasn’t for me. I thought it was going to be one thing going in and I wasn’t a fan of where it went. I didn’t like the writing and didn’t connect with the characters at all.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I have read by Tiffany McDaniel. I am usually not a fan of flowery writing, but the connection to real life events made this work for me. Even though the writing is disturbing at times, I found that I kept wanting to keep reading. I do recommend this book, but it is a very sad and heartbreaking story.

Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

This book was quite something in the way the author showed how your background can be such a strong determinant of your life. For the twin girls, Arcade and Daffodil, their life seemed doomed to fail, but as always, the girls held out hope for the future. They lived for awhile with their grandmother who nurtured them with stories and love, but ten their drug addicted prostitute mother and aunt wanted them back.

The girls were subjected to the drugs, the Johns, and most of all to the poverty of being in a family of chaos. They do invent stories, imaginary places to escape to but life doesn't get any better. They became what they most desired not to be.

I don't think I have ever read are more depressing story and although it sounds nightmarish, the author loosely based her story on events which happened in a small Ohio town.

The Chillicothe Six, were disposable women, and just like to women in this tragic story, they lost their lives. I had to wonder what these girls would have become if born in a different environment or at least to someone who cared.

It's chilling tale, one which Tiffany McDaniel does great justice to with her many punches to one's gut.

Thank you to Tiffany McDaniel, Knopf Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this hard hitting story which published in February of this year.

After the popularity of Betty I knew I wanted to pick up this new release from Tiffany McDaniel and boy does she deliver. As expected, On the Savage Side is beautiful and painfully relatable. I can't wait to read what she does next.

I had high hopes for this one. And I bloody loved it. McDaniel may not write stories to everyone’s taste as they tend to gravitate towards severe hardships and trauma but she is one hell of a writer.

Once again, a book featuring sisters that I adored. Arc and Daffy are twin sisters and live in Chillicothe, Ohio with their mother and aunt who are both drug addicts. I loved Arc so much 💔

The narrative is brilliantly done and interspersed with a medical report every time a victim is found in the river. Despite this being fictional, McDaniel dedicated this book to “the Chillicothe Six”, the six women who disappeared or were murdered between May 2014 and May 2015 in this small rural town.

It also has some fascinating facts which I ended up googling and I would recommend you read the transcripts that I accessed on the NPR website about Hitler’s addiction to drugs. I was also recommended the non-fiction read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe which I heard was brilliant and has been added to my list.

Back to the savage side, it’s not an uplifting read, but rather a stark glimpse of what drug addiction and being born in a drug addicts‘ household looks like. And it’s not pretty…

But what a read!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to @aaknopf for the gifted book! It is out February 14th. It took me about 150 pages to really get invested but once I got to that point, I read the rest of it much quicker and ultimately loved it! This book is a brutal look at drug addiction, prostitution, and murder in a rural community. This is not a traditional “who-done-it” type mystery, but if you go into this expecting a more literary story, this should be a great read.

This story is narrated by Arc. She lives in Chillicothe, Ohio and has a twin sister called Daffy. She grows up with a mom and aunt who are addicted to heroin and a dad who dies when she’s young. Her grandma, Mamaw Milkweed, helped raise Arc and Daffy until she is lost to an accident. During the book, we span into the twins’ young adulthood, as they fall into the cycle of drug use, like their parents. It shows the difficult realities of how hard it is to recover from addiction.

This book is a look at crime and how society tends to care less about those involved in things like sex work and drug use, even though these people are loved too and matter to people. During this book, Arc finds a body of a woman in the river. Several other bodies are found there as well, coming from the group of women that she is friends with. While these crimes are reported, the local law enforcement doesn’t do much to investigate them and it’s clear that their attitude is that these women were hurting themselves anyway through their drug use so they probably died from something related to that. And even if there was foul play, they still don’t care because they were “just another addict.”

My only quibble is that I wanted closure about the killer. That’s definitely a personal thing, though, and I understand that a large part of the point of the book is that these crimes often do go unsolved due to the lack of caring about the victims so the ending makes sense when thinking about that.

I definitely recommend this book! If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts! I struggled with Betty and never finished it, but this is making me want to revisit it.

Words to describe this book: haunting, brutal, emotionally draining, gut-wrenching, gripping, beautiful and moving.

Please be aware of the trigger warnings (such as rape, torture, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and child neglect) before reading this book.

Beautifully written, loved the poems, and the links to nature. There should be warnings about the content of the book including child abuse. It was sadness, upon sadness, upon sadness, with little to no hope.

I really loved “Betty” so when I saw Tiffany McDaniel had a new book I was super excited. On The Savage Side once again did not disappoint. The book grabbed my attention from the beginning and didn’t let go even after it was over. This story really draws on the trials and tribulations of what it means to be a woman. Tiffany McDaniels is a sensation and such an excellent writer.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐈’𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑💔

Also 100% the most painful. But the writing😩😩😩😩😩. Hands down, this book is a gut wrenching work of genius. It’s utterly brilliant.

Reader be warned: only embark on this journey if you’re ready to have your heart broken💔

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭:

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is an exquisitely written, brutal book about the horrors of addiction, abuse, prostitution, racism, poverty, and lost innocence. It follows two twins, Daffy and Arc, as they grow up in Chillicothe, Ohio. The twins cope through magical thinking and imagination leading to a very whimsical writing pattern that starkly constrasts their day to day horrors. I will say it again: this book is BRILLIANT.

𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒆, 𝒑𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂, 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

This is an incredibly challenging novel to read. It took me the better part of 3 months to get through. I had to take breathers ALOT.

I think reading powerful books like this one breeds empathy and understanding of the human condition past what we may know in our own lives. I highly encourage you all to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet.

Take care of yourself while reading it, or read it with a buddy. I’m always here to discuss and talk so don’t be a stranger if you do pick this one up. Thank you @stephonashelf for helping me get through it!! It’s tough but it’s beautiful.

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is actually based on the true and unsolved case of six murdered women but it truly does not read like a true crime novel, it’s so much more.

I started with the physical copy and then switched to audio. Listening to the novel helped me get through it🎧🖤

This one is difficult to figure out what rate. It was very dark and disturbing at times, but the writing felt like a work of art. I held on for a glimmer of hope that the story would turn around. While a bit long, I loved that the book read more like literary fiction than a thriller.

As much as it physically pains me to do so, I’m going to have to agree with my pal Dan 2.0 when it comes to Tiffany McDaniel’s style . . . it’s probably not for me. I looooooooooved Betty and agree that there is an excellent story within the pages of this latest release regarding a series of prostitutes who are found in Chillicothe, Ohio (inspired by the true tale of the “Chillichothe Six”). Unfortunately, it was so mired in the purple prose that I could not feel all of the feels that I was supposed to be feeling. I have actively avoided The Summer that Melted Everything for fear of being a wrongreader and I will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future since the main complaint was regarding how it too was overwritten.

Also, I already dislike a face cover, but if you're going to commit to one at least get it right. One sister lipsticked her TOP lip, the other the BOTTOM. Stuff like that drives me batshit.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On The Savage Side is a literary thriller, and by that label, author made a point by making it a deep, atmospheric and sometimes heartbreaking story about women. Loosely based on the Chillicothe Six, the unsolved mysterious murders of six women of Ohio, this book is about twin sisters who are inseparable, Arcade (Arc) and Daffodil (Daffy).

With a father who drowns himself in drugs and mum who uses sex to earn money, the sisters find peace and love in their grandma. Growing up listening to her, and loved by her, her lose engulfs them into a darkness. They find friendship in other women in their community, whose lives are no longer in their control. With drugs and prostitution affecting their everyday life, they still try to get back to the other side but they return back to the same place.

This book is emotional. And not the least bit expected. There were so many times that I actually wanted to DNF, not because the writing wasn’t good but it was too good. It was, from the first page, was different, atmospheric and were so full of unexpected encounters and turns.

This is a different book, branched out from what I’d normally read and I just couldn’t put it down.

On the surface, I thought this book would be exactly my kind of read: a small town, female-led thriller. I never got in the mood to finish it, but I did do a pub day feature on Bookstagram as the publisher graciously sent me a finished copy.

This book. Oof.

Stunning writing. SO LYRICAL. Passages and sentences I would love to highlight and keep with me. But the content is brutal. REAL, and brutal. There were many times I thought I’d stop reading because it was so much to handle. But I’m glad I finished.

The topics are so hard but also so important. And she writes about them with honesty.

This is the most trigger warnings I’ve ever attached to a book, so please look them up. For someone without many triggers this was still a highly difficult read.

DNF @ 36%

I will admit I went into this with a bit of prejudice when I realized this was the author of The Summer That Melted Everything; or as my old book club called it, “The Surprise Cannibalism Book.” Living in Ohio, the missing women from Chillicothe are a well known thing and something about this read disingenuous to me that I can’t put my finger on. The POV of the river also rubbed me the wrong way.

Thanks Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I need time to sit with this one, I am so incredibly blown away by McDaniel’s talent - but this was SO heavy I am still reeling. More thoughts to come, for now, FIVE STARS.

This is based on a true story of the killing of women in Ohio. Six women go missing, and the others left behind grieve and fear for their own lives.

Very dark and disturbing, but well-written.

An eye opening read about the cruel & sad sad world of children growing up in an addiction environment. Based loosely on the tragic story of the Chillicothe Six… author McDaniel did a marvelous job of writing on a subject that was brutal from start to finish. At times it was hard to read (trigger warning) the abuse, neglect and drugs was only the beginning. The impact of the story will be one I will not soon forget.
Thank you #NetGalley, #OntheSavageSide & Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor for the ARC.
This is my honest review. Definitely keeping Tiffany McDaniel on my radar after this one!