Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - On the Savage Side

I found ON THE SAVAGE SIDE difficult to read, so unflinching in its depiction of poverty and addiction that I read with a clenched stomach, gripped in empathetic pain. But without this level of violence and trauma, this book would be lying to itself, and for that reason, I consider it a winner.

The novel only fell apart for me (and only slightly!) in the repetition of its lyricism. Sometimes I felt like McDaniel was being intentionally opaque, and while it was always beautiful, I occasionally lost interest. But that is just one picky complaint of an otherwise stirring novel. I'm glad I read it.

Content Warnings

siobhanward's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

McDaniel has a gift for writing a heartbreaking story that manages to keep you guessing. I was on the edge of whether or not to give this 4* and then the ending came and I was truly shocked and that was impressive enough to keep it at a 4* rating, despite being a bit too long at times. As always, McDaniel creates a story that is absolutely devastating, while feeling true to life. I really appreciate her style, even though it can be a challenge to read at points.

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fredrikamarias's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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glitteringeyes418's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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artemisg's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Her is a blur. She is who we were. -Daffodil Poet

It has been said many times, but Tiffany McDaniel can write. Every sentence in this book was just beautiful and spoke to my soul.

My mother, aunt, and grandmother were women of hot skin who seemed to sweat even in the middle of a blizzard. Women who always put on mascara to the radio, talking with pride about our centuries-dead mamaw who was hung as a witch, not once, but twice. She was burned when the noose broke.
"It is from her that we get our hot skin," Mamaw Milkweed would say, telling my sister and me that we had a touch of the witch in us.
"You can't put a woman to fire and expect the flesh of the women after her not to feel that very heat. It is also from her that we dream of the future."

This novel is inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six and follows twins Arcade (Arc) and Daffodil (Daffy) as they discover bodies in the river, and their loved ones become bodies in the river. These bodies are of women who are not the “perfect victims”, they are women who, due to the circumstances of their lives, turned to drugs and prostitution. This makes them unimportant in the eyes of law enformecment and the eyes of the locals. But, they are important to their friends, their families, and themselves. This is a harrowing examination of girlhood and womanhood in poverty, of generational trauma, and drug addiction and abuse. It is heartbreaking and beautifully written and captivating and intense.

We fell silent with the chill, studying the woman on the ground before us, trying to find her story. We weren't sure if that story was in the new cuts up and down her arms, or in the old ones, scarred over. … Maybe she'd carved her name into a tree and picked her teeth when watched by the men with knives in their eyes. I couldn't stop imagining her life. In the winter, her pulling her coat tight against herself and pretending to smoke the cold air. I didn't know her enough to imagine the big moments of her life. I could only envision the small
ones.

McDaniel thrives when writing about complex and nuanced characters, and the characters we meet in this novel are that. The girls we meet have complex inner lives and are treated with incredible kindness by McDaniel and each other and incredible, violent abuse from other characters in the novel. They navigate some of the worst things that can happen to a person and somehow still treat one another with gentle love and kindness, even when they have not been shown any kindness in decades.

“Years from now," she said, "an archaeologist like you, Arc, will dig my tooth up and I'lI matter because I'll be from the past. They'll wonder who I was and they'll give me a better story than my truth."

The incorporation of nature into this book was an incredible narrative choice, as were the fictionalised autopsy reports. Reading them made me overwhelmingly emotional. Reading this book as a whole made me overwhelmingly emotional, it was devastating.

"But it's not a fire taking the women," she said. "It's a river."
"Drowning is just another way to burn us," I said.

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