Name: On the Savage Side
Rating: 4.388888888888889 (9 reviews)
ISBN: 9781399606073

Tiffany McDaniel

On the Savage Side

Lindsay

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

“A witch is not a pointy hat or a broom or warts. A witch is merely a woman who is punished for being wiser than a man. That’s why they burned her. They tried to burn away her power because a woman who says more than she’s supposed to say, and does more than she’s supposed to do, is a woman they’ll try to silence and destroy. But there are some things that not even fire can destroy. One of those things is the strength of a woman. Don’t you want to be a woman like that? A woman with power?”

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

Lucy Newlinds

“To be a woman is to be from the beginning of time” 

Six women - mothers, daughters, sisters - gone missing. When the first is found floating dead in the river, it reveals the disturbing truth of a small Ohio town. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this harrowing and haunting novel tells the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims, from the internationally-bestselling author of Betty. Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they forge an unbreakable bond nurtured by both their grandmother's stories and their imaginations. Together, they create a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping on the ground, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere. But the two sisters can't escape the generational chaos that grips their family. Growing up in the shadow of the town, the sisters cling tight to one another. As an adult, Arcade wrestles with these memories of her life, just as a local woman is discovered drowned in the river. Soon, more bodies are found. While her friends disappear around her, Arcade is forced to reckon with the past while the killer circles ever closer. Arcade's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate while the powerful riptide of the savage side becomes more difficult to resist. Drawing from the true story of women killed in her native Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel has written a powerful literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere.

A Novel

Grace M

After reading OTSS and Betty, I can confidently say Tiffany McDaniel has the misery lit genre down to a science. 
As expected, this was a devastatingly sad read. This book asks a lot of you. It asks you to learn a new language on the fly. A language of myth and old superstitions. Of little girls, tired matriarchs and addict mothers. At times it isn’t always clear, but it’s still enticing. It’s hard to say I ‘enjoyed’ this book per se, because it was so depressing but McDaniel’s writing style keeps me anchored.

A book that absolutely blew me away. I had no clue with the plot twist. Wow wow wow. I cannot stop thinking about each character, especially Sage Nell. 

Elizabeth Denny

“In life, there is a savage side and a beautiful side.”

Wow. This is one of those books that punches you in the heart and then embeds itself there to stay. 

Eerie, foreboding, unsettling, frank, and powerful, On The Savage Side is an up close and personal look into the lives of twin sisters, Daffy and Arc, their childhood and upbringing, their trauma and loss, their grief and pain. It's inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six. This story was poignant, thoughtful, raw and profound in many ways. As beautiful as it was hard to read. The writing was abstract, haunting, and incredibly impactful. 

While there is a thriller element, it’s definitely secondary. Even when the plot twist leaves you questioning everything and also nothing, this story is much more a focus on the lives of the girls who have gone missing, their hopes, their dreams, their struggles and suffering. Their survival. It's an ode to remembering them. To remembering them as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, and just...people... despite the hardships of their lives and how each of them inevitably ended up.

There were difficult and darker themes of addiction, poverty, abuse/child abuse, neglect, assault/sexual assault of a minor, death/murder, and miscarriage that were unabashedly explored.

But there were also those lighter, more heartfelt themes of found family, friendship, bonds of sisterhood, turning the hard things beautiful, the love of a grandmother, the power of imagination and affirmations, hope, dreams, and new life. 

This is a story that will not easily be forgotten.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an early copy for review.

Leah | @LeahsLittlePleasures

“In life, there is a savage side and a beautiful side.”

Wow. This is one of those books that punches you in the heart and then embeds itself there to stay. 

Eerie, foreboding, unsettling, frank, and powerful, On The Savage Side is an up close and personal look into the lives of twin sisters, Daffy and Arc, their childhood and upbringing, their trauma and loss, their grief and pain. It's inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six. This story was poignant, thoughtful, raw and profound in many ways. As beautiful as it was hard to read. The writing was abstract, haunting, and incredibly impactful. 

While there is a thriller element, it’s definitely secondary. Even when the plot twist leaves you questioning everything and also nothing, this story is much more a focus on the lives of the girls who have gone missing, their hopes, their dreams, their struggles and suffering. Their survival. It's an ode to remembering them. To remembering them as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, and just...people... despite the hardships of their lives and how each of them inevitably ended up.

There were difficult and darker themes of addiction, poverty, abuse/child abuse, neglect, assault/sexual assault of a minor, death/murder, and miscarriage that were unabashedly explored.

But there were also those lighter, more heartfelt themes of found family, friendship, bonds of sisterhood, turning the hard things beautiful, the love of a grandmother, the power of imagination and affirmations, hope, dreams, and new life. 

This is a story that will not easily be forgotten.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an early copy for review.

On the Savage Side

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