I’m circling back to this one as we approach year’s end. This is still my book of 2023.
I find it most challenAll the stars. Every star is not enough.
I’m circling back to this one as we approach year’s end. This is still my book of 2023.
I find it most challenging to write the first sentence of a review for a book I adored as much as I loved On the Savage Side. Another reviewer on Goodreads said that Tiffany McDaniel may well be the most gifted storyteller alive today. I can’t shake it. That’s how I feel, too.
With two, and now soon-to-be-three, books published, she has a trademark style of storytelling, one that has me hanging on her every lyrical, descriptive, imaginative word. On top of that, her characterization, the vulnerability and heart in her characters, the creativity in their imaginations, reflective of her own endless creativity; I never want to leave their stories behind, and in the case of On the Savage Side, I dreaded having some idea of their ultimate fates due to what happened to the “Chillicothe Six.”
Inspired by six women in Chillicothe, Ohio, who disappeared around the same time and their cases remained unsolved years later, these women lived and loved in McDaniel’s home state, and the part of Ohio she showcases in her books, an area left behind in some ways.
Arcade (“Arc”) Doggs is the narrator. She begins as far back as her memory takes her, as the twin sister to Daffodil (“Daffy”). Her father is in the military for a time and returns home a different man. He uses drugs to cope, and eventually that use spills over to Addie, the twins’ mom. The girls are young when this happens. Their saving grace is beloved Mamaw Milkweed. She provides a respite from the chaos and is their normal. Time with and lessons learned from her are cherished. Life changes for the twins again when Mamaw is no longer part of their lives.
Time and tragedy chip away at Arc and Daffy’s dreams. Their armor slowly falls away, as they aren’t protected from the ugliness and dark underbelly, until eventually they find themselves on the same path as their mom and Aunt Clover. With drugs they lose their hopes but never their friendships and closeness with each other. During this time they become friends with other women in the community who use drugs to dull life’s immense hardships. As with their mom and aunt, they also turn to sex work to keep money in their pockets and to buy more drugs.
The women are hopeful as they try to get clean, but they return to the same environment and stressors, and life has a way of resetting back to what it knows. One by one, the women disappear and are found in the river. Arc narrates until the very end. Even though I knew the direction the book would take, I never lost hope that someone would escape to a better life, one would overcome addiction, no matter how steep the mountain was to climb. McDaniel goes deep into the darkest, most painful places, but she always leaves some hope to hang onto in the goodness of the hearts of her fallible characters.
The way the story gets its name is derived by a lesson taught by Mamaw Milkweed. That gem is literally threaded throughout the book in a subtle way, and while I have to mention it, I will not spoil it for the reader.
On the Savage Side is a marketed as a literary thriller, and I agree with that classification, though thriller fans should be prepared for the finest, deep dive characterization there is, which keeps the story at a deliciously even pace. There’s an unease from the very first page, and there are twists I did not foresee, including the final twist. I don’t think the twists are in the front seat of the story; the characters, their friendships, and life struggles are.
As with all of McDaniel’s books, I hang on every word. I read, re-read, reflect, ponder, and more than anything I feel. The Chillicothe Six deserved a voice. All women who were once little girls with hopes, dreams, aspirations, and open hearts, who were sisters, mothers, and daughters, deserve a voice, to know love and be loved, and to find justice when a life is taken.
I received a gifted copy of this book; however, I also have it on preorder. Preordering books by our favorite authors is one of the best ways we can support them, and with more than twenty books in her arsenal, and only three published, I want to hear from Tiffany McDaniel again and again for a lifetime.
Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader
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