 Hello everybody! E here. E here. Welcome back to another book review. Before we jump into it, I need to wish a very happy book birthday to the book we'll be reviewing today. And that is Betty by Tiffany McDaniels. I don't have my copy yet. I was sent an electronic ARC. And man, this book, let me start with the before times. I read the summer that melted everything a few years ago, and I was absolutely blown away by the content, the character work, everything about the story. On the surface, it's a relatively simple story, but I fell absolutely in love with it. So when my friend Tracy told me that McDaniels was going to be doing another book, and that she was giving, well her publisher, Knopf, was giving away ARCs, I jumped on it. I don't normally read ebooks, but with this author event, I would read anything in any format whatsoever. She could write a novel on napkins, and I would read it. I'm so glad that I accepted this ARC. This is, right now, this is my favorite book of the year. It has bumped the other ones down a notch. There's so much that I want to say, but most of the stuff that I want to say is a spoiler. If you want a better review, check down there in the doobly-doo. There should be a link to my Goodreads review, because talking to you guys, I like to just sit back and talk about the books that I read. Sometimes, I put reviews up on Goodreads, especially if it's a really, really good book. I'll put those up. I'm not as active as I was over there. This time, I want as many people as possible to read this book. The story revolves around Betty and her family. She has a rather large family, brother, sister, and her parents. And she's growing up in this super-racist town called Breathid. Her father is Native American, and she is on the darker side, as is he. Whereas the mother is white, and basically all the other kids look white or can pass for white. At least, that's how I took it. Betty's bullied. Betty goes through some stuff, man. Not only just on the bullying side. The book isn't really about bullying, but I know a lot of people are tired of that trope. So I just wanted to mention that there's probably about four scenes in an over-400-page book. But with this one, the stuff that happens within the family. This family cannot catch a break. I would say the book is even more disturbing than Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. It is one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. I don't even want to get into spoilers, but there are certain scenes in here, man, that I had to put the book down in the middle of a chapter. And I never put a book down in the middle of the chapter. Not even when I read John Irving, and he's got 60-100-page chapters. I try to read them all in one go. It just feels like the natural stopping point the author decided on. So with this book, I would possibly warn against triggers for sexual abuse, the death of animals, that kind of thing. But even if you have those triggers, I would say give this book a shot. Because for all of the darkness and all of the, I'm going to say horror. When you read my Goodreads review, you'll understand what I mean by that. It is not a horror novel, but it does at times feel like that. The main thing that I want to get across is, even though there is so much darkness in this book, there's also a lot of hope. And I like books with hope. I know I always talk about how much I love a very sad story. And that's what this is for the most part. I would say probably 80% of the book is terrible stuff happening to this little girl and to her family. But there's so much beauty in the book. The way the book is written, and this is one of the things that really caught me with the summer that melted everything. The writing is fantastic. There's this fabulism aspect to it. It feels magical while you're reading it. The stories that the father Landon tells Betty are fantastic. He has a story for everything. You know how much I love a story within a story. He tells his daughter and his kids all these wonderful beautiful tales, this fantastical stuff. And you know reading it. You know it's not true. The kids in the book even know it's not true. But it is so wonderfully done and so wonderfully written that it's... I cannot think of another book. Other than maybe I would say Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle. I might have gotten his name wrong. But The Gargoyle had the same feel to it. Like I was reading a very dark fairy tale. Now there's no magic or anything like that in there. But the way it is written, there's a beauty to the language that hopefully will speak to you as much as it spoke to me. One of the things I'm seeing even in reviews from reviewers who didn't love the book is that the writing is spectacular. I cannot state this enough. Try it for yourself. Give it a look inside. Don't take my word for it. Please try it for yourself. I'm utterly blown away. The book of course is out now. It comes out today. I'll leave a link down there in the doobly-doo to where you can go purchase it. Last thing I want to say is thank you so much to Tiffany McDaniels for sending me this book. She is such a kind, humble person. In fact, when I emailed her and told her, it not only is it my favorite read of the year, but it's one of my favorite reads of all time now. And I'll be rereading it eventually. I'd like to try the audiobook next. When I told her that, she said, I know that it deserves that praise, but thank you. And I'm just someone that talented who is that humble. I have to promote and I have to support. But the book, the book is absolutely gorgeous, and I wish I had better words for you. I guess I could have just read my review, but I don't do that here. There's a certain scene, and I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a certain scene toward the end with the death of a character. Having lost someone recently, well, February, that chapter, and it was almost the same exact circumstance. Someone goes to the hospital, comes back from the hospital. They think that they're better and they're not. So that really hit me rather hard. And like I said, I'm just repeating myself at this point, but the book is so beautifully written. Even if you don't go for the more literary side of things, I think you will get something out of this. I do call it a horror novel on Goodreads when you hop over there and read that review. I do call it that, but there's a lot of beauty here. When I call it a horror novel, it made me feel dread the entire time I was feeling dread for these people and especially Betty, the little girl. But have you read Betty? Do you get a chance to get your hands on an ARC or are you finding this review after the book comes out and you've already read it? Please let me know what you think down there in the doobly-doo whether or not you loved it, whether or not you hated it. But until next time, I have been E. You have been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!