Un cumulo di cose atroci, scritte con molta dolcezza. Mi chiedo quanto soffra, quanto abbia sofferto questa scrittrice. Eppure ha una forza e una brillantezza che ti fanno vedere una scintilla di speranza in mezzo alla disperazione. Questa è la storia di Bitty e della sua tragica, tragica famiglia. Il tono è un po’ quello de “il buio oltre la siepe”. Una grandiosa voce narrante che lotta con tutte le sue forze per non farsi travolgere dalla miseria e dalla crudeltà della povera umanità che la circonda. Oltre a tutta la disperazione è davvero un meraviglioso romanzo. ( )

An easy five stars. Harrowing, hopeful, beautiful. A full review is in the works. ( )

I feel like I generally don’t get easily disturbed but the animal abuse is what did it. It felt like it was there for shock value and it wasn’t really consistent with anything else about the character. It also was very graphic for no real reason I think. But overall I liked it I guess? Like it was well written. ( )

Inspirado en la historia de la familia Carpenter, la autora convierte un historia durísima en belleza pura. ( )

In a dark, dark book (with a pretty cover), there was a dark, dark story about the dark, dark events witnessed by a dark-skinned girl. Boy howdy, was this a depressing experience - but after a slow start, I was completely gripped and also couldn't stop thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading. Racism, sexism, abuse, incest, animal cruelty, and more deaths per novel since the days of Elizabeth Gaskell. Not a story for the faint-hearted!

Betty Carpenter is born to a white mother and a Cherokee father and grows up in a small-minded town called Breathed (Breath-ed) in Ohio during the 1960s. Children (and teachers) at school make her life hell for inheriting her father's colouring while at home her family of two sisters and three brothers is being destroyed by secrets from the past.

To start with, Betty's story reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird (if told from Tom Robinson's perspective) - there are even one or two similar scenes like the 'cursed' Peacock house where the Carpenters live and the old woman who teaches Betty a valuable lesson. But Breathed is far, far uglier than Maycomb, turning this novel into a Southern Gothic nightmare with bizarre characters, in both name and nature - like the woman who wears a mask because she believes she has been disfigured by something she once witnessed - and apocalyptic events including kamikaze birds!

I really felt for Betty, who has to survive both her own torment and also bear the burdens of her family too, keeping the secrets of others while struggling with her own guilt. Only her father Landon is a positive influence, weaving fantastical myths and trying to promote pride in their shared Cherokee heritage. I felt sorry for Betty's mother, too, until one particularly harrowing scene of animal cruelty nearly made me throw up. Representing abuse through fictional characters is disturbing but hurting fictional animals is just gratuitous.

There is a lot packed into the story and the characters which still applies - Betty's principal manages to encapsulate attitudes towards women and people of colour which hasn't really changed since the 1960s: 'Women in pants lost your people your land,' he tells her. When she wears shorts to school because boys keep looking up her skirt, she is told that girls can't wear pants which draw the attention to the crotch but she is also to blame for not dressing 'modestly' and tempting the 'good sons' of the community with her body. Betty is also accused of stealing and caned with no evidence of the crime.

What it boiled down to was a frenzied hope that there was more to life than the reality around us. Only then could we claim a destiny we did not feel cursed to.

I loved how Betty turned her father's stories into a love of writing and capturing the truth on paper, burying her mother's and sisters' stories in jars until ready to face the heartbreak in her family. Words are the only defence she has against the world. Betty is somehow an inspiring figure in a depressing blend of social commentary and grotesque fantasy.

Take a deep breath and dive in but take a break every hundred pages - if possible - with a lighter antidote! ( )