BETTY

★★★★

Tiffany McDaniel

W&N, £14.99

BETTY, the eponymous hero of this powerful coming-of-age novel, is the sixth of eight children growing up in the foothills of the Ohio Appalachians in the 1950s. Life is hard – brutal at times – and steeped in poverty, violence and racism. Her mother Alka is white and father Landon is Cherokee and, when the family moves to the small town of Breathed, Ohio, they are shunned by the community because of their colour.

The harsh realities of Betty’s life are contrasted with the magical worlds dreamed up by her father, an eloquent and enchanting storyteller, who draws on Cherokee history to weave elaborate tales of folklore, nature and power. These stories shield Betty from the truth of the racism the family suffer and it is only when she is old enough to go to school that she is violently confronted with how she is perceived because of her heritage.

But the violence isn’t just on the outside.There is also a darkness at the heart of the Landons that will end up tearing the family apart.

Betty realises her father’s stories of “unripe stars and eagles able to do extraordinary things… [gave her 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”. But at what cost will she escape the life she was born to?

Betty is an unforgettable story about the bonds that bind families and the power of words when it feels like all hope is lost.