Betty Carpenter was born in 1954 in a bathtub to a Cherokee father and a white mother. She was the 6th of eight siblings. Betty resembles her father most out of all her siblings and is subject to racism by her peers in school. Betty takes refuge in her writing, just like her older brother Trustin uses his drawings to escape. Betty’s older sister Flossie teases her, saying she’s not as pretty as Flossie is because Betty’s skin is darker.
We learn the family’s secrets all seen through Betty’s eyes. Her mother Alka ran from her parents home into the arms of the Cherokee Landon Carpenter. When she turns up at his job with a black eye and the swell of a pregnant belly, Landon immediately tells her he will marry her. Later we learn that Alka’s father sexually abused his daughter and most probably is the father of her eldest son Leland.
Fraya, Betty’s eldest sister, almost dies when she tries to end an unwanted pregnancy by following some advice Alka gives her inadvertently. She told a story of a woman who used a remedy and almost died. Betty sees that Fraya is sexually assaulted by their brother Leland. When she talks to Fraya about it, Fraya threatens to kill herself if Betty tells their parents. So Betty commits her story to paper and buries it in the ground.
This book is based on the life of McDaniel’s mother’s life and written from Betty’s perspective. The book deals with poverty, racism, abuse and incest. It’s a heartbreaking story of a family in the Appalachian mountains in the USA.
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 3: A Book with an Indigenous Character
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
