Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Bitter

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

library_of_wonder's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mandkips's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

mar's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

armontheroad's review

Go to review page

dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

As someone who fell in love with PET, BITTER immediately went onto my list for the most anticipated 2022 releases!! I was worried going into this because I saw a *lot* of criticism for this book. However, after finishing it, I disagree with a lot of the negative things people have to say about this work. In my opinion, Akwaeke Emezi does not ever disappoint with their novels!! This was not a book that was ‘fun’ to read, by any means, there are some triggering topics discussed within this novel. However, I think the way the conversations are talked about is brilliant and that the book was one that I could not put down! There seem to be some adults who think this book is “too smart” for teenagers and I just don’t think you’re giving teens the credit they deserve. I could talk about BITTER for ages, but to save time and energy I’ll leave this review short.

CWs I can't link below: conversion therapy, depression, sex trafficking, etc.

Content Warnings

musebeliever's review

Go to review page

3.0

Content Warnings

overbooked207's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

📖 Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi Book Review 📖

1st book of July 2022 and 15th book of the year:

This was such a powerful, fantastic, and relevant book and prequel to one of my all-time favorites, Pet. You don’t have to read Pet in order to understand this book, but I highly recommend doing so anyway because it's also such an amazing and important book. I loved that we got to go back in time to see the events talked about in Pet in this book and follow Bitter’s story this time, and it felt more mature and heavier than Pet. The writing and world-building are always phenomenal in Akwaeke Emezi’s books, and this time was no different. The themes/topics that the book brings up including revolution, healing, generational trauma, mental health, found family/coming together as a community to help each other, using art as activism, the cycle of violence, and more are all super important to talk about nowadays and always, the making it a book that I think absolutely everybody should pick up. The audiobook was also done beautifully, and it felt more mature and heavier than Pet, which was already dealing with very heavy subject matter. I highly recommend reading this and everything by Akwaeke Emezi, and I am absolutely in love with all of their book covers! TW for blood, death, self-harm/cutting, police brutality, racism, homophobia, war, hate crimes, dissociation, panic attacks, gun violence, gore, fire/fire injury, vomit, ableism, injuries/injury description, abuse, abandonment, mention of the death of a parent, mention of rape, medical content/trauma, eye mutilation, body horror, mental illness, child abuse, and grief📚🎨

Content Warnings

catapocalypse's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The most important thing to know going into this after reading Pet is that they are very different in tone and intensity. Bitter is a prequel, following Jam's mother when she herself was a teen in school, back before the monsters in Lucille were subdued. This setting is very recognizable and on-the-nose with real life issues: exploitative billionaires, corrupt government, and brutality against marginalized populations. Bitter's life has been hard, and even within the safe walls of her school, Eucalyptus, she still grapples with what her part in the struggle to make a better world should be. Things fly out of control when she accidentally unleashes Angels into the world, and both she and the activist Assata kids must decide how they really want things to resolve.

I personally didn't have an issue with the ways this differs from Pet. As with everything from Emezi, things play out in ways I didn't entirely expect, and nothing is as simple as it seems. This is definitely the most on-the-nose of their work, which some folks may not care for, but I think is fine for YA in particular.

The serious content does make it seem fit for a slightly older teen audience than Pet, as there are deaths, instances of violence and characters suffering serious injury, and some mentions of abuse and trauma from the very flawed foster care system.

Content Warnings

karcitis's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

coolfoolmoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'd like to reiterate what I said in my review of Pet. Which I will not repeat here but it still stands. I liked, nay, LOVED Vengeance. And the worldbuilding in this sequel / prequel is just so rich. Not that they have to, but Emezi could run wild with this world alone and never be broke again. It's so beautiful, it's so refreshing. Pet was so warm and sweet and this was so dark and sultry... Bitter if I may. But both books, despite how different they feel, smell, sound, despite how different the in-universe world is barely a generation later, both taste like eating really good dark chocolate. For me. I say this because I love dark chocolate. And I did eat a few while reading, but because the world already made me think of the flavor! What I mean is the world itself is rich, flavorful, colorful, and even though the books are different they have the same heart.

Emezi has a real talent, a real beauty in absorbing me into these words. There was one page I gasped at least 10 times, just one page! And throughout the whole book I was so giddy. But can you blame me? A straight (presenting(?)) couple so gay they grow to have a trans daughter? I love it here! We have no choice but to stan! If there's a third book I'm sending Emezi my paycheck the day the book is announced.

Content Warnings

More...