Everyone doesn’t have to be on the front line, there are others roles you can take on during a revolution or a cause that are just as important. This is one of my take always from Bitter’s story. There’s so much I love and appreciate from this book as I did with Pet. But first, the nod to Assata Shakur and the Black Panthers, then the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement. When coming across Assata I said to myself “Wait, hold up!” And seeing the connections of Assata’s goals, programs, assistance in their community strongly confirmed my thoughts.

Spoilers moving forward:

Also, seeing a child abuser as a child themselves definitely ties further into the lesson from Pet, angels can be monsters and sometimes angels have to be monsters. But it was actually the first part for this particular character. I wanted to side with Hibiscus’ character but then remembered what they’ve done and I can’t unsee it.