Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

16 reviews

dazzle_spider_reader_1212's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5


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ashylibrarian's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In this prequel to PET, readers are transported into a world of art, activism, and self-discovery. 

Bitter has finally found a home in the boarding school, Eucalyptus, where gifted art students thrive. 

Bitter begins to engage with the activist groups who are fighting against the rash injustice outside the walls of Eucalyptus. 

This is a timely book with brilliantly crafted characters. 

I do think I would have understood PET better if I had read Bitter first. 

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lisacanteven's review against another edition

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emotional 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

This book is so much more than the 258 pages it contains. I have no idea what magic Emezi used, but this book is so developed for its length. Maybe it is because I read Pet first, so I was familiar with what was happening going into it. Since Pet was published first I chose to start with that one, and it was a great reading experience. I am so intrigued in how my experience would have differed had I read Bitter first. I do want to go back and reread Pet already (a week later) just to see what I missed out. I think either way you read this series, you will enjoy it. But you will miss certain things either way, and that's what I love about this series.

Bitter probably had the best ending I've ever read. Those last 50 pages were immaculate. I will be thinking about that ending for months. I found myself getting really emotional because of how beautiful everything was during the last 1/5 of the book. My heart was pounding, and I felt like I was really seeing it play out in my mind like the most exciting movie. I wish I could go to film school, become a world famous producer just to produce this movie like it played out in my mine. Emezi is a genius. 

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jessicaludden's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

“Hope is not a waste of time. It's a discipline.”

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re_oanslay's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective tense

4.5


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pandact's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

Bitter and pet can be read in either order because even if you forgot all the character names in Pet, you'll be thinking about Bitter for a long time after you finish it! Every book by Akwaeke Emezi is so relevant and interesting, so don't skip this one just because it's a prequel 👩‍🎨

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julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective 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

4.5


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cookiecat73's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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overbooked207's review against another edition

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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📚🎨

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