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mandi_lea's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Ableism, Child abuse, Blood, and Emotional abuse
glitterdeww's review
- 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
Named for its protagonist, and reluctant revolutionary, Bitter takes place in pre-utopian Lucille. In this prequel we see agitators and artists grappling with a city set on devouring itself through corruption. The Lucille of this time feels all too familiar with reality. Bitter and her friends portray everything from the hope of revolution to the fear, numbness, and rage that lurks on the other side of their trauma.
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Child abuse
cameronreads's review
4.5
Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Medical content, and Child abuse
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Violence, Blood, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and War
Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Racism, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Abandonment, and Body horror
Minor: Trafficking, Antisemitism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts
lena_krysiak's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Mass/school shootings, Self harm, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Murder
kbairbooks's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Child death and Child abuse
Minor: Death of parent
cadence99's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Child abuse, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Ableism
marioncromb's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Self harm and Blood
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Grief, Police brutality, and War
Minor: Gun violence
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Police brutality, Blood, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Violence
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit, Child death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Body horror, and Blood
kell_xavi's review against another edition
4.0
We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond.
Bitter tries to explain how Jam’s parents, Bitter and Aloe, were made familiar with the capacity for creatures to be brought forth from her paintings. It also tries to explain how a city somewhere close to ours in white supremacist capitalist politics, but in the fight for equality, came to be the haven of Pet.
The history is, in some ways, disappointing, because it turns out that as much divine intervention as hard work goes into the answer; this novel doesn’t give hope like a bold of lightning, but in a trickle (but still there). There are moments, in willingness to talk after anger—in refusing the cure for a disability, in Bitter’s ability to find a safe space—that look like hope, monsters or not.
It was mostly resolved by the end, but parts of this book after Bitter brings something from a painting didn’t seem to quite fit with the first book. The roles Hibiscus and Ube inhabit, the way Bitter and others talk about change, the personality of the creature. It’s cohesive, such that I expect Emezi knew the whole timeline from the start, but some of the pieces didn’t line up for me.
Here’s what I loved: Aloe’s romance. Bitter’s art. The casual queerness. The way art is discussed as valuable. The phrasing around Bitter’s childhood. How true anxiety felt. Disability! How true anger and hopelessness felt.
Here’s what I wasn’t sure about: Assata. Eucalyptus. The utopic institutions were vague in ways, which was fine, but some of what was described felt a bit wonky, or else hollow. Population count for Lucille?
Here’s what I didn’t like: Perhaps necessary for the continuity, but I didn’t like how present the guilty party from Pet was here. Blessing’s outfits. The homogenous reaction the the scene in the public square: there’s a reductiveness to the immediate change everyone undergoes, and the discussion of punishment, anger, and terrorism ends up being sorely limited and ineffective as a result. I wanted concrete descriptions of what Assata is doing, a framework of what we’re fighting against: use of allegory would have strengthened Emezi’s ability to create a call to action through this work.
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Grief, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent