Reviews with content warning for Murder - Bitter

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

71 reviews

lana72905's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.5

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archiveofrasa's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

3.5

this book properly nailed it in that I've almost grown out of YA. it's good for someone young who is into human rights storylines and themes, but literally everything felt a little underdeveloped. maybe it was because so much was going on. this book was too thin for an in-depth look into a revolution; I would've loved this if it was longer and spent time exploring the different topics discussed.

but overall this wasn't bad! I preferred Pet due to its focus into a fewer selection of themes and how much more it explored them

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notapenguin's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

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shainabriley's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookedbymadeline's review

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challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Prequel to Pet (which I enjoyed more than expected). Once again I loved the characters and Emezi’s writing style! I also enjoyed how the story showed the power that young people have plus the great look at how everyone can do their part in their own way, and the burnout that activists can experience.

I didn’t love it quite as much as Pet, I wasn’t pulled in the same way and I listened to it while multitasking so that could be why. Overall a powerful story with well developed characters!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

TW/CW: violence, police brutality, blood, death, murder

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lena_krysiak's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

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miniingrid's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Si os ha gustado Mascota, tenéis que leer Bitter. Y si no habéis leído Mascota, no sé a qué estáis esperando.
Es duro, pero no se recrea ni hurga en el dolor. Y te recuerda que la esperanza es una disciplina, es algo que se tiene que trabajar y por lo que vale la pena hacerlo.

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hobbithopeful's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

4.5

The prequel to Akwaeke Emezi's bestselling novel Pet, Bitter is the prequel to Pet and tells the emotional story of a social revolution and what it costs those in it and around. Bitter is one of the lucky few able to live and create at Eucalyptus, a school dedicated to teaching and protecting creative teenagers. The city around them is ravaged day and night by protests, corruption, and police brutality. Bitter has no desire to join in the protests, she just wants to stay safe, as opposed to some of her friends who risk their lives every day fighting to have a voice. Tensions continue to rise and soon Bitter reaches her breaking point, pouring all of her emotions, anger, and blood into a painting, the consequences of her pain and desire for change have dire results that will change the city forever.
I haven't read Pet yet and all this book did was make me want to read it so badly! I didn't expect the twists and turns this book took, and while I wish I had started with Pet so I would have gotten a better idea of the magic in this world, it was nice to get a foundation for how events were set in motion. Emezi is a fantastic storyteller, her writing drew me in and I felt as helpless and powerless as Bitter and her friends did. A book like this is so relevant to our current political climate, the utter and complete failure of our government and "police protection" that we have in place.
The Cover
There is a scene in the book where Bitter's friend, Blessing, takes a photo of her against a backdrop, which is what the cover looks like. I think it works perfectly. Bitter stares right at the viewer, unabashed, and almost challenging in a way. The vibrant colors, character expression, and everything about the cover makes an eye catching composition that perfectly nails the book.
Cover art by Shyama Golden

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fareehareads's review

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

5.0

I read this a year after reading Pet, the story that follows Bitter's daughter. Details from that book kept coming back to me as I read this one and it made the ride even more enthralling. Since I read the other one first, I knew the gist of what happened to Lucille, but the experience was so different, raw and harrowing. I could not put this book down once I started. Bitter was such a relatable character, her fears and her hopes, her pain and her rage, all of it was manifested into her own angel, Vengence. These are the types of stories that make me love speculative fiction because it presented real questions about revolution, abolition, & justice and gives you a fantastical exploration on how these humans react to the impossible. It really was asking readers how much will it take before systemic change happens for real? Will it take a miracle or a heavy burden or some combination of both? Ube had a great quote near the end when he visited Bitter, saying, "all freedoms are terrible, that's the part they never tell you." I'll be taking the lessons in this book with me for a while.
I highly recommend the audiobook version of this book !

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

I might be unfairly comparing this book to Pet and the rest of Akwaeke Emezi’s work, but it didn’t really do it for me. There were moments that sparked for me and captured what I love so much about their writing, but I finished this feeling like it was unnecessary and kind of forced. I never really cared about the characters, though I was compelled by how they all dealt with and felt about revolution and the various parts people can play in it. I don’t really know what it was, but I just did not enjoy this book very much and I’m sad about it.

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