A review by fareehareads
Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

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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