Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

16 reviews

sadiefc's review

challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Police brutality, Abandonment, and War

ashleycmms's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Infidelity, and Death of parent

karcitis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Police brutality, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Lesbophobia

readsandsuch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

I love the ideals and topics discussed in this book. It gave me a whole new perspective on Pet. I would say  books are essential reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Fire/Fire injury

lolajh's review

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Forever obsessed with Akwaeke’s books and the way they portray racism and police brutality and queerness and love. Reading the prequel to Pet and seeing Jam’s mother Bitter’s teenage experience got me to understand her character and motives in Pet once understanding what she went through as a kid and not wanting that for her daughter. Seeing Bitter’s summoned monster’s horrific character that differed so much to Pet, who acted as more of a parental figure who protected Jam was crazy, and explained why Bitter wanted to get rid of Pet in the sequel. This book was full of the loveable characters featured in Pet, but with their stories properly illustrated and creating a heavily thawed out and well constructed piece of writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sarah984's review

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

I liked this a lot, but it suffered a bit from inevitably being compared to Pet, which I loved. The writing style in Bitter is a little more grounded, a kind of standard YA writing where the lessons in the text are stated outright. Because this is set in pre (and during) revolution Lucille there are more real-world parallels. Some of these worked for me and some didn't. I liked the characters and the basic outline of the story but things got a bit muddled toward the end for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury