Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

21 reviews

overbooked207's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sadiefc's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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

readingatthemuseum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Police brutality, and Abandonment

laynemandros's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

silverraine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Abandonment

melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After reading Pet (and loving, of course), I was so excited to find out Emezi wrote a prequel with Pet's mom, Bitter.

I loved this book so so much. It is a short and quick read, but it is so good and delves deeply into so many important issues. This tells the story of the Revolution that happened pre-Pet and how the monsters got there. I love seeing Bitter as a young person and all the learning and growing she goes through. This gets dark, but it is definitely worth it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Police brutality and Murder

Minor: Child abuse and Abandonment

tina94's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Child abuse

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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

 Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this to review! Pet is such a gorgeously crafted novel, I was excited to see more from this world. I might need to re-read Pet now that I have this background information!

Before reading this, I felt like there was so much potential for this prequel. Emezi is truly a master at writing stories that parallel our own. There are so many conversations in this book about fighting back that are applicable to current society. One of the strongest messages in this book was that you don't have to be on the frontlines to help with a revolution. Bitter struggles with this concept throughout the entire book, and I appreciated this in the context of a young adult novel. Not all teens can afford to be on the frontlines of protests and such. But there are still ways they can contribute.

While you don't have read Pet before reading Bitter, I do think this book builds on the world from the first book. Or rather, it helps make the world easier to understand. Emezi could actually give us background on a number of other characters and I would read them all. I'm sure some of the main characters here have interesting backgrounds as well.

All in all, even though this is a short read, it packs a punch. Definitely one that should be on your TBR when it comes out in Feburary! 

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The way this parallels real world situations and brings in real world discussions is just beautifully done. I would say you probably don't have to read Pet before reading this, but you'll probably want to read Pet after reading this. Full review to come soon!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse and Abandonment