Review by Kelly-Anne McDonald

“All these feelings were knotted inside her – how helpless she felt, how hopeless Lucille felt, how even talking about change felt like a joke, a cruel hope.”

Bitter is set in the imagined city of Lucille, which is rife with corruption and police brutality.  Ordinary citizens have been oppressed for many years and an activist group is protesting for change. The eponymous protagonist, Bitter, is a resident student at Eucalyptus, a school for young artists and a haven which has saved many vulnerable young people and given them a home. Before arriving at Eucalyptus, Bitter had been brought up in the care system, where, in her childhood fear and isolation, she found solace in her art. After surviving childhood trauma, Bitter feels powerless and afraid of the world outside the school perimeter. 

Bitter is gently encouraged by her friends in Eucalyptus to be true to herself and also to allow herself to open her heart to romance. As she becomes more open to others, she slowly begins to change her mind and think that she may be able to create change in some small way, after all, as she learns, “hope is a discipline”. Then, one day one of her friends is badly hurt during a protest. Bitter’s long pent-up anger erupts and is channelled through her creative energy, bringing to life a terrifying creature, Vengeance, an “angel” on a mission to bring the perpetrators of injustice in Lucille to account. 

Bitter is terror-stricken with guilt for bringing Vengeance to life and, after discovering that it wasn’t an accident that she was found by Eucalyptus, her whole sense of security that she has slowly built up begins to unravel. She has to dig deep within herself to find the courage to finally take a stand and to make a life for herself in the new world order, putting her faith in hope. 

I was interested to read this second YA fiction offering from Akwaeke Emezi, having recently read their first book Pet (which was reviewed for 2023’s #IntlYALitMonth). Emezi draws their characters with a subtle ability to represent different ways of being in the world and speak with an authentic voice. Although Bitter and Pet are companion books, I felt that, as the protagonist in this story is older, the language used reflects this, and even though both novels deal with dark subject matters, Bitter’s descriptions of violence are particularly graphic. 

In both Pet and Bitter, a feature of Emezi’s writing that I particularly enjoy is the way they weave the names of notable people from African American culture and activism into their novels. In this way, they celebrate Black figures, bring attention to social issues, and educate curious readers on the lives of people who have contributed much, but whose names are less well-known. Emezi’s novels offer readers the opportunity to question injustice in today’s society and explore how they can make a difference.

Bitter
Written by Akwaeke Emezi
2022, Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9780593309032
Reviews: Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly

Kelly is a part-time MA student at Goldsmiths, University of London, studying Children’s Literature. She has returned to studying as a mature student, completing an English Language and Literature Honors Degree in 2022, with a final year module in Children’s Literature sparking her interest in the subject. Kelly also works as an Administrator supporting the Governing Body of a local independent school and, when not working, studying or reading children’s books, Kelly can usually be found having rings run around her by her four-year-old golden retriever, Bonnie. 

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GLLI’s 2024 International YA Literature Month has been curated by Dr Emily Corbett. She is a lecturer in children’s and young adult literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she leads the MA Children’s Literature: Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature programme. Her research focuses on the growth and development of YA from literary, publishing, and cultural perspectives. She is also General Editor of The International Journal of Young Adult Literature and was founding Vice President of the YA Studies Association. Her monograph, In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024), is forthcoming with the University Press of Mississippi in June. You can find her contact details on her institutional website and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram via @DrEmilyCorbett.

Opinions expressed in posts on this site are the individual author’s and are not indicative of the views of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.