Thursday, August 18, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

 




Bitter is a young adult novel by author Akwaeke Emezi and a prequel to their novel, Pet, which came out in 2020 and was highly acclaimed (for good reason).  Pet featured a utopian City in which humans and mysterious Angels had together managed to eliminate the "monsters" of society, those who had abused and oppressed others for their own greed and prejudice - only for the story to feature the discovery by its protagonist Jam - a teen trans girl - of a new monster.  By contrast, Bitter promises to show how that utopian world - the City of Lucille - came about, with a spotlight on Jam's mother Bitter.

It's a very different story - whereas Pet was about the vigilance needed to ensure that oppression, cruelty, and wrongs don't return (and the importance to always remember so as to never forget what led to such evils), Bitter is about what it may take to get the world there....and what parts people may play in making that better world.  It's a story that takes on the idea that everyone MUST be on the frontlines of the fight and instead submits that each person should do whatever they're able, with backline roles and other less open support being just as important.  And it's a story that suggests the price of revolution may involve horrors from those with good intentions....ones which must be tamed as much as used, if not fought against.  A really interesting and well done short book.  

More specifics after the jump:
--------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------
Bitter survived a miserable life in foster care only thanks to being "rescued" by Eucalyptus, a special school devoted to taking in kids from troubled backgrounds and letting them thrive in their own artistic pursuits.  There Bitter paints her art, which secretly comes to life when she sheds blood on it, and tries to stay safe inside in a city gripped by injustice, where a corrupt rich man controls everything in the city with his money and causes pain and oppression through his power with seemingly no one able to stop him.  Some of Bitter's friends are involved with the resistance group Assata, fighting for a better world against oppressive authorities, but Bitter is too afraid to go out in the City with them, and finds herself deeply ashamed for what she sees as her own cowardice.  And so Bitter finds herself a bit depressed and ashamed...and alone, and a bit jealous of her friends who have others to love.  

Yet when Bitter finds a boy with whom is everything is different, who she might actually love, well Bitter soon finds herself with something she truly could possibly lose.  And when the corruption in the City nearly takes one of her friends, Bitter unleashes her bloody art in a way she never has before - to devastating effect.  And soon the question for Bitter and her friends is: at what cost is change worth it...and if the cost could be too high, is she able to take a stand on her own to stop it? 
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Bitter features a City that is very much like our own world - where the politicians are in the pocket of a greedy prejudiced rich man, where the police enforce "order" by oppressing all those who don't fit the White Cis Heteronormative, where those left behind by the world - the orphans, the disabled, the people of color, the queer - find themselves chewed and eaten up, never safe even in their "homes".  The one part of this world is different is the existence of Eucalyptus, an inexplicable safe haven for those left behind that it finds, allowing them to feel safety and love for the rare time in their life.  Yet outside that safe haven, we find a City where young people are trying to rise up, against seemingly impossible odds.  

In this world we have Bitter, a queer girl who was saved by Eucalyptus, and finds herself ashamed by her fear of going out into the City, about fighting on the front lines with Assata, especially as her friends, and soon loved ones, are more out there and often protesting on the streets.   In many a book, this would follow a typical plot: Bitter would find her courage and get out on the streets and lead the revolution to success.  That's how the story is supposed to go.  

But that's not the story of the real world, or the one Emezi is telling here: here, Bitter isn't a coward, because not everyone has to fight on the front lines to help make a better world, and those who aren't able - due to their mental state, due to their physical state, or due to whatever - should simply try to do whatever they can, even if that isn't seemingly as much as it seems.  It is perfectly okay for Bitter to just make her art, and to not try to get over panic attacks to be on the front lines - she can just support her friends from home.  Similarly, Emezi also makes clear that the older generations still need to do their part, even if they too can't be on the front lines anymore.  

And then there's the second half of this novel, where the revolution realizes how far the Angels they summon are willing to go and have to consider what measures are too far to go.  Because it's very easy to want to go as far as it takes to get rid of people who are unquestionably monsters, even brutally violent methods, but those methods can lead one to some horrible places on their own.  Notably, Emezi doesn't have an answer to this question of how far is too far, with the story making clear that the results of such violence can be good....even if the means are almost too brutal to be considered worth it.  

The result is another really well done and interesting novel, and highly recommended, whether or not you've read Pet first.  

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