Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

Self-published, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1721546800

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

“Bitter Suites is supposed to entrich your life, not sap it.”  That’s what the desk clerk, and owner, of  Bitter Suites, a hotel specializing in “renewable death experiences” tells a client. It certainly is a popular enough place, but having read Angela Yuriko Smith’s novella, I can’t say that the owner accomplishes her goal. It certainly changes lives, but I don’t think I would say that’s necessarily for the better.

Bitter Suites consists of a number of stories about customers of the business, some isolated and some linked. It reminded me a bit of Neal Shusterman’s Scythe, in that technology is used to bring back the dead in that book as well, but in Bitter Suites,  this is an unusual technology available only to the very privileged, and different people have different reasons for booking a room. Early stories include a teen excited to experience his first “renewable death”, a romantic couple who choose a “Romeo and Juliet” experience that has unexpected consequences (except for the reader), a driver’s ed class that has a disturbing ending, and twins whose parents are hoping the experience brings them together (also not an especially surprising ending for the reader) Other stories are linked together as a “death junkie” finds himself banned from the hotel.

The concept is interesting, and the idea of presenting individual choices and reactions to death knowing that it will be a “renewable death” was original. However, I wish the linked stories had told us a bit more about the owner, Azreal (although the author includes a story at the end that she says will explain the origins of the Bitter Suites in a forthcoming volume). I also feel that, while this would succeed as a novella had the author left this as a standalone book, her explanation that there will be a forthcoming volume that completes the story makes what would have seemed like a finished product seem only partially complete, and somewhat of a disappointment. Rather than presenting it as one of two volumes, she would be better off including a longer collection of stories in a single volume, such as presented in the collection Machine of Death. Still, I very much enjoyed the concept. I have not read any other work by Angela Yuriko Smith to date, but I will certainly be on the lookout for volume two of Bitter Suites. 

Contains: Violence, gore, graphic depictions of murder and suicide.

Editor’s note: Bitter Suites is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.