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Book Review: Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

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.

Posted on April 9, 2019 by , Reply

Help a Reader Out: Wolf Girl in Love

A mystery keyword searcher asks:

What is the book called about a girl being a wolf and falling in love with a human?

Ah, an oldie but goodie. It’s Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, and that is an exact description of the plot.

Here are a couple of other YA werewolfy love stories, just in case you need another fix. Wolves of Mercy Falls, yada yada. There are other ones, you know!

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
Red by Kait Nolan
Never Cry Werewolf by Heather Davis
Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George
Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore
Red Rider’s Hood by Neal Shusterman

 

Enjoy!

 

Posted on February 11, 2013 by , Reply

Teen Read Week: It Came From The (Classroom) Library! Teen Nicholas Harris on the Unwind Trilogy

What’s the point of Teen Read Week? This is what it’s all about– bringing YA fiction to the forefront in the minds of everyone– librarians, educators, parents, and teens (although not necessarily in that order). Nicholas Harris, an eighth grader at Clark Pleasant Middle School in Greenwood, Indiana, was assigned to read Unwind by Neal Shusterman last year in class, and he agreed to write a review for us of the Unwind Trilogy (two books, so far). Want to see an end to readicide? Bring the right book into the classroom and library and bored teens like Nicholas Harris are hooked.  Thanks, Nicholas!

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2009

ISBN-13: 978-1416912057

Available: Hardcover, paperback and Kindle edition

 

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012

ISBN-13: 978-1442423664

Available: Hardcover and Kindle edition

 

I read Unwind last year for my 7th grade English class. The book was a trip that you never wanted to end. At first, I thought this book was going to be a bore because most books that you have to read in class are unreadable. After the first chapter though, I was hooked for Unwind. I liked how it switched from between the main characters points of view and it just captured my attention and I couldn’t put the book down. I found it interesting how the parents could choose to “unwind” or have their kid taken apart when they reached thirteen years old if the kid was bad or didn’t act like they wanted him to behave. I finished the book the first week we started reading it.

This year, when I found out that the author was coming to our school to speak and I could buy the second book when he was there, I was overjoyed because I wanted to read the next book so bad. I even was able to get my book signed. It was so popular at my school that they ran out of books and had to go buy more copies at the book store. I rushed home that afternoon and began reading it immediately and finished this one in only two days. UnWholly, the second book was even better! I love the continuation of the storyline and how the kid was made of different “unwind” parts.

I can’t wait for the third book to come out so I can see how the story ends. I think everyone that reads these books will really like them and they are not boring like many of the books that you read in school.

Reviewed by: Nicholas Harris

Posted on October 18, 2012 by , Reply