First published 2022
Bitter arrives in the United States with nothing but raw survival instincts and a fragile hope for safety. As a queer Nigerian immigrant, he confronts a landscape of systemic violence that threatens to consume him at every turn. Racial tensions, immigration challenges, and personal trauma create a gauntlet of obstacles that test his resilience. Strangers become potential enemies, bureaucratic systems become traps, and each day becomes a negotiation between visibility and self-preservation. While navigating complex networks of marginalization, Bitter must decide whether to retreat into invisibility or stand defiantly in his own truth.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, african-literature, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family, visibility
Setting: America, Nigeria
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · Hardcover · Knopf Books for Young Readers
Content warnings: racism, violence