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Bitter Texas Honey
The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fleabag in this hilarious and dizzyingly smart debut about an over-the-top evangelical Texan family—and the daughter at its center racing to finish her very important novel before her ex-boyfriend finishes his.
It’s 2011, and twenty-three-year-old Joan West is not like the rest of her liberal peers in Austin, nor is she quite like her Tea Party Republican, God-loving family. Sure, she listens to conservative talk radio on her way to and from her internship at the Capitol. But she was once an America-hating leftist who kissed girls at parties, refused to shave, and had plenty of emotionless sex with jazz school friends—that is until a drug-induced mania forced her to return to her senses.
But above all Joan is a writer, an artist, or at least she desperately wants to be. Always in search of inspiration for her novel, she catalogs every detail of her relationships with men—including with her former muse slash current arch nemesis Roberto—and mines her very dysfunctional family for material. But when her beloved, credit card debt–racked cousin Wyatt finds himself in crisis, Joan’s worldview is cracked open and everything comes crashing down.
Funny, whip-smart, and often tender, Bitter Texas Honey introduces us to the unforgettable and indefatigable Joan West: ambitious, full of contradictions, utterly herself. As she wades through it all—addiction, politics, loss, and, notably, her father’s string of increasingly bizarre girlfriends—we witness her confront what it means to be a person, and an artist, in the world.
It’s 2011, and twenty-three-year-old Joan West is not like the rest of her liberal peers in Austin, nor is she quite like her Tea Party Republican, God-loving family. Sure, she listens to conservative talk radio on her way to and from her internship at the Capitol. But she was once an America-hating leftist who kissed girls at parties, refused to shave, and had plenty of emotionless sex with jazz school friends—that is until a drug-induced mania forced her to return to her senses.
But above all Joan is a writer, an artist, or at least she desperately wants to be. Always in search of inspiration for her novel, she catalogs every detail of her relationships with men—including with her former muse slash current arch nemesis Roberto—and mines her very dysfunctional family for material. But when her beloved, credit card debt–racked cousin Wyatt finds himself in crisis, Joan’s worldview is cracked open and everything comes crashing down.
Funny, whip-smart, and often tender, Bitter Texas Honey introduces us to the unforgettable and indefatigable Joan West: ambitious, full of contradictions, utterly herself. As she wades through it all—addiction, politics, loss, and, notably, her father’s string of increasingly bizarre girlfriends—we witness her confront what it means to be a person, and an artist, in the world.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2025
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July 22, 2025
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS meets FLEABAG??? i thought this must be for me specifically...
but at one point in this book, our protagonist, a texas republican trust fund baby who's stylizing herself as a writer, receives a short story rejection on the premise that her work is lively, but without stakes.
a little more self awareness on display and i'd think the book was criticizing itself.
i'm a big fan of unlikable characters, unreliable narrators, and slow, plotless books, but throw all three together with a lack of character development and even i'm not sure what we're doing here.
i feel suffocatingly present in the late-2000s conservative austin environment this traps us in, and just as punishingly locked into our corresponding main character, but i don't know why.
bottom line: neither change over 336 slogging pages, and my feelings didn't either.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
but at one point in this book, our protagonist, a texas republican trust fund baby who's stylizing herself as a writer, receives a short story rejection on the premise that her work is lively, but without stakes.
a little more self awareness on display and i'd think the book was criticizing itself.
i'm a big fan of unlikable characters, unreliable narrators, and slow, plotless books, but throw all three together with a lack of character development and even i'm not sure what we're doing here.
i feel suffocatingly present in the late-2000s conservative austin environment this traps us in, and just as punishingly locked into our corresponding main character, but i don't know why.
bottom line: neither change over 336 slogging pages, and my feelings didn't either.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
September 17, 2025
I love The Royal Tenenbaums (Gwyneth Paltrow's fuck-ass bob steals the show every scene it's in), and I love Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge's fuck-ass bob, also, steals the show every scene it's in), but I'm not sure if I loved this book, which has been touted as the apparently inscrutable amalgamation of the two.
For someone who has an average rating as low as mine, I often surprise myself with my raw optimism for any latest litfic debut. I'm probably at my most polite when I have a cool girl literary fiction in my hands. I can be so nice! I'd wait until the last page for the story to hit, for the narrative voice to elevate itself from its painful mediocrity, for the biting humour to fully materialise as a perfect satire. And even when none of them come to fruition, I'd still nod and slap a perfunctory three stars to it. Look, at least the book didn't have a total wet blanket of a protagonist, which can't be said for all the books I pick up.
And which brings me to the strongest and also the weakest point of this book…its protagonist. Joan West is not like other girls, because she's a 24-year-old former leftist conservative in the United Shitshow of America. Albeit in a pre-Trump USA, for this takes place in 2011, because at this point, that's a good distinction as any. Privileged and pampered by her wealthy Southern family, Joan lives in a swanky apartment and drives a BMW while working as an unpaid intern for the Republican party in the liberal-majority city of Austin, Texas, keeping her politics hidden from her friends and lovers, unless she has to break up with a bad boyfriend, then she uses it as the ultimate dealbreaker. Joan fancies herself a writer. She carries a Moleskine notebook around with her everywhere she goes, writing down anything and everything marginally interesting happening in her life to be added to the Google Doc document on her laptop later, where she's compiling a memoir of sorts. The book is basically about the trials and tribulations of being a tortured Adderall addict artist with immense societal privilege and a misguided sense of self-importance.
There's no other way of saying it, but Joan's an uncultured piece of shit. (She's a wannabe writer who's never heard of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, can you believe it?) I'd be lying to you if I didn't mention here that part of the reason I'm giving this book three stars instead of my usual two for okay books like these is because I'm afraid a certain majority of readers are going to reject this book specifically because of the fact that the heroine of this novel is such a republican, and I consider myself to be mature enough a reader that I can put the political beliefs of fictional characters behind me in my enjoyment of a book. While her quirky conservatism was the least of my problems with this story, I do, however, think that the author intended this to be some sort of magnetic factor for her book, and I'm sorry to say that, apart from that initial shock, it doesn't really add anything to the mix. Joan's political ideals don't set her apart from a hundred other "weird girl" protagonists of modern literary fiction, nor does she manage to bring forth any clear message for the readers. The writing here is perfectly adequate but nothing extraordinary, the side characters like Joan's parents and cousins are wildly entertaining yet terribly undercooked, and Joan's two love interests, Roberto and Vince, have way too little page presence to be anything other than slight cardboard cutout Pinterest moodboard-esque vague ideas. Joan's self-delusion and vanity are, again, entertaining to read about, but ultimately less than satisfying. But this is not to say that I had a particularly bad time with the book, because I didn't; all these messy imperfections somehow made up for a good little book in retrospection. Joan is a compelling character; her narrow, one-dimensional characterisation ends up being both a stylistic choice and a literary shortcoming —she's one of those people you enjoy seeing unravel in real time. I don't know if this reference is going to be too niche, but seeing as how I'm a freshly minted "Girls HBO" enthusiast, Joan's whole arc reminded me an awful lot of Hanna Horvath, and maybe that's the reason why I can't actually dislike this book, or the character, as much as I'd like. Lena Dunham rules!
For someone who has an average rating as low as mine, I often surprise myself with my raw optimism for any latest litfic debut. I'm probably at my most polite when I have a cool girl literary fiction in my hands. I can be so nice! I'd wait until the last page for the story to hit, for the narrative voice to elevate itself from its painful mediocrity, for the biting humour to fully materialise as a perfect satire. And even when none of them come to fruition, I'd still nod and slap a perfunctory three stars to it. Look, at least the book didn't have a total wet blanket of a protagonist, which can't be said for all the books I pick up.
And which brings me to the strongest and also the weakest point of this book…its protagonist. Joan West is not like other girls, because she's a 24-year-old former leftist conservative in the United Shitshow of America. Albeit in a pre-Trump USA, for this takes place in 2011, because at this point, that's a good distinction as any. Privileged and pampered by her wealthy Southern family, Joan lives in a swanky apartment and drives a BMW while working as an unpaid intern for the Republican party in the liberal-majority city of Austin, Texas, keeping her politics hidden from her friends and lovers, unless she has to break up with a bad boyfriend, then she uses it as the ultimate dealbreaker. Joan fancies herself a writer. She carries a Moleskine notebook around with her everywhere she goes, writing down anything and everything marginally interesting happening in her life to be added to the Google Doc document on her laptop later, where she's compiling a memoir of sorts. The book is basically about the trials and tribulations of being a tortured Adderall addict artist with immense societal privilege and a misguided sense of self-importance.
There's no other way of saying it, but Joan's an uncultured piece of shit. (She's a wannabe writer who's never heard of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, can you believe it?) I'd be lying to you if I didn't mention here that part of the reason I'm giving this book three stars instead of my usual two for okay books like these is because I'm afraid a certain majority of readers are going to reject this book specifically because of the fact that the heroine of this novel is such a republican, and I consider myself to be mature enough a reader that I can put the political beliefs of fictional characters behind me in my enjoyment of a book. While her quirky conservatism was the least of my problems with this story, I do, however, think that the author intended this to be some sort of magnetic factor for her book, and I'm sorry to say that, apart from that initial shock, it doesn't really add anything to the mix. Joan's political ideals don't set her apart from a hundred other "weird girl" protagonists of modern literary fiction, nor does she manage to bring forth any clear message for the readers. The writing here is perfectly adequate but nothing extraordinary, the side characters like Joan's parents and cousins are wildly entertaining yet terribly undercooked, and Joan's two love interests, Roberto and Vince, have way too little page presence to be anything other than slight cardboard cutout Pinterest moodboard-esque vague ideas. Joan's self-delusion and vanity are, again, entertaining to read about, but ultimately less than satisfying. But this is not to say that I had a particularly bad time with the book, because I didn't; all these messy imperfections somehow made up for a good little book in retrospection. Joan is a compelling character; her narrow, one-dimensional characterisation ends up being both a stylistic choice and a literary shortcoming —she's one of those people you enjoy seeing unravel in real time. I don't know if this reference is going to be too niche, but seeing as how I'm a freshly minted "Girls HBO" enthusiast, Joan's whole arc reminded me an awful lot of Hanna Horvath, and maybe that's the reason why I can't actually dislike this book, or the character, as much as I'd like. Lena Dunham rules!
January 20, 2025
2 stars
I appreciate this writer's skill, but I absolutely loathed this book. Transparently, I dislike the protagonist and her belief system (and truly EVERYTHING about her so much) that I think this overshadowed my ability to be objective about the read overall.
Joan, the m.c., is...horrible. I found it impossible to root for her at any point because of her revolting political beliefs and bizarre behavior. She's weirdly privileged but somehow also deeply uncultured and full of only bad decision-making skills and outcomes. When an actually terrible thing does happen to her, it's easy to feel bad for a person in her situation but still challenging to apply that to her, specifically.
And her "creative" spirit? Ugh.
I pushed myself to read this because I thought I'd enjoy it (_Fleabag!_ _Tenenbaums!_ Uh...what?) and that it might help me build some understanding of a belief system that is basically the opposite of mine, but it turns out I am just not that enlightened (and am not particularly sorry about it either). I'd like to read more from this author but through a totally different set of characters and motifs.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I appreciate this writer's skill, but I absolutely loathed this book. Transparently, I dislike the protagonist and her belief system (and truly EVERYTHING about her so much) that I think this overshadowed my ability to be objective about the read overall.
Joan, the m.c., is...horrible. I found it impossible to root for her at any point because of her revolting political beliefs and bizarre behavior. She's weirdly privileged but somehow also deeply uncultured and full of only bad decision-making skills and outcomes. When an actually terrible thing does happen to her, it's easy to feel bad for a person in her situation but still challenging to apply that to her, specifically.
And her "creative" spirit? Ugh.
I pushed myself to read this because I thought I'd enjoy it (_Fleabag!_ _Tenenbaums!_ Uh...what?) and that it might help me build some understanding of a belief system that is basically the opposite of mine, but it turns out I am just not that enlightened (and am not particularly sorry about it either). I'd like to read more from this author but through a totally different set of characters and motifs.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
April 26, 2025
I was sold on this the second I saw it described as “Fleabag-esque,” and it delivered!! Dark, funny, and easy to binge ✔️
April 23, 2025
Satire done right! I loved pill-popping Joan and her bat-shit crazy family. Yeehaw! 🤠
October 4, 2024
I wanted to root for Joan, but my god was she so unlikeable and that’s what made this such a fun read! A nepo baby of an audio recording school, an adderall addicted writer with nothing to show for her years of “work,” and literally a nightmare at love - Joan is so fun to follow just wondering how she is going to mess up next! She judges everyone around her so harshly, but she doesn’t appear to be capable of self reflection except maybe one or two moments that she quickly shakes off because she refuses to truly see herself. Her relationship with Wyatt is the highlight of the book for sure and I wish we had gotten more of it because it felt like coming home to hear the cousin shit talk about the rest of the family (while also being complete messes themselves). Overall, this was such a strong debut and I really enjoyed the mess and the honesty!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers and author for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers and author for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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July 27, 2025RTC!
Thank you bunches to Ashley Whitaker for the #gifted final copy 🥰
Thank you bunches to Ashley Whitaker for the #gifted final copy 🥰
April 28, 2025
Ashley Whitaker's debut novel, Bitter Texas Honey, introduces us to Joan West—a character so messy, contradictory, and self-deluded that you'll either want to shake her or give her a reluctant hug. Set against the backdrop of early 2010s Texas politics and family dysfunction, this novel serves up a cocktail of sharp wit, cringe comedy, and surprising tenderness that doesn't always go down smoothly but certainly leaves an impression.
As a former Texan who's navigated the state's cultural contradictions, I found myself both nodding in recognition and wincing in discomfort at Whitaker's portrayal of a young woman caught between creative ambition, political identity crisis, and family chaos. This is the literary equivalent of watching someone fall down stairs in slow motion—painful, sometimes darkly funny, and impossible to look away from.
The Misadventures of Joan West: Self-Proclaimed Artist, Actual Disaster
Whitaker introduces us to twenty-three-year-old Joan West, a recent UT graduate working as a legislative intern while desperately clinging to her identity as a "writer" despite producing almost nothing. Joan's life is a series of contradictions: she's a newly minted conservative who despises liberals but surrounds herself with them; she's supposedly researching her novel but mostly getting high and making terrible romantic decisions; she thinks of herself as sophisticated while being painfully clueless.
What makes Joan compelling isn't her likability (she frequently lacks it) but her raw, desperate hunger to be something more than she is. Every disastrous decision—from pursuing the contemptuous barista Roberto to using her cousin Wyatt's suicide as fodder for her nonexistent novel—stems from Joan's frantic need to be seen as an artist with depth rather than what she fears she actually is: a privileged, directionless young woman dependent on her dysfunctional parents.
Family Circus: The West-Duncan Dynasty of Dysfunction
The novel's most vivid achievement is its depiction of Joan's sprawling, messy Texas family. Her father Randy, a perpetual man-child running a for-profit audio engineering school who cycles through inappropriate girlfriends; her mother Dolly, a recovering addict with boundary issues; her brother Henry, the competent one who escaped; and her cousin Wyatt, a musical prodigy with untreated mental illness.
Whitaker depicts family gatherings with uncomfortable precision—conversations veer from political arguments to insults to reminiscences with dizzying speed. These scenes pulse with authenticity, revealing how families cultivate their own languages of hurt, humor, and history:
"It's Saturday night! This is when people are supposed to want to be together. Who wants to be alone on a Saturday night?!" Joan's father screams about his latest girlfriend wanting space—a perfect encapsulation of his neediness and entitlement.
When tragedy strikes with Wyatt's suicide, Whitaker doesn't flinch from showing the family's toxic mixture of grief, blame, and denial. The funeral scene, where Joan derails her eulogy with a shocking Satanic outburst, is both horrifying and darkly comic—a moment when grief, rage, and poor impulse control collide spectacularly.
Politics, Religion, and Identity: The Texas Trifecta
One of the novel's most interesting elements is its exploration of politics as personal identity. Joan's conservative rebrand after her "liberal phase" isn't about policy but about belonging. She clings to talk radio hosts like religious figures, finding comfort in their certainty even as she feels out of step with both liberal Austin and her Tea Party family.
Whitaker resists the easy choice of making Joan's conservatism a simple punchline, instead showing how political identity becomes a life raft for someone drowning in uncertainty. Joan's fixation on Mitt Romney—who represents the orderly, respectable authority figure absent from her life—is both pathetic and painfully understandable.
Religion plays a similar role in the novel, with evangelicalism serving as both community glue and convenient excuse for avoiding difficult truths. The contrast between Joan's cynical view of her family's faith and her cousin Wyatt's genuine spiritual searching adds complexity to what could have been simple mockery.
Strengths and Weaknesses: A Mixed Bag of Texas Honey
What Works:
- Character development - Joan evolves in messy, non-linear ways that feel authentic rather than following a neat redemption arc
- Family dynamics - The novel excels at depicting the complex web of loyalty, resentment, and love in dysfunctional families
- Texas setting - Whitaker brings the state's contradictions to life through specific details, from the capitol's politics to rural ranch houses
- Dark humor - The novel's willingness to find comedy in uncomfortable places gives it a bracing honesty
- Addiction portrayal - Joan's relationship with Adderall and other substances is depicted with nuance rather than melodrama
What Falls Short:
- Pacing issues - The novel sometimes meanders, particularly in its middle sections, without a strong narrative drive
- Overreliance on coincidence - Some plot developments feel contrived rather than organic
- Underdeveloped secondary characters - Figures like Claire and Henry sometimes feel more like plot devices than fully realized people
- Uneven tone - The shifts between comedy and tragedy occasionally feel jarring rather than purposeful
- Repetitive patterns - Joan's cycles of bad decisions can become tedious rather than illuminating
The Art of Failure: Writing About Not Writing
What's most fascinating about Bitter Texas Honey is its meta-narrative about the struggle to create art. Joan isn't writing her novel—she's writing about not writing her novel, collecting "research" through relationships while producing nothing. The novel asks uncomfortable questions about authenticity, appropriation, and whether suffering for art's sake actually produces anything of value.
When Joan finally does experience something genuinely traumatic with Wyatt's suicide, her immediate impulse to mine it for material becomes a damning commentary on her artistic pretensions. Yet Whitaker doesn't simply condemn Joan; instead, she shows how art-making can be both a selfish act of cannibalization and a genuine attempt to make meaning from chaos.
Final Verdict: Flawed But Fearless
Bitter Texas Honey isn't a perfect debut. It sometimes gets lost in its own digressions, and Joan's self-absorption can test readers' patience. But Whitaker's willingness to let her protagonist be genuinely messy—not quirky-messy or adorably-messy but actually-might-ruin-her-life messy—gives the novel a bracing authenticity that more polished debuts often lack.
The novel ends with Joan in a tentative place of recovery, not fully healed but at least facing reality. This feels earned rather than inspirational, a small victory wrested from considerable defeat. In its final pages, as Joan begins to write haikus about her daily life on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, there's a suggestion that true art might emerge not from grand dramatic gestures but from honest engagement with the world as it is.
As a former Texan who's navigated the state's cultural contradictions, I found myself both nodding in recognition and wincing in discomfort at Whitaker's portrayal of a young woman caught between creative ambition, political identity crisis, and family chaos. This is the literary equivalent of watching someone fall down stairs in slow motion—painful, sometimes darkly funny, and impossible to look away from.
The Misadventures of Joan West: Self-Proclaimed Artist, Actual Disaster
Whitaker introduces us to twenty-three-year-old Joan West, a recent UT graduate working as a legislative intern while desperately clinging to her identity as a "writer" despite producing almost nothing. Joan's life is a series of contradictions: she's a newly minted conservative who despises liberals but surrounds herself with them; she's supposedly researching her novel but mostly getting high and making terrible romantic decisions; she thinks of herself as sophisticated while being painfully clueless.
What makes Joan compelling isn't her likability (she frequently lacks it) but her raw, desperate hunger to be something more than she is. Every disastrous decision—from pursuing the contemptuous barista Roberto to using her cousin Wyatt's suicide as fodder for her nonexistent novel—stems from Joan's frantic need to be seen as an artist with depth rather than what she fears she actually is: a privileged, directionless young woman dependent on her dysfunctional parents.
Family Circus: The West-Duncan Dynasty of Dysfunction
The novel's most vivid achievement is its depiction of Joan's sprawling, messy Texas family. Her father Randy, a perpetual man-child running a for-profit audio engineering school who cycles through inappropriate girlfriends; her mother Dolly, a recovering addict with boundary issues; her brother Henry, the competent one who escaped; and her cousin Wyatt, a musical prodigy with untreated mental illness.
Whitaker depicts family gatherings with uncomfortable precision—conversations veer from political arguments to insults to reminiscences with dizzying speed. These scenes pulse with authenticity, revealing how families cultivate their own languages of hurt, humor, and history:
"It's Saturday night! This is when people are supposed to want to be together. Who wants to be alone on a Saturday night?!" Joan's father screams about his latest girlfriend wanting space—a perfect encapsulation of his neediness and entitlement.
When tragedy strikes with Wyatt's suicide, Whitaker doesn't flinch from showing the family's toxic mixture of grief, blame, and denial. The funeral scene, where Joan derails her eulogy with a shocking Satanic outburst, is both horrifying and darkly comic—a moment when grief, rage, and poor impulse control collide spectacularly.
Politics, Religion, and Identity: The Texas Trifecta
One of the novel's most interesting elements is its exploration of politics as personal identity. Joan's conservative rebrand after her "liberal phase" isn't about policy but about belonging. She clings to talk radio hosts like religious figures, finding comfort in their certainty even as she feels out of step with both liberal Austin and her Tea Party family.
Whitaker resists the easy choice of making Joan's conservatism a simple punchline, instead showing how political identity becomes a life raft for someone drowning in uncertainty. Joan's fixation on Mitt Romney—who represents the orderly, respectable authority figure absent from her life—is both pathetic and painfully understandable.
Religion plays a similar role in the novel, with evangelicalism serving as both community glue and convenient excuse for avoiding difficult truths. The contrast between Joan's cynical view of her family's faith and her cousin Wyatt's genuine spiritual searching adds complexity to what could have been simple mockery.
Strengths and Weaknesses: A Mixed Bag of Texas Honey
What Works:
- Character development - Joan evolves in messy, non-linear ways that feel authentic rather than following a neat redemption arc
- Family dynamics - The novel excels at depicting the complex web of loyalty, resentment, and love in dysfunctional families
- Texas setting - Whitaker brings the state's contradictions to life through specific details, from the capitol's politics to rural ranch houses
- Dark humor - The novel's willingness to find comedy in uncomfortable places gives it a bracing honesty
- Addiction portrayal - Joan's relationship with Adderall and other substances is depicted with nuance rather than melodrama
What Falls Short:
- Pacing issues - The novel sometimes meanders, particularly in its middle sections, without a strong narrative drive
- Overreliance on coincidence - Some plot developments feel contrived rather than organic
- Underdeveloped secondary characters - Figures like Claire and Henry sometimes feel more like plot devices than fully realized people
- Uneven tone - The shifts between comedy and tragedy occasionally feel jarring rather than purposeful
- Repetitive patterns - Joan's cycles of bad decisions can become tedious rather than illuminating
The Art of Failure: Writing About Not Writing
What's most fascinating about Bitter Texas Honey is its meta-narrative about the struggle to create art. Joan isn't writing her novel—she's writing about not writing her novel, collecting "research" through relationships while producing nothing. The novel asks uncomfortable questions about authenticity, appropriation, and whether suffering for art's sake actually produces anything of value.
When Joan finally does experience something genuinely traumatic with Wyatt's suicide, her immediate impulse to mine it for material becomes a damning commentary on her artistic pretensions. Yet Whitaker doesn't simply condemn Joan; instead, she shows how art-making can be both a selfish act of cannibalization and a genuine attempt to make meaning from chaos.
Final Verdict: Flawed But Fearless
Bitter Texas Honey isn't a perfect debut. It sometimes gets lost in its own digressions, and Joan's self-absorption can test readers' patience. But Whitaker's willingness to let her protagonist be genuinely messy—not quirky-messy or adorably-messy but actually-might-ruin-her-life messy—gives the novel a bracing authenticity that more polished debuts often lack.
The novel ends with Joan in a tentative place of recovery, not fully healed but at least facing reality. This feels earned rather than inspirational, a small victory wrested from considerable defeat. In its final pages, as Joan begins to write haikus about her daily life on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, there's a suggestion that true art might emerge not from grand dramatic gestures but from honest engagement with the world as it is.
May 28, 2025
Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I was so excited when I saw this book was pitched as the same vibe as Royal Tenenbaums {one of my favorite movies} however it personally did not meet that expectation. The whole plot felt almost too political which isn’t something I usually like in books. Love the cover though!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
February 12, 2025
Hey lady, this book was not my cup of tea. Joan, the MC was unbearable. I found it impossible to root for her not only due to her beliefs but her horrible behavior as well. She was honestly just a brat with zero character development and really didn't enjoy any of the characters in the book. This one was a tough one to finish. As someone from Texas, I did think it was really fun to recognize all the street names and Texas towns name dropped throughout the book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher and an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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October 13, 2024dnf at 36% unfortunately! seemed like this one was cooked up in a lab based exactly on my tastes but i couldn’t get into joan’s voice
April 25, 2025
I do not give one single flying fuck about Mitt Romney or Ted Cruz. But—aside from all the weird conservative talk and horribly unlikable MC, the writing is excellent.
May 1, 2025
I listened to the audiobook. The narrator was amazing. I was gut laughing a lot. Joan is a train wreck and I couldn’t look the other way. Her parents were so odd and her brother so serious, and she was heading for a cliff going 100 mph. It was a treat to be inside her mind knowing every thought. She’s conservative and a big Romney supporter. Even if I don’t agree with the family’s politics or religious beliefs, this book was so compelling for me to keep reading. I pictured her a lot older than 23 for some reason and my favorite part was the interactions between her and her cousin. This book is getting mixed reviews but this may be my favorite book I’ve read this year.
August 10, 2025
Somewhat interesting but felt kinda pointless? It dragged and definitely would've been stronger as a 200-250 page book. There wasn't as much commentary on the alt right and evangelicals as the blurb led me to believe, which was disappointing considering that's why I picked it up 💔 The character development was minimal and I don't know how to feel about anyone in this book
April 22, 2025
I'm quite interested in seeing what Ashley writes next. This is well done, with a great cast, and moves fast enough that I read most of it in one sitting. While I’d hoped it would lean more into certain elements, I loved the writing and any of my complaints are personal preference.
Pick it up if you’re in the mood for a unique, fun, slightly offbeat (in a good way) contemporary novel.
Pick it up if you’re in the mood for a unique, fun, slightly offbeat (in a good way) contemporary novel.
May 13, 2025
I thought I'd step out of my usual reads and try this different read. Unfortunately, I'm reminded by these books aren't really my jam.
First, I found Joan insufferable. She's a staunch republican only in that it felt like she regurgitated opinions that had been said around her. She's completely supported by family and "works" as an unpaid intern. She has the comfort of money and being white and pretty to insulate her from her awful drug addiction to Adderall and alcohol and all her political ideals that actually go against her own wellbeing. I don't find anything funny about addiction, being selfish and self-centered and insulated by a terrible family with money.
I kept thinking, with each chapter, that we'd see Joan get a harsh reality or wake-up call and she'd do some introspective work and become a marginally better person. Instead, I got all the way to the end still disappointed that she still found her life and her opinions so amazing that she deserved to be a published author - deserved it more than anyone else in her life or orbit. Ugh.
This is definitely a personal experience. If you typically read satire and terrible characters making equally terrible decisions, you might find this funny like others did. This was just not it for me.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
First, I found Joan insufferable. She's a staunch republican only in that it felt like she regurgitated opinions that had been said around her. She's completely supported by family and "works" as an unpaid intern. She has the comfort of money and being white and pretty to insulate her from her awful drug addiction to Adderall and alcohol and all her political ideals that actually go against her own wellbeing. I don't find anything funny about addiction, being selfish and self-centered and insulated by a terrible family with money.
I kept thinking, with each chapter, that we'd see Joan get a harsh reality or wake-up call and she'd do some introspective work and become a marginally better person. Instead, I got all the way to the end still disappointed that she still found her life and her opinions so amazing that she deserved to be a published author - deserved it more than anyone else in her life or orbit. Ugh.
This is definitely a personal experience. If you typically read satire and terrible characters making equally terrible decisions, you might find this funny like others did. This was just not it for me.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
June 22, 2025
1.75/5 Rounded Up
The Royale Tenenbaums and Fleabag if those were stories without any soul. It's funny because Whitaker makes sure to mention the golden writing rule of "show don't tell" and yet all she does in this story is tell. We hop from scene to scene in a year of Joan's life as she navigates what she wants to do with her life. There is never any time taken to reflect on any of her actions or thoughts in either a thoughtful or satirical way. Which makes it all much worse when something big happens about 75% of the way in and it has the effect of a pebble landing in half an inch of water. I was carried along by a few funny scenes and with a false hope that everything might magically click in the end.
I would say that a big selling point of this story is that Joan is an ex leftist turned conservative and yet except for some background remarks made every so often, nothing about that has any impact on the story. We don't see her denounce or actually even fully accept her politics in a way that feels meaningful. Joan felt like a bad caricature of a lost, quirky, unlikable, mid-20s, white girl character. Just weak, weak writing.
All that being said, Ashley Whitaker's writing was not horrible and it was fairly easy to read and, like I mentioned, I did laugh out loud a few times. I will leave with this note though: authors need to stop writing musical lyrics in books if they're not musicians themselves.
The Royale Tenenbaums and Fleabag if those were stories without any soul. It's funny because Whitaker makes sure to mention the golden writing rule of "show don't tell" and yet all she does in this story is tell. We hop from scene to scene in a year of Joan's life as she navigates what she wants to do with her life. There is never any time taken to reflect on any of her actions or thoughts in either a thoughtful or satirical way. Which makes it all much worse when something big happens about 75% of the way in and it has the effect of a pebble landing in half an inch of water. I was carried along by a few funny scenes and with a false hope that everything might magically click in the end.
I would say that a big selling point of this story is that Joan is an ex leftist turned conservative and yet except for some background remarks made every so often, nothing about that has any impact on the story. We don't see her denounce or actually even fully accept her politics in a way that feels meaningful. Joan felt like a bad caricature of a lost, quirky, unlikable, mid-20s, white girl character. Just weak, weak writing.
All that being said, Ashley Whitaker's writing was not horrible and it was fairly easy to read and, like I mentioned, I did laugh out loud a few times. I will leave with this note though: authors need to stop writing musical lyrics in books if they're not musicians themselves.
May 5, 2025
on the second to last page there’s a haiku
“I am fat and hideous. / a talentless hack. / Rome wasn’t built in a day.” that doesn’t even follow proper haiku structure (the character knows this) but earned this book an entire fourth star because I laughed so hard
“I am fat and hideous. / a talentless hack. / Rome wasn’t built in a day.” that doesn’t even follow proper haiku structure (the character knows this) but earned this book an entire fourth star because I laughed so hard
August 18, 2025
Definitely an Elizabeth book because its all characters no plot
May 13, 2025
“Have you really thought about it?” Henry asked. “I’m just starting to realize what this means. Wyatt is nothing but a memory now. We’ll never see him get any older. Isn’t that weird? He’ll never have kids. He only exists in our minds now, however we remember him.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2025
Well written, but I hated the main character so much, it kind of took me out of the book. Loved reading about her crazy family though.
August 29, 2025
the protagonist is such an annoyingly bad person that the longer it went on the funnier it became in her absurd self-centeredness
February 27, 2025
Addicts tend to think they're unique and wildly interesting. In actuality, their tales of addiction tend to be boringly similar; it's the stories of their recovery that are unique and engaging. "Bitter Texas Honey" shows us the life of a 25-year-old wannabe writer who doesn't actually like to write, is in denial about her addictions, and thinks she's much more perceptive, talented, and fascinating that she is. Reading this book was like being trapped at a party with a friend of a friend who didn't let a lack of facts or common sense stop her from sharing her many opinions ad nauseam.
It's a shame that Joan, the protagonist, is so unlikeable, because author Ashley Whitaker writes deftly in a distinctive style. Maybe her next book will be about a character I actually want to spend time with.
Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
It's a shame that Joan, the protagonist, is so unlikeable, because author Ashley Whitaker writes deftly in a distinctive style. Maybe her next book will be about a character I actually want to spend time with.
Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 5, 2025
Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker. Thanks to @duttonbooks and the author for the gifted Arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Joan’s life goal is to be a writer but it’s difficult when she can’t take her adderral anymore and needs a muse. She used to be like her peers; liberal and bisexual, but now lives on conservative talk radio and Red Bulls.
This was a great debut and I can’t wait to read what this author writes next. As much as I hated Joan’s beliefs, I still enjoyed her voice and character. Her life and family were so dysfunctional and she exhibited so much controversy that it was hard to hate her simply for her beliefs (which trust me, is usually quite easy for me). The heart of this story was the family dynamics, and everyone was well developed and unique.
“This was a sin from the universe. It was time to wake up. The reason her writing all sucked was that she’d been focused on the wrong subject - herself - all along.”
Bitter Texas Honey comes out 4/15.
Joan’s life goal is to be a writer but it’s difficult when she can’t take her adderral anymore and needs a muse. She used to be like her peers; liberal and bisexual, but now lives on conservative talk radio and Red Bulls.
This was a great debut and I can’t wait to read what this author writes next. As much as I hated Joan’s beliefs, I still enjoyed her voice and character. Her life and family were so dysfunctional and she exhibited so much controversy that it was hard to hate her simply for her beliefs (which trust me, is usually quite easy for me). The heart of this story was the family dynamics, and everyone was well developed and unique.
“This was a sin from the universe. It was time to wake up. The reason her writing all sucked was that she’d been focused on the wrong subject - herself - all along.”
Bitter Texas Honey comes out 4/15.
October 8, 2025
Unfortunately, I did not like this. I was hoping for a political critique with a twist (what makes a “leftist bisexual” regress to the conservatism of her family?), or maybe a fresh insight into the 2010s Christian Texas landscape, perhaps even a weird girl unlikable protagonist (this wants to be Republican My Year Of Rest And Relaxation so bad)… it somehow delivers on absolutely none of the many interesting premises it introduces.
I guess my main complaint is that the only “progression” we get in the plot comes from family dynamics, and even then, I actually don’t care about any of the family members, and the progression is so minimal you could blink and miss it. We get a very predictable “big thing” in the book, and somehow no character development.
All of the critiques of Joan’s writing in-text could easily be critiques of this book. No stakes, no interiority. The character is just a mirror to everyone around her. This is a crazy crit coming from me, because I LOVE a meandering book and a weird protagonist. I just thought there was more here and all of the wrong stuff was explored.
Only plus to this was that the prose was pretty good and it was an easy read. The stuff about grief and guilt was pretty good too (for all of 10 pages). But again—marred by the fact that there was something really interesting to say about mental health and its intersection with politics/religion and it does not feel resolved within the text. I guess if I am generous I can see how Joan’s response almost addresses it, but it felt lukewarm. I wish she had leaned into Joan’s conservatism OR had this be a breaking point in Joan’s belief system.
My final complaint is too many name drops of conservative talk show hosts. Annoying! I don’t care who she was listening to.
I guess my main complaint is that the only “progression” we get in the plot comes from family dynamics, and even then, I actually don’t care about any of the family members, and the progression is so minimal you could blink and miss it. We get a very predictable “big thing” in the book, and somehow no character development.
All of the critiques of Joan’s writing in-text could easily be critiques of this book. No stakes, no interiority. The character is just a mirror to everyone around her. This is a crazy crit coming from me, because I LOVE a meandering book and a weird protagonist. I just thought there was more here and all of the wrong stuff was explored.
Only plus to this was that the prose was pretty good and it was an easy read. The stuff about grief and guilt was pretty good too (for all of 10 pages). But again—marred by the fact that there was something really interesting to say about mental health and its intersection with politics/religion and it does not feel resolved within the text. I guess if I am generous I can see how Joan’s response almost addresses it, but it felt lukewarm. I wish she had leaned into Joan’s conservatism OR had this be a breaking point in Joan’s belief system.
My final complaint is too many name drops of conservative talk show hosts. Annoying! I don’t care who she was listening to.
July 30, 2025
1,5 ⭐️
A studied exploration of identity that ultimately collapses under its own performative weight.
Great sentences wasted on a meandering, self-indulgent story. Joan’s chaos is interesting in theory, but the book never digs deep enough to matter.
"”I'm taking a break," Joan said, and she walked up and down the street, listening to a conservative podcast to drown out the sound of traffic and the feeling of being inside her own body.”
"”After I'm done with this thing, I'm gonna drive across the entire country, right through the middle this time.
Back to California. From sea to shining sea, like in that song. What's that song?
How does it go again?"”
A studied exploration of identity that ultimately collapses under its own performative weight.
Great sentences wasted on a meandering, self-indulgent story. Joan’s chaos is interesting in theory, but the book never digs deep enough to matter.
"”I'm taking a break," Joan said, and she walked up and down the street, listening to a conservative podcast to drown out the sound of traffic and the feeling of being inside her own body.”
"”After I'm done with this thing, I'm gonna drive across the entire country, right through the middle this time.
Back to California. From sea to shining sea, like in that song. What's that song?
How does it go again?"”
Read
October 26, 2025this is like blow-up without the murder. you just sort of follow an annoying listless young artist as they fail to do anything of substance and present an ever-growing series of red flags in every interaction they have with another person. but she is a woman, so that feels kind of revolutionary? i think the IDEA of joan is very interesting but she's grating and in a book this long you at least have to have a plot. literally til the very end i kept thinking the pieces would click into place and it would become great but then it just ended. should have given up but c'est la vie
June 21, 2025
Everyone was insufferable, unstable and cartoonish conservatives. I loved it
dnf
June 19, 2025Got returned to the library at 50% so DNF. I thought this was satire but it hadn't really made any salient points yet and the other reviews seem to be talking about it like it's not satire so ??? They really shouldn't be marketing this as "The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fleabag", it's not like that at all and that tagline basically dooms the book to disappoint.
June 23, 2025
Off-beat and well written. Satirical with heart, which makes it so (darkly) funny. Joan is insufferable, but I found her failings and messes both hilarious and relatable. If you’ve ever known a group of writers in their 20s, Joan and Roberto clocked them. I really enjoyed this, and I can see how it’s not for everyone.
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