Bitter Suites

by Angela Yuriko Smith

2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Finalist for Superior Achievement in Long FictionBook a stay at the Bitter Suites, a hotel that specializes in renewable death experiences. Whether you schedule your demise as therapy, to bond with a loved one or for pure recreation, your death is sure to give you a new lease on life. Renewable death is always beneficial… at least to someone.

Genres: Horror, Novella, Science Fiction

105 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2018

About the author

Angela Yuriko Smith, HWA president and Space and Time publisher, is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner. As a Publishing Coach, she helps writers search less and submit more with her weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

Reviews

[Bec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a unique concept, renewable death. Bitter Suites was a short story that focused on customers of the hotel that specialises in recreational suicide. Customers choose their death of choice and were swiftly bought back to life. Each chapter built on the one before, but I also feel they could be read as 10 individual stories. It was completely different to anything I have read before. Can’t wait for the second book.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

The latest random Kindle freebie and something about recreational suicide that’s just…well, different. Certainly meriting enough interest to check out a read this short. So yeah, with this book you get to spend 90 or so minutes in a sort of posh assisted suicide facility…with a twist. Twist being that none of these are permanent deaths and everyone gets resuscitated in the end. The entire thing is meant to stimulate enjoyment of life, actually. Kind of like a simulated second lease on life and all that. So not quite Flatliners, not the cult classic original, not the (not even cultish just completely unnecessary, logic free and as implausible as Ellen Page playing straight) remake. These are real or at least realistic characters who for various reasons want or need to take death for a spin and these dangerous tangos worked result in as many different outcomes as they are motivations. The book comprises these stories in a form of interconnected anthology and then there’s a sequel coming up, so there will be more of it, continuing with title puns. Not sure how much I was into this book. I appreciated the premise, the writing was perfectly decent, the stories were somewhat uneven, but interesting. The book is as dark and atmospheric as one might expect a book about suicides to be. I’m not quite sure why I wasn’t more engaged. But at any rate, it entertains and makes you think, it’s even morbidly funny at times. It may not be for everyone, but it has that certain something, a fascination, a striking quality, a dark attraction. And just like in the book…Check in at your own risk. Satisfaction not guaranteed. But it’ll be an experience.

[Lee Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bitter Suites is the newest short story collection by Angela Yuriko Smith. I know Smith predominantly as a poet ‒ her collection In Favour of Pain is outstanding, and a must-read for all lovers of dark verse ‒ and her skill with piercing and poignant vocabulary clearly shows in this collection of shared world stories about a recreational suicide facility. Given the soaring rates of adult suicide in contemporary society, there is no doubt this is a highly provocative and topical theme, but somehow Smith navigates the narratives with sensitivity in spite of the brutality of the subject matter. There is a lot to be consumed here, with every human avarice seen through the lens of pay-for-death commercialism, and yet these stories can easily be knocked off in a sitting. I can’t guarantee how long they’re likely to linger in your mind, though, which will no doubt be much much longer. I understand there will be a sequel and I’ll definitely be picking up a copy.

[Faith Justice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bitter Suites is a slim volume of ten linked stories set in a "recreational suicide" facility. Clients come to paradoxically get a renewed lease on life by experiencing the terror and physical pain of death by various means: poison, hanging, drowning, car crash, circus accident--no experience is beyond the ability of the resuscitation teams to reverse with a carefully guarded secret collection of biological repair nanites. Meet a young man starting his life with his death, an engaged couple wanting to bond with a "Romeo and Juliet" package, an old woman looking to take away the fear of dying and many more. The motives are as varied as the clients. But be careful what you wish for, "Renewable death is always beneficial...at least for someone." Smith has created an imaginative and disturbing world asking more questions about the human condition than she answers. Highly recommended.

[April Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

How would you end your life if you knew it was only temporary, and would doing so make you appreciate your life more? These are two examples of the many questions that are asked in this collection of interconnected stories.

I enjoyed the originality of the premise. My favorite chapter came early on (#3), but each chapter/story had something interesting to say.

The author mentions at the end that she’s got a sequel in the works. I’d love to see less of an emphasis placed on poison next time, so that other wild ways of dying (such as the Circus Death) can be explored.

If you’re looking for something different in the horror genre that won’t take long to read, this is a good choice.

[Netanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bitter Suites is an all-inclusive hotel that specializes in recreational suicide as life therapy. Apparently, it's in the bitter agonies of painful death that a person can finally realize how precious life really is. The renewable death is effected by nanotechnology that is injected by a special team of Resuscitators, ready to bring the dead back to life.

What an incredible concept for a novel! The story is told through the perspectives of the clientele who visit the Bitter Suites, their stories told in loosely connected chapters. There should be a follow up to this story, which I look forward to reading. Kudos to the author.

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting idea for a book. The book is really several short stories about one place "Bitter Suites." Bitter Suites is a business where a person goes to temporarily end their life - and then be brought back to life. Each Chapter is a story of a different person who goes to Bitter Suite to die and be resuscitated. We learn about their motivations and their experience. Each story portrays a different aspect of emotion: fear, mistaken love, suffering, guilt, desire etc. I am looking forward to the next book

[Heinrich Wolfcastle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela Yuriko Smith creates a world that's fun to explore. But to really get the full experience, you have to die there. Don't worry, she's enlisted the help of a memorable cast of characters to... show you the ropes (cough cough). Bitter Suites is a playground where you're confronted with the question of what method of madness you'd pursue to die by suicide. But knowing that your health would be restored, you have to wonder if it's really a madness at all. A fun and fantastic read, and I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind tinkering with toys in dark places.

[Naveed Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macabre

I enjoyed diving into the tales of bitter suites, where death is just the latest experience craze, where you can die and come back in an instant. These stories were dark and a little dystopian. There were some proofreading issues, but overall it's a good effort with an interesting concept at its heart.

[Venus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy wow

I think I’m in love with this author. This book was so good. I read the whole thing in one sitting. This isn’t the first I’ve read from this author either, but this was the most engaging. I believe I rated the other books 5 stars as well, but now I’m down to read everything this author puts out.

[Ben Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disturbingly macabre concept excellently developed. This series of vignettes will make you think while they get under your skin with gruesome descriptions.

The stories stuck with me long after I finished reading them. Highly recommended.

[Auntie Raye-Raye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bitter and the Sweet

This is the first book I've read by the author. I am impressed.
Great concept, great execution. I like the glimpses of the customers, the workers, and suicide methods. I also enjoyed that not everything was explained.
Looking forward to the sequel.