Publishers Weekly
02/24/2025
An aspiring novelist seeks fulfillment and attempts to come to terms with her past in Whitaker’s witty debut. At the University of Miami, Joan West resisted her evangelical Christian upbringing in Texas, growing out her armpit hair, kissing girls, and developing an Adderall addiction. Now, 23 and clean for three years, she enjoys right-wing talk radio and embraces traditional gender roles. She spends her days interning for a conservative legislator in Austin and her evenings at a coffee shop, where she strikes up a friendship with Roberto, the barista, who is also a writer. In an effort to impress Roberto and after seeking counsel from her troubled cousin Wyatt, she decides to write a love story. For research purposes only, she begins dating Vince, a 30-year-old music producer and student at her womanizing father’s for-profit trade school. Simultaneously, she pursues a fling with Roberto, only to have both relationships go in unexpected directions. Further complicating matters is her Adderall relapse and abuse of painkillers, a crisis involving Wyatt, and her father’s disastrous relationships. Though Joan often comes across as superficial, Whitaker adds depth to the characterization as she unpacks Joan’s family history. This portrait of a wannabe artist as a confused young woman is compulsively readable. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (Apr.) Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly stated that protagonist Joan West attended the University of Texas.
From the Publisher
One of Deep South Magazine’s 2025 Spring Reading Picks
“Witty . . . compulsively readable.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Whitaker’s debut novel is a painful, hilarious, and mind-bending look into what drives personal and societal beliefs, the frailty and strength of family bonds, and the individual decisions that ultimately lead to something bigger than us.”
—Booklist
"The comp titles are hard to live up to, but this book surpassed expectations. It is a lively story filled with memorable characters who are larger than life but never caricatures of themselves."
—Debutiful
“Like any good Southern girl, Bitter Texas Honey presents itself modestly: this is a funny, extremely charming novel about an aspiring writer. But beneath this relatively breezy exterior is an absolutely merciless, clear-eyed, and passionate assessment of the political, moral, and cultural roots of our country’s current divide. Bitter Texas Honey is not just wildly entertaining—it is a bullet aimed at the dead center of American hypocrisy, cruelty, and heartbreak; as brilliant, uncompromising, and timely a book as you will read this year.”
—Kristen Roupenian, author of Cat Person and Other Stories
“Bitter Texas Honey is wildly offbeat and endlessly entertaining—a novel that manages to be incisive, heartrending, and hilarious all at once. With nimble prose and a deadpan delivery, Whitaker brings each of these deeply relatable, deeply endearing characters to vibrant life. This is a dazzling debut from an outrageously gifted writer.”
—Kimberly King Parsons, National Book Award-nominated author of We Were the Universe
"Bitter Texas Honey is a remarkable debut. What sets up as a wryly comic künstlerroman—'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Republican' (in the comparatively "innocent" days of Mitt Romney’s nomination)—deepens into an affecting story of loss and addiction. Joan is by turns feckless and funny, knowing and naïve, but always utterly human in all her messy contradictions. Best of all, Whitaker not only pivots from hilarity to heartbreak, but manages to build to a close that is—magically—both at once (fittingly reflective of her bitter-sweet title)."
—Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself
"Deadpan, hysterical, irreverent, and utterly original, Bitter Texas Honey is an exuberant debut. This zany novel murders pieties and resurrects the imagination. It reminded me of everything fiction can do."
—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness
“Bitter Texas Honey is a charming novel that made me laugh with its understated humor and zany yet realistic depictions of writing, love, friendship, family, and grief.”
—Tao Lin, author of Leave Society
