In the month of April, I had read a book within a genre that I normally steer clear of all together. I had no idea that this book would become one of the best books that I have read. Black Girls Must Die Exhausted has taken me by storm, and this is a novel that I will find myself reading time and time again. For those of who have not read my blog post regarding my April TBR, should definitely go read it. I had very mixed feelings about this book, but well exceeded my expectations. Invest the time in reading this really, really good book. I swear you won’t regret it!

***Trigger Warning for Suicide***

Synopsis

This is a story about Tabitha Walker. As twenty something African American woman living in L.A., Tabitha has everything in her life planned out. She has the perfect job, the perfect boyfriend, and the perfect plan of buying a nice house with a down payment she has worked hard to save. Unfortunately, she receives some very devastating news while at a routine checkup at her gynecologist. Now, the life she has planned perfectly is crumbling at her very fingertips. Tabitha must find a way to navigate her now changed narrative with this unexpected plot twist.

This book was all about relationships for me. I ate up every crumb! I loved the friendships that I got to see evolve, then implode, and finally heal again. I think Jayne Allen did a great job at writing play banter between Tabitha and her two friends (Alexis and Laila) so authentically. The dialogue is similar to things I would say to my group of friends. I enjoyed the relationship that was shown between Tabitha and her grandmother. In a way it felt maternalistic in nature. You could tell that Tabitha’s grandmother was her world. Overall, I think Jayne Allen knows how describe relationships in a genuine way. She makes you believe that these relationships and characters could actually be living outside of this book.

One aspect of this book that I found very important was the talk suicide. Tabitha’s friend Laila attempts to commit suicide. This came as a shock to both Tabitha and Alexis. Through the point of view of Tabitha, Jayne shows readers that it is important to take the time to check on friends and family members. Although Tabitha would ask Laila how she was doing when she would see her, it always remained surface level. It felt as if Tabitha was too focused on her problems that she couldn’t notice the problems of the other people in her life. “How could I have let her leave like that? The rational part of me said that there was no way that one thing could have made my strongest friend take such an extreme action. But my hear knew better. Did her mother say she was living at home? Why didn’t Laila tell me any of this-even that that she got laid off? Did Laila lie to me or was I just not paying attention?”. This quote shows the readers that the veil is being lifted from Tabitha’s eyes regarding her friend’s suicide attempt. This part of the book made my very sad when I read it, but I understood what Jayne wanted her audience to take away from this situation.

The one relationship that I hated in this book was her relationship with Marc. Marc was Tabitha’s boyfriend until he decided to end their relationship over the fact that she wanted kids. I think Marc was not only immature but very self-absorbed. You could tell that he cared more about himself and his materialistic possessions than he did for Tabitha. Tabitha even stated several times throughout the novel that he cared more about his car getting damaged than he did about her life. Marc also texted Tabitha the only thing that no man should ever text their ex-girlfriend. He sent her a WYD? text on a Saturday night!?!?! If that doesn’t scream booty call, then I don’t know what else does. What was worse than Marcs’ obvious disrespect for Tabitha was that Tabitha continued to miss him when they broke up. It was annoying reading her cry over him and think about him all day at work. All I kept thinking to was, didn’t he act like a jerk to you when you two were together? It was just angering to read about.

To wrap it up, this book made me smile, laugh, and very angry all at the same time. Please go read this book because it deserves much needed appreciation! This book was a 10 out of 5 stars for me. That’s saying a lot because Women’s Fiction and I don’t tend to work out.

Anyways, if you have read this book tell me what you thought about it in the comments. Leave a like to let me know if you enjoyed this review.