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A review by lady_wira
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen
4.0
This book follows Tabitha (the protagonist), a renowned journalist as she navigates her 30s. Set up in Los Angeles, Tabitha the daughter of a black woman and a mixed race father navigates the struggles that come with the desire of having it all.
“Black Girls Must Die Exhausted”, her white grandmother kept saying. Society is always eager to pin the black girl down. Everything is set up to be a challenge even what ideally shouldn’t be. Throughout the book, the author’s passion and stand on racism is robust, heartfelt and painstakingly precise. She talks dearly about the loss of young black lives that should not have been lost. Profoundly states the fear ingrained in the young blacks by the police. As a reader, it placed me in the shoes of the victims both the departed and the survivors.
Additionally, as a struggling career woman fighting for a promotion against a white male, Tabitha just received the devastating news that her biological clock is running out of time. She has the painful decision of whether to spend her life savings on freezing her eggs or purchasing a home, one that has been a dream, do you sacrifice the desire to be a mother to own a home, or own a home and live alone in it? On the news that her eggs have put her on a timer, her relationship suffers.
Relying on her girls becomes pivotal. The characters are well developed, each friend different from the other but yet, clear why they find solace in each other. Theirs is a friendship cultivated through joys, sorrows, adventure, loss and the knowledge that they have each other’s backs. Their way of drawing out humour in all situations was a nice welcome.
Some chapters felt dragged out, and there’s a little over-explaining but the story is gripping, and a page-turner. With every pitfall, I kept rooting for her, constantly awaiting to see her triumph!
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted covers the importance of worthwhile friendships, relationships, family, blended families, divorce and its impact on the children, alcoholism, racism, segregation, career, loss and the desire to have it all. It has some gut-wrenching sentences and I am a sucker for well-written sentences.
Excerpts
Whatever life you can get your hands on, you’ve got to live it right out to the corners. When I die, I want to skid into heaven with the last wheel falling off.
A lot of times it does feel exhausting. Because everything bad in society is about you, but when it comes to the good, nothing is for you. I feel like I’m not enough and too much, all at the same time.
Even if it’s just a week, it’s a special kind of missing someone when your best friend is away.
Now, Gretchen, a man that ain’t got no plan for you ain’t no man at all. And he’s definitely not your man, you hear? Real men got plans for the things important to them. If he ain’t got no plan for you, then you ain’t what’s important.
I say don’t ever die of exhaustion on somebody else’s terms!
How can you fight other people’s battles when it seems like nobody is fighting yours?
Once you become aware of what you don’t have, it becomes the thing you dream of.
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, There is no debate about the obstacles and challenges they face, yet the spirit to conquer it all remains resolute. A timely read, a book for anyone looking for that spark to keep going, the zeal to set new goals and knock them dead.
“Black Girls Must Die Exhausted”, her white grandmother kept saying. Society is always eager to pin the black girl down. Everything is set up to be a challenge even what ideally shouldn’t be. Throughout the book, the author’s passion and stand on racism is robust, heartfelt and painstakingly precise. She talks dearly about the loss of young black lives that should not have been lost. Profoundly states the fear ingrained in the young blacks by the police. As a reader, it placed me in the shoes of the victims both the departed and the survivors.
Additionally, as a struggling career woman fighting for a promotion against a white male, Tabitha just received the devastating news that her biological clock is running out of time. She has the painful decision of whether to spend her life savings on freezing her eggs or purchasing a home, one that has been a dream, do you sacrifice the desire to be a mother to own a home, or own a home and live alone in it? On the news that her eggs have put her on a timer, her relationship suffers.
Relying on her girls becomes pivotal. The characters are well developed, each friend different from the other but yet, clear why they find solace in each other. Theirs is a friendship cultivated through joys, sorrows, adventure, loss and the knowledge that they have each other’s backs. Their way of drawing out humour in all situations was a nice welcome.
Some chapters felt dragged out, and there’s a little over-explaining but the story is gripping, and a page-turner. With every pitfall, I kept rooting for her, constantly awaiting to see her triumph!
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted covers the importance of worthwhile friendships, relationships, family, blended families, divorce and its impact on the children, alcoholism, racism, segregation, career, loss and the desire to have it all. It has some gut-wrenching sentences and I am a sucker for well-written sentences.
Excerpts
Whatever life you can get your hands on, you’ve got to live it right out to the corners. When I die, I want to skid into heaven with the last wheel falling off.
A lot of times it does feel exhausting. Because everything bad in society is about you, but when it comes to the good, nothing is for you. I feel like I’m not enough and too much, all at the same time.
Even if it’s just a week, it’s a special kind of missing someone when your best friend is away.
Now, Gretchen, a man that ain’t got no plan for you ain’t no man at all. And he’s definitely not your man, you hear? Real men got plans for the things important to them. If he ain’t got no plan for you, then you ain’t what’s important.
I say don’t ever die of exhaustion on somebody else’s terms!
How can you fight other people’s battles when it seems like nobody is fighting yours?
Once you become aware of what you don’t have, it becomes the thing you dream of.
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, There is no debate about the obstacles and challenges they face, yet the spirit to conquer it all remains resolute. A timely read, a book for anyone looking for that spark to keep going, the zeal to set new goals and knock them dead.