I struggled with this title. I wanted to enjoy it, from the blurb, it sounded like a book I'd enjoy.
However personally, this title and I didn't meld.

Not original in the slightest. I was let down and really wanted something that would discuss issues in a different and more unique way.

Suicide Gyal is a book that explores a lot of important themes that need to have a brighter light shone on them. There is an air of sadness to the writing, maybe because of the author's own displacement from Hackney, and I was moved by the foreword and the author's message to young readers

I love that Sharon refuses to be defined by or ashamed of where she grew up.

Part of me was sickened by Sharon's father's behaviour, but another part questioned whether I would feel any differently to him if I was an immigrant trying to keep out of trouble. This was just one of many questions this book raised for me, and not one I have the answer to.

DNF at 24%. I hate dnfing books because I truly want to give them all a chance, but this just wasn't for me. Even though it's a very short book, every page felt really dense, I didn't really understand what was happening most of the time. So happy for the people who enjoyed it, though!

Im not going to lie, I did not understand this short book. It was written in such a weird style that I had to force myself to read more than a few chapters and after that I had to DNF it. I could not understand whether the author was writting in first or third person and who the story was about. I did go into the story believing it to be a dark story (by the title), however it was very detailed and made me feel sick at some points. I could not red more than 30%.

This book was right up my alley and I devoured it. I love the premise, the way the story is told, and how gritty and real it all felt. This story is very triggering, but it was so so amazing! I honestly couldn't read it fast enough while also telling myself I needed to slow down and enjoy it. I cried, I screamed and I loved every moment of reading this book.

A decent read with a gripping storyline and characters that it’s almost impossible not to root for. It wasn’t my favourite read but would recommend to fans of the genre.

Suicide Gyal discussed some important issues around mental health, race and other issues that are occurring in the UK but I just couldn't get into the story.

The pacing was slow, and I found it really hard to pick the book up even though it's less than 200 pages. I wanted to enjoy the book, and I may re-read it when the book is released but it wasn't one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

this was a really interesting read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed how the author handled hard topics. I look forward to more from the author.

I figured with a title like Suicide Gyal, there’s probably be some suicide mentioned. However, I was not expecting it to be in the first chapter. And yes, while I did keep reading and realized she wasn’t necessarily trying to kill herself... it set a precedent for the rest of the book. I continued to read until about 10-12% and I just couldn’t get into it. It was hard to follow, it jumped all over the place. I wish I could have gotten into it, since reading other reviews show that it’s about mental illness (schizophrenia to be exact) but alas. Not my cup of tea.

I was absolutely captivated by this story from page one! The voice that this story is written with is so vulnerable and authentic, the story is original, the characters are well developed and the voices are diverse. It is such a gripping and addictive book that is a quick read! I'd say it's perfect for a rainy weekend in. I can't wait to reread this in the future.

Socrates once said of the youth in his day, “they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” Some might say not much has changed since the days of ancient Greece. However, the novel, Suicide Gyal, by M.Y. Antrobus lives in the world of today’s teens who have so often been betrayed by the adults charged with their education and protection. These youth might tell Socrates to, “walk a mile in our shoes and then STFU!”

Suicide Gyal follows Sharon, a British student of Nigerian descent, who is growing up in Hackney, an underprivileged area of East London. Due to an accident and several emotionally damaging losses, Sharon is now haunted by several ghosts and suffers from recurring nightmares. One of the ghosts is April, a girl from her neighborhood who was murdered. Sharon thinks she knows who the killer is, but because so many adults in her life have let her down, she doesn’t know who she can trust. The ghosts warn her that if she doesn’t do something about it her older sister may be the next to die.

In her self-published novel, Antrobus explores the issues of displacement and disillusionment in the idea of home. There is little safety in Sharon’s world. She and her friends are surrounded by danger, and they suffer losses in their ranks from suicide, kidnapping, and murder. Since the adults won’t help, and in many cases perpetuate the danger, Sharon fears her only option is to kill or be killed. Antrobus displays Sharon’s world through the lens of the Nigerian immigrant’s experience. They only bring trouble upon themselves if they speak to the police. As a daughter, Sharon sees that women can possess strength and power, yet tradition still favors men.

With the doggedness of a film noir detective, Sharon skulks, Marlow-like, through her neighborhood on her bicycle observing and questioning. Antrobus also peppers in the Nigerian view of the supernatural. The visitations are terrifying, frustratingly elusive, yet they provide help when most needed. Suicide Gyal has many suspenseful scenes where the pages just fly past, however, the pace of the novel is tripped up at times by extraneous details and long passages of wandering introspection.

Socrates may have been in a bad mood the day he disparaged the young, so better to turn to Mandela who encouraged the youth of today to, “be the scriptwriters of your destiny and feature yourselves as stars that showed the way towards a brighter future.” Antrobus may send her characters through darkness and horror, but she gives them the strength to fight their battles despite adults who want to bring them down.

I struggled getting into this book because there was a lot of information thrown my way in the beginning. The idea of the novel caught my interest but fell a bit flat through the writing. I feel if the narrator connected better, there might have been more of a pull for me to read.

TW: abuse, death and murder, suicide

There were parts of this book that I enjoyed and parts that I didn't like at all. The initial chapters of this book was very difficult to get into - I couldn't connect with the writing and the characters. But then when the story took up pace, I enjoyed it. It had themes of grief, racism and mental health molded well into a sort of a thriller. The middle part of the book was really good, I think. But alas, it fell short in the ending again.

I think this is an important book with some really interesting characters. It is also with diverse characters, I'll give that. I just think the writing is something that didn't work for me. I struggled with the first few pages, and although it was short, it took me some time to read the book.

There was a lot of info-dumping that I could care less about. This led me to skip a lot of parts in the book because a) it wasn't important to the overall story and b) it was just very slow. Yes, the book was very slow. I was also a bit confused with the sudden hallucinations that occured, and I had to read those parts slowly to understand what was real and what wasn't. There was so much going on in the story that I got confused more than once tbh. Despite that, I believe that are parts that I really enjoyed and certain aspects of the story really well done.

Overall, I think this is an important read with important themes tackled but the writing was sloppy and slow enough to deter the reader's attention away.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the e-arc. All views expressed are solely mine.

A lot of info dump at the beginning, but an interesting story. Couldn’t feel myself really getting into it as much as I would like. I felt there needed to be a connection between the narrator and other characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It dealt with important issue at face value more notably, mental illness. Also, snaps for the cover art. Loving the less is more look. I loved the way it was written. It was, what I would call, a mindless read. Easy to understand and catch onto the dialogue.. However, there were many characters introduced in the beginning of the book. I found myself having to go back a few pages o refresh my memory as to who was who and what the issue at hand is. I sometimes found that there were parts in the book where the plot foundation was really strong and then times where is was a poor foundation, thus, making me a bit confused and lost.. I was able to steer myself back most of the time.....

However, these are all things I did like about this book. I like the dialogue involving social issues and mental illness. I generally find those topics of interests (fiction and non-fiction). It really drew me in and helps me become more empathetic with the characters. Overall, I would recommend this book to the right person.

This was an interesting one. I liked parts of it, and other parts not so much. My main complaint was that it was pretty hard to get into, maybe because not a lot happens at the very beginning. I did end up enjoying it though. I liked the characters and also I will read literally any murder mystery I am given, so it's nice when the story also involves some other stuff to make it different. I liked the mental illness rep a lot, because it's rare you get books, especially in this genre, where the main character has schizophrenia rather than something less "taboo" like anxiety or depression. I love complicated main characters, and Sharon was very interesting.
Overall not the best mystery I've ever read, but I did like it! Interested to see what else this author writes.

Suicide Gyal
M.Y. Antrobus
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This title caught my eye and I was very intrigued about what exactly this story would be about. This is a raw look at suicide, sexual abuse, mental health and guilt. I felt for Sharon the main character but was also confused throughout the story. At times I really struggled especially with reading about Sharon’s inner monologue. For me this story needs more interaction with the other characters. Thank you to NetGalley for an electronic copy of this book for my honest review.

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This may be a great book, but I just can't get into it. I am not seeing the plot and the writing is just not for me. Better luck next time!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this story. There were a lot of serious issues brought up in this story like race, mental illness, and schizophrenia. The main character, Sharon, is very interesting and the reader learns a lot about her and gets to see many different aspects of her personality. There were a lot of flashbacks in the book that I didn't realize were flashbacks until after the scene ended which was confusing. The second half seemed much better about this or I just adjusted to the author's writing style. Once I got to the halfway point I was very invested in the story and could not put it down. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange of an honest review.