DNF'd at 18% as I felt it was not or me. The writing style felt a little overly satirical for my preference and I couldn't find any interest in the main character. Seeing some great reviews from other readers so just not my cup of tea..

i found it hard to rate this one - i wasn't very interested/enjoying the start but pushed through and i'm glad i did. this is a difficult one to read with the exploration of depression, but i enjoyed the slow growth. i haven't been enjoying school settings recently and i think that probably extends to uni settings, maybe just because i'm at uni rn lol. it was quite slow with a lot of mundane actions, footnotes and the writing style, which i could never work out if i enjoyed or not. i liked the mixed media as well as the supporting characters. a mixed read!

This story offers a compelling narrative, delving into the experiences of a black student navigating the complexities of an elite American university. The storyline intricately explores the nuances of her daily encounters with microaggressions, providing a sharp and insightful examination of racism and mental health challenges.

It sheds light on the intricate dynamics of being a young black woman in the 21st century, grappling with societal perceptions from family, lecturers, and friends.

Written in an almost stream on consciousness style, in the thesis format added for a very different feel. The unique mixed-media presentation adds a quirky touch to an already engaging narrative.

Although chaotic in parts and perhaps a little confusing in others. I found it a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

This book was totally unexpected in a variety of ways. A fantastic read that touches on many of the issues marginalized people go through today. The characters were really touching.

this is a brilliant and original debut from a talented new author. Written as an honours thesis by a young, half-Nigerian half-African-American student who is losing her long struggle with depression, dubbed LP (Life Partner). It's full of dark humour setting the tone but is also heartfelt throughout, creating a moving narrative. Sahara delves into her depression and isolation in an institution that corners her constantly with racism and sexism. Sahara’s voice is brilliant and honest.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the arc

A hugely original and brilliant debut from a very talented new author. Written as an honours thesis by Sahara a young, half-Nigerian half-African-American student who is losing her long struggle with depression whom she has dubbed LP (Life Partner). This dark humour off-sets the difficult and heartfelt subject matter throughout, creating a moving but genuinely funny narrative with a wonderfully realised narrator. Sahara lays out her life, delving into her depression and her isolation in an elite institution that corners her constantly with its racism and sexism. It’s fantastic satire, biting and insightful and eye-opening. Sahara’s voice is perfect, a real and honest narrator who breaks your heart and makes you laugh within a few lines. Chukwu is a marvel, original and confident and I hope she writes many, many more books for us to enjoy.

although I wasn't a fan of the format, I did enjoy this book and how well the concept was carried out

A Intresting read. I didn't enjoy the way it was written was hard to follow and didn't flow. It was written in a mocking way which I didn't enjoy.

This was an interesting one structurally. Written as a mock thesis addressed to the thesis committee of the university the narrator attends, it’s a fresh, offbeat, edgy take on the minority student experience.

The narrator is a young Black woman, half Nigerian, studying English at a predominantly white elite US college. She is consumed with depression (she describes depression as her “LP” or life-partner), self-harms and has suicidal thoughts.

The subject matter is very grim but it still manages to be funny and sharp in its observations on endemic and casual racism, and the difficulties for minority students in an academic setting where white people barely have to think about fitting in. There’s a storyline running through the book where the narrator suspects her roommate of stealing toilet paper and the ending gave me a chuckle 😅.

The book is interspersed with art and graphics (the author is a writer and visual artist) and has a scrapbook feel as you’re reading it. I think it might have worked better as a colour graphic novel, but it’s certainly eye-catching and grabs your attention. The book’s quirky structure is also what prevented me from ever feeling completely invested in it; the use of acronyms and footnotes on every page took me out of the story.

An interesting one that I’m glad to have read. It’s always a good thing to put yourself in someone’s shoes. There is a growing genre of books like this and they’re important to read - they make the (white) reader uncomfortable, provoke thought, conversation and - you’d hope - greater consideration and even social change for those who have to work ten times as hard to achieve the same things. 3/5⭐️

If you liked Luster, Such a Fun Age, Everything’s Fine, The Other Black Girl, Black Buck, Queenie among others, this is another to add to your list.

Thanks @harpercollinsire for the #gifted copy.

The Unfortunates is a really funny story about a black student in an elite university in America. It is about the ins and outs of her time there and how she deals with the microaggressions on a daily basis.

It is a sharp look at racism, mental health and what it is like to be a young black woman in the 21st century battling with the perceptions of others - her family, her lecturers and her friends.

The Unfortunates is a good story told in a quirky mixed media fashion and one that I really enjoyed.

The Unfortunates by J K Chukwu is available now.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit their Twitter page.

It's a powerful tale of the effects of grief, and mental illness from the perspective of a black woman - a rare tale that was beautiful to read.

This was fantastic. Presented in the form of a thesis, main character Sahara uses a biting, satirical tone as she lays out the constant bigotry she and other African American and Asian American students live with daily, whether from microaggressions to outright racial slurs at Elite University.

Sahara is struggling with a lot: her perception of her body, her lack of romantic partner(s), her sexual identity, her family's expectations and disappoint, her inability to focus on her schoolwork, the constant level of bigotry she encounters, and the Black classmates who keep dying.

To cope with her depression, whom she dubs her "Life Partner", she drinks too much, cuts herself off emotionally from others and cuts herself.

She relates her feelings and experiences over months at the university, all as a way to show why she, too, will disappear and die.

Sahara is near breaking, and uses humour to show how angry and hurt she by the constant racism she experiences, how she cannot tell her family that she's queer, and that she expresses her frustration on her body through cutting and getting drunk regularly, and that her grades are suffering because of her mental state.

The writing is great, and the use of other things such as emails, texts, etc. help to flesh out Sahara's character but also to bring life to the people and places she encounters.

The book is absorbing, and author J.K. Chukwu uses great sensitivity when exploring things like sexuality, body image, depression.

Chukwu's Sahara is a wonderful creation. College/university life is tough, and Sahara's emotions are raw; everything becomes too much, but thankfully, this dark story did have a hopeful ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Unfortunates is an interesting one. It's a very unique look at the pressures of being a young, queer, POC in America today, and is written in a very dry and sardonic tone. It touches on drug abuse, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

It's a well written book, and I'm sure that there are people who will absolutely love this. But I think I've just read a lot of books lately that are narrated by bleak, dry, sardonic young women. And I think I was meant to find this really ground breaking, but I just.. didn't. Unlike others though, I really enjoyed the foot notes!

This was a very intense but beautiful novel! I really loved how the academic paper/thesis format was intertwined in the novel. I went into the novel thinking it was a thriller due to the blurb, but the actual plot made it even more entertaining. Will definitely read more by Chuckwu!

I really enjoyed the writing style of The unfortunates, it’s almost comical while being brutally heartbreaking and emotional.
Sahara is half Nigerian, queer, studying at Uni while battling with depression and suicidal ideation.
I did struggle to keep up with the abbreviations throughout the book, and I feel the book ended too abruptly without real closure. Plus 30mins of footnotes which I skimmed.
However I highly enjoyed this story, despite the sad and bleak outlook Sahara has on life, it’s honest and touches on some difficult subjects including self harm but It’s done well., with a more positive outlook towards the end of the book.

this was okay, but read a little juvenile and i didn't feel connected to the characters or what happens to them at all. i can see other reader enjoying this a lot tho!

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.

Through no fault of the writer, I just couldn’t engage with this book. The footnoting drove me bonkers and it’s just not my style of writing.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC in exchange for a review!

Boy oh boy was this book an emotional rollercoaster! I need to preface this by saying that I highly recommend it but if you are currently struggling with depression and/or self-harm, please take care of yourself if you read it!
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The Unfortunates is told in the style of a thesis written by Sahara, a queer, half-Black half-Nigerian sophomore who is in the grips of debilitating depression. As well as her depression, Life Partner or LP as she refers to it, Sahara is also grappling with all of the exhaustion that comes from being a young Black woman in an Ivy League college entrenched in institutionalised racism. Other Black students are ‘graduating early’ at an alarming rate, driven to suicide, dropping out, or failed by the medical professionals supposedly charged with their care. Courtney @busyblackbookworm put it perfectly in her review - the racism Chukwu exhibits in her book is not explicit, but rather the focus is on the everyday micro-aggressions and ignorance prevalent at mostly-white institutions. Slowly but surely, this form pervasive racism wears down the Black students (and other students of colour, as briefly explored with Sahara’s best friend, but the chief focus is on Black students), forcing them to drastic, devastating measures.
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Chukwu does an incredible job of showing the oppressive reality of being a Black depressed woman in a mostly white sphere. At one point Sahara despairs over how to explain to her parents ‘why [she is] incapable of simply learning for four years’. When in reality there’s nothing simple at all when your depression is making existing seem like an impossible task, coupled with fighting back against an institution that is doing its very best to erase Black students.
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There is some also humour through the despair, as well as intriguing zine illustrations which I mostly felt too dense to ‘get’. Overall a candid & challenging read and I look forward to what’s next from debut author J.K. Chukwu!

The Unfortunates is a darkly comic novel exploring the mental health of a Black student at a top American college. The narrator is Sahara, a Black woman with depression (her Life Partner, or LP) studying at a top University. She doesn't want to disappoint her parents, who wish she would become a doctor instead of maybe majoring in English Literature, or her Ride Or Die best friend, or the woman she has a crush on, but her depression controls so much of her experiences, and soon things are spiralling out of control.

Written as if it was a university final project and incorporating visual art and surreal pieces interjected into the text, this is a distinctive novel with a memorable voice. Sahara uses acronyms to refer to everyone, apparently to anonymise the text as it is being submitted as a project, and there's footnotes throughout, and all of these elements work together to make it really feel like a hybrid text created by someone trying to document their complex experiences not just with depression, but also with being a Black queer woman at a US college and not being how people expect her to be. The book is powerful and sad, but also witty, carefully balances to make what are very heavy topics (suicidal ideation features heavily in this book, which is worth being aware of before reading) have cutting commentary and even funny moments.

I wasn't sure where the book would go and it almost felt inevitable, but I think that the narrative is carefully handled, making Sahara's experiences seem realistic but also probing the depression-fuelled idea that there's no support out there. Some of the real ridiculousnesses of university and especially in the way that elite institutions deal with tragedy and injustice are very pointedly depicted and The Unfortunates really shows that the dark side of academia many people experience isn't some "dark academic" plot, but mundane inequalities, unfairness, and bigotry.

People need to go into this book knowing that it is a deep look at depression, self-harm, and suicidal ideation, because that won't be something everyone can just pick up and read, but when you do read it, it is a powerful exploration of mental health and race at a US college with a creative style and structure. I felt like it refreshed the idea of what a campus novel could be, especially one posing as an assignment, and how you can intertwine personal experiences with structural problems.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for the access to this book. I don’t think this is a bad book let’s keep that clear. Maybe is not the book for me in the state of mind I got and the life phase I am living now. Leaving this clear I need to say that I Find the book difficult to engage. And at the ending of the book then I started to feel lots of things but I still get annoyed about that the experiences since most of the book evoque not much to me. Is beautiful written and I think many people will love it and will feel related to the experience. I like the ending.