The Unfortunates (2023) by J.K. Chukwu is probably better read than listened to, although I very much appreciated it, as it deals with themes of microaggressions, body size, queerness, depression, and the alienation of a black college sophomore student at a primarily white institution.
Told from the perspective of Sahara, a half-Nigerian pre-med student, in the form of the thesis she is planning to leave for the committee after her planned suicide, it includes a lot of mixed media–texts, footnotes, emails, and art, that don’t translate perfectly to audio. The “Unfortunates” are the many black students she knows that have died while attending, for various reasons. Although she doesn’t want to become another one of them, her depression, or her “Life Partner”, pushes her often towards making real plans to end it all. It is dark, and sometimes difficult to listen to, but may help some people reading/ listening to it feel less alone.
Sahara has an ongoing toilet paper feud with her roommate, and tends to do self-destructive things with alcohol and drugs, and ignores her bestie because her Life Partner deceives her. She doesn’t want to be a disappointment to Mother and Father and Little Brother 1 and Little Brother 2, but she doesn’t see any other options.
It’s really hard to describe this book, but it’s really well done. I’d recommend for anyone who wants to know more about black experiences in primarily white institutions. Sahara’s queerness is handled very matter-of-factly, as is her body size, mostly, although I think her depression has commonalities with an eating disorder.
I’m going to consider it Mixed Anti-fat biased and Fat Positive, as although Sahara does seem to have an eating disorder, weight loss is not an ultimate part of the book. She is fat, and depressed, but her fatness doesn’t seem to be a major part of her depression.
Reading While Fat 