Would Your Life Unravel if Someone You Knew Committed Suicide? Theirs Did. The Second Cup by @SarahM
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  • N. N. Light
    • Jun 19, 2018
    • 3 min read

Would Your Life Unravel if Someone You Knew Committed Suicide? Theirs Did. The Second Cup by @SarahM


Title: The Second Cup: Can Someone Else Steal Your Suicide? (The Butterfly Effect Book 1)

Author: Sarah Marie Graye

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Dark Chick-Lit

Book Blurb:

Would your life unravel if someone you knew committed suicide? Theirs did. FAYE knows her heart still belongs to her first love, Jack. She also knows he might have moved on, but when she decides to track him down, nothing prepares her for the news that he's taken his own life. Faye is left wondering how to move forward - and whether or not Jack's best friend Ethan will let her down again. And the news of Jack's death ripples through the lives of her friends too. ABBIE finds herself questioning her marriage, and wondering if she was right to leave her first love behind. Poor OLIVIA is juggling her job and her boyfriend and trying to deal with a death of her own. And Jack's death has hit BETH the hardest, even though she never knew him. Is Beth about to take her own life too? This is dark chick-lit and intelligent women's fiction at its best. Perfect for fans of Maggie O'Farrell, Elizabeth Strout, Dorothy Koomson and Amanda Prowse.

My Review:

What happens to a group of university friends (or mates as the Brits say) when one of their own commits suicide? No one has heard from Jack in ages and at the same time that Faye decides to see what he’s up to, she gets the news that he killed himself. Crushed beyond belief, she goes to meet her three girlfriends at the pub. Faye, Beth, Abbie and Olivia all deal with the news in their own way and separate from the others.

Faye goes on a trip to find Ethan, Jack’s best friend, and her friend as well. Abbie questions her life choices, her husband and deals with a mini-crisis of her own. Olivia is wracked with grief and wonders what will happen next. Beth, it seems, is hit the hardest. She just wants to escape the pain so she takes a pill and winds up in the hospital. Each woman has to come to grips with what happened to Jack and either embrace life or walk away.

The Second Cup is an emotive portrait into depression, suicide and the utter despair loved ones feel after someone commits suicide. Six friends, each dealing with their own circumstances at a crossroad, trying to figure out which way to go. Four choose life, one death and one is undecided. A clear message of clinging to what’s important underlies the grief and sadness of losing someone.

There are five POV’s which was confusing at the beginning but I understood why Graye choose multiple views. It brings us right in and as the reader, it’s what’s needed to connect with the five friends. The last chapter is Jack’s and while I’m still a little confused about why it’s in the book, it sheds some light on what led to Jack’s suicide.

Brilliantly written, Graye takes an intense situation and instead of shying away from it, she strips away the bandage so we can see the raw, oozing wound. Depression is in every corner of the world and suicide rates are rising. This book sheds light on why we need to help those suffering from it in any way we can.

Favorite Character/Quote:

“There also seemed to be a calmness between her and the others that hadn’t been there before. Life was like one of Matt’s games and she’d made it to the next level: to adulthood.”

My Rating: 4.5 stars

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Author Biography:

Sarah Marie Graye was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, in 1975, to English Catholic parents. One of five daughters, to the outside world Sarah Marie’s childhood followed a relatively typical Manchester upbringing... until aged nine, when she was diagnosed with depression. It’s a diagnosis that has stayed with Graye over three decades, and something she believes has coloured every life decision, including the one to write a novel. Graye wrote The Second Cup as part of an MA Creative Writing practice as research degree at London South Bank University – where she was the vice-chancellor’s scholarship holder. First published in July 2017, The Second Cup was longlisted for the Book Viral 2017 Millennium Book Award and was included in Read Freely’s Top 50 Indie Books 2017. Graye was diagnosed with ADHD in November 2017... and published an extended edition of The Second Cup in February 2018 so she could diagnose one of her characters with the same condition.

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Reviewed by: Mrs. N

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