Book Review: Tiffany Haddish Lays on the Obscene in 'The Last Black Unicorn'

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a side splitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.

Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.

By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.

The Last Black Unicorn Has No Sparkle

½ a star out of 5 stars

Okkkk. Where to start with The Last Black Unicorn…. I REALLY dig the fantasy vibes and silliness of the title. Plus, that cover art? Tiffany Haddish in a power pose on a punchy powder blue cover? It looks AMAZING. But enough cover judging. It’s time to drop it like it’s hot and open this bad girl up.

The Last Black Unicorn is an in-your-face and tell-all memoir. It’s a graphic, vulgar, and not particularly compelling to read.

Real talk: I did not enjoy The Last Black Unicorn.

I didn’t even like it in any way.

Other than the title and the cover photo this book did nothing for me.

Really.

I appreciate and acknowledge Tiffany’s unflinching honesty. Tiffany has been dealt A LOT of garbage and misfortune in her life. She’s been abused, neglected and struggled with self-worth, literacy and the negativity of bullies. But instead of letting that dictate her life and drag her down she channeled it into her comedy. What caused her to hurt, she used to beef up her side-hustle which has now become a full time gig for Tiffany.

Weeeell, sadly that doesn’t make up for all the issues I had reading this. The Last Black Unicorn aggressively and desperately tries to be edgy. It blasts the shock value up so high that if it were music streaming out of a stereo our ears would be throbbing.  

So much of this book is made up of raunchy and profane stories. It’s swearing on swearing on swearing with A LOT of slang. The humor, which especially relies on using the word “motherf*er” isn’t “side splitting” or “hysterical” to me. It’s lazy comedy and absolutely exhausting to read over and over and over. A single page can have half a dozen f* bombs and in a book that’s only 288 pages it adds up fast.  She also spends over three pages writing in depth about the sexcapades she had with one of her airport coworkers, a man name Roscoe who, as she never lets us forget, is disabled. It was pretty much a straight up porno scene and I was cringing. the. entire. time.

It’s so raunchy and awkward that it’s painful. I could barely stomach it, and stopped reading halfway through. 

When it comes to actual story telling, Tiffany kind of has a basic narrative going but it’s not very cohesive at all. What’s puzzling is that she does kind of follow an outline, specifically tracking her life and personality from her childhood up to present day, but it still feels disjointed. There’s a lot of exposition in each chapter, and although they’re short to begin with, it’s still an effort to read through it all.

I almost feel like The Last Black Unicorn would be more enjoyable and effective if it took a more creative route with the chapters: hopscotching from one idea/memory/current event to another. Both of Mindy Kaling’s novels have that structure and it makes reading her books so much more playful and energetic.  The Last Black Unicorn would have really benefited from a looser style like that, especially with Tiffany’s voice the way it is.

Tiffany’s clunky narrative is anchored to multiple lengthy conversations. These are chats she’s had with friends and her mentally unstable mother. Chats she’s had with her cheating ex-boyfriend, her neglectful step-father, and her grouchy grandmother. These moments are speedy reads but half the time are either embellished with obnoxious cursing OR have such scripted and ‘written’ vibes that I get the feeling they were written with hindsight and not necessarily how someone actually speaks.

In fact, so much of  The Last Black Unicorn is in this “he said, she said” script format that I can imagine this is more effective as an audiobook or even performed in person by Tiffany herself. But from the standpoint of the print book, this falters.

I’ve never seen movies or shows starring Tiffany Haddish other than occasional comedy bits but I still was eager to take this out. I LOVE how female comedians are FINALLY getting air time and platforms and the chance to do their thing. Yeah it may have taken to 2018 to getting here -and we still have WAYS to friends, WAYS to go- but finally we’re getting more representation and garnering more laughs than ever before.  

The thing is, I don’t have to be a fan of Tiffany’s performances or especially up to date with following her acts if she has the writing chops. Unfortunately she does not. Her words just didn’t strike a chord with me. Friends, there was nothing encouraging me to read forward. Tiffany’s writing just isn’t that compelling and it’s constantly broken up by gaping holes of what it’s lacking.

Not recommended. 

Try instead:

Unqualified by Anna Faris

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

Last Black Unicorn cover photo from book jacket; Gifs from giphy