Reviews

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Only show reviews with written explanations

bobinsbooknook's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I wanted to enjoy this book more but overall found myself really struggling to get through this audio book.

The majority of the characters felt very 1 dimensional. I found Queenie to be incredibly difficult to enjoy as a character for a vast portion of the book and it was only watching her develop towards the end that actually sold it for me.

The fact that pretty much every guy in this book has some form of black fetish or is racist just made the characters feel so impactful in places. Also that Queenie is a so self centred until she has therapy and even then it’s still such a minor change in terms of her actually giving a shit about the people around her.

I can understand the comparisons so similar coming-of-age style books like Bridget jones but the decisions made by Queenie really took me out of a lot of the story and made it very difficult to sympathise with at times when you realise she is meant to be 25/26 and for a huge part acts really immature.

Content Warnings

trippalli's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

A young black woman struggles through dating... Uncomfortably realistic to what I recall of the poor sex, men having affairs and cheating and lying and the poor aspects of dating apps.. Struggling at work, with family and to reconnect to her once true love while on a"break" where he won't respond for months she tried dating but it devolves into rampant casual sex, getting pressured into sex she doesn't want while trying to find herself yet until she braces going against her family to seek mental health counseling and reset her career, her self esteem and relationships with friends, family and dating all improve.

It's is very very difficult to listen to some of the things she goes through, however so I keep waffling in my training: both excellent and upsetting,
Endsv with positivity.

hyac1nthgirl's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

loved following queenie's journey to claiming her self-worth and acknowledging her trauma.

deanashuman's review against another edition

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2.0

I did not enjoy this book. Not a sympathetic character in the bunch. Every character was either grossly one-dimensional (every white character a study in covert...or overt...racism, and every man a study in grotesque sexism and sexual violence, and that is it. Nothing more to them.) or unbelievably stupid in their choices (the main character is pretty much raped by a guy and goes on a few more dates with him...but a guy who offers to buy her a drink is turned down and we’re supposed to be proud of her for that...Whaaa??). The dialogue reminded me of conversations with a pathological liar...I’m always thinking, “No, they did not say that, because people DO NOT TALK LIKE THAT”. Queenie’s terrible choices sort of reminded me of my 20’s, and once was enough for that mess. I should have stopped half-way through but HATE doing that.

sanahreads's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

abookreadernamedmorgan's review against another edition

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challenging emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book. The main character, Queenie, could be quite annoying at times. She obviously was going through some things that as a reader I saw were apparent but her friends just didn’t see it. For a moment there I felt like none of them were telling her the truth as a true friend would do. But I’m the end it turns out good. I ended up only really disliking one of them.

sarahay's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Queenie is a superb first person narrator. Switching between time frames, her complexity is very gradually revealed. The tone of the narrative matches the happy-go-lucky self that she first presents and this is an easy read in a chick-lit style. But wow- what this chick is up against. We begin to sense her anger and resentment early on and by the end we’ve been taken to some pretty dark places. Queenie remains entirely likeable (which is clever given the realism of her mental spiralling) and her story is lightly told. But there’s so much to engage with that the narrative is always completely compelling. The struggle isn’t just our narrator’s personal journey from her Jamaican South London family out into the world: it’s BLM or women’s rights or how to get heard in a media obsessed with celebrity etc etc. Queenie, the first in her family to graduate and now trying to make it as a journalist, needs to find her identity as a black woman and acceptance within a white middle-class where “colour-blindness” is a fallacy. But her struggle as a woman is more than that and is relateable to anyone not-so-advantaged trying to find a place in a privileged world. Comparisons with Brigid Jones only make sense because the tone of the book is fun, but the story of Queenie herself is so much more.