Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

36 reviews

marissasa's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad tense 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

This story is a realistic and sharp look at a Black-British 20-something woman's life and struggles. I read most of the book physically and listened to a few chapters on audiobook, which was very entertainingly British and Jamaican with all the narrators' accents. Queenie herself is a deeply hurt and traumatized character, who for the first part of the book continuously makes bad choices and spirals deeper and deeper into her messy situation. Throughout it all you get to see her struggle with her suffering but also slowly start to realize her own role in her pain, but the writing very intentionally showed this growth in a humorous and relatable way through Queenie, her friends, and her family's unique voices. I loved that each character felt like a real person and had their own motivations and personalities, even the smaller side ones. The character development in this book was really well done, and showed the wide range of both positive and negative relationships that young women today may find in their lives. I found myself both cringing at her choices and rooting for things to go right for her, which made her feel so realistic and so human and relatable. I loved seeing our flawed character begin to accept that she has issues and actively try to get better for her own health and happiness through therapy and setting boundaries. So much of the dialogue and humor in this book felt like things I would talk about with my own friends in real life, and I genuinely felt like the use of email and text messages in this format added to the book in meaningful ways. I'm so glad Queenie got a realistic but positive ending that felt satisfying but not too cliché.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Abandonment, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

khymihr's review against another edition

Triggered anxiety; not worth cont. at this time

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual content

Minor: Police brutality

marcookiekat's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Mental illness

Minor: Police brutality

ajourneythroughpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Racism, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy, Police brutality, Suicide, Drug use, and Abandonment

gcrespo97's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

4.75

This book gave me so much anxiety but it was so good I couldn’t put it down. I had so much love for the main character and wanted things to work out for her so badly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

jmcampbell57's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

armontheroad's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-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

CONTENT WARNING FOR REVIEW: Discussions of rape

QUEENIE is a novel that does not shy away from hard-hitting topics. Candice Carty-Williams did such an amazing job at making me care for Queenie. MY heart broke over and over again at all the traumatic experiences Queenie was put through. There were a few reasons this wasn’t five stars. Firstly, I was so happy seeing Queenie go into therapy, however, I was waiting for her to unpack the fact the sexual encounters she has throughout this book were in fact all rape. I don’t like this was never talked about because it leaves even more survivors thinking their experiences are totally normal, nothing to worry about, and it leaves them unaware that their experiences are rape. I do like that Queenie mentions implementing the behaviors she learned in therapy in her day-to-day life, though. Secondly, the female/male terminology is transphobic and dehumanizing. I do not believe there is reason to use these terms at all in modern language. It gave me major ick every time I saw a woman referred to as a female or a man referred to as a male. Especially since there is no way of knowing from just looking at someone. I did not believe those two things were enough to take away a full star, so I left my rating at a 4.5-star rating. I severely recommend this book, however, it is dark and you should be fully aware of all of the content and trigger warnings before going into your read. I am looking forward to reading more from Candice Carty-Williams!!

CWs: Gentrification, fetishization, microaggressions, TERF language (female and male are not terms that should be used at all), all other warnings are listed below.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Police brutality, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Slavery and Car accident

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Racism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Infertility, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Grief, and Suicide

josy_trapp's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Hate crime, Murder, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

bookshelf_of_jess's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book so much. It was both hilarious and heartbreaking at times. I really enjoyed that despite the focus on Queenie and Tom’s breakup, the most important relationships were very clearly her relationships with her family and her friends. The book expertly examines what it is to be a woman today whilst touching on the important issues of race and class. I would 100% recommend this book to everyone - this should be required reading! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Racism

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality