A review by foolishwit13
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

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

2.0

This book was not well written, for starters. The writing felt awkward and it lacked depth. Moments of high emotion didn’t feel any different than casual moments, and the only indicator would be the dialogue tag changing from “I said” to “I screamed” or “I snapped”. The characters were less fully developed people and more caricatures based on ideas or stereotypes of people (über religious family, creepy predatory man, Jewish friend, indifferent boss, etc). Other reviewers have mentioned this. Lots of plot lines or subjects felt very unfinished and it touched on a lot but resolved very little. Any internal character development or developments between characters felt fake, especially after conflict (i.e. Queenie and her mom, Queenie and Cassandra). Relationships or moments that seemed important (Cassandra’s dad, Queenie’s therapist, etc) were forgotten. And the book took a very blasé, almost unworried approach to some very intense themes and descriptions of sexual violence. Overall I was really disappointed in this book as I’d heard  good things. I almost DNFed it but finished it hoping it would get better, but it actually may have gotten worse. 
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