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A review by plantybooklover
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
spoiler alert ** In this novel we meet Queenie, a young 25 yr old who's gone through a sudden "break" with her long term Boyfriend whom she had assumed she was going to marry. Queenie works at a national paper- and has some devoted friends and a fairly good relationship with her Jamaican Grandparents and immediately it's easy to get sucked in to this well written story.
Set in current times (but neatly avoiding the Pandemic) Queenie unfortunately starts quite a downward spiral after her breakup. Her work suffers, her friends have to listen to long ongoing discussions all revolving around her entirely and she starts to go out with just any man who happens to turn up. These men are hideous, and awful, and Queenie continues to blandly see them, and announce her wild sexual exploits at work. Eventually this catches up to her and she is wrongfully accused of sexual harassment and made to leave the office. Throughout the novel, Queenie highlights struggles faced by black women- being sexualized and fetishized, having their hair appropriated and touched by everyone and anyone, being stereotyped as a loud or angry woman. Queenie faces them all.
To be honest, I found myself not liking Queenie very much- for the most part- and through most of the story- Queenie is entirely focused on how Queenie sees the world and what/how the world can provide for Queenie. She seemingly has no insight into her own behaviors and no real interest in the lives of others- there's very little character development of any of her 3 friends or even her mother or aunt, probably because Queenie is only aware of Queenie. We have all had friend where it's their show 100% of the time.
That said, when Queenie essentially loses her job, she ends up in therapy. Through therapy- Queenie does develop a touch of insight, realizing some things about her very traumatic childhood, and is able to emerge from her downward spiral. She's reinstated at her job, and returns with an intention to actually work- which she follows through on. The ending recaps what Queenie calls her "nervous breakdown" and how things seem to be on the up and up- for her, her mother and most of her friends. By the end, I was cheering for Queenie, although honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to be her friend since it seems like it would just be a Queenie support role...
I think this book was so well written and it was very interesting. I did the audio book- which made the book much more palatable for me. I do recommend, but it strikes me as missing an intended mark and landing between a fun gal-pal beach read and a serious commentary on the situation of the world from the lens of a black woman.
Set in current times (but neatly avoiding the Pandemic) Queenie unfortunately starts quite a downward spiral after her breakup. Her work suffers, her friends have to listen to long ongoing discussions all revolving around her entirely and she starts to go out with just any man who happens to turn up. These men are hideous, and awful, and Queenie continues to blandly see them, and announce her wild sexual exploits at work. Eventually this catches up to her and she is wrongfully accused of sexual harassment and made to leave the office. Throughout the novel, Queenie highlights struggles faced by black women- being sexualized and fetishized, having their hair appropriated and touched by everyone and anyone, being stereotyped as a loud or angry woman. Queenie faces them all.
To be honest, I found myself not liking Queenie very much- for the most part- and through most of the story- Queenie is entirely focused on how Queenie sees the world and what/how the world can provide for Queenie. She seemingly has no insight into her own behaviors and no real interest in the lives of others- there's very little character development of any of her 3 friends or even her mother or aunt, probably because Queenie is only aware of Queenie. We have all had friend where it's their show 100% of the time.
That said, when Queenie essentially loses her job, she ends up in therapy. Through therapy- Queenie does develop a touch of insight, realizing some things about her very traumatic childhood, and is able to emerge from her downward spiral. She's reinstated at her job, and returns with an intention to actually work- which she follows through on. The ending recaps what Queenie calls her "nervous breakdown" and how things seem to be on the up and up- for her, her mother and most of her friends. By the end, I was cheering for Queenie, although honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to be her friend since it seems like it would just be a Queenie support role...
I think this book was so well written and it was very interesting. I did the audio book- which made the book much more palatable for me. I do recommend, but it strikes me as missing an intended mark and landing between a fun gal-pal beach read and a serious commentary on the situation of the world from the lens of a black woman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Racism
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Alcohol