Book Review #72: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Hey Guys x

I had heard about this book quite a few times by a few different people before I got the chance to read it. But by the time I received it as a Christmas present, I was really excited about it!

Queenie Jenkins is having a hard time. She is on a break (just a break) from her boyfriend, she can't concentrate at work, she hates being at home, and her grandmother's house is even worse! But as Queenie delves deeper into why she's so unhappy, she discovers that maybe the unresolved issues in her past will stop her from having a happy future.

I feel like I was supposed to love this book. It's a character that I feel close to on a basic level, based on the fact that we are both black Caribbean women living in South London, and there are so many things that she says in the novel that I completely understand based on where I live and have been brought up. For example, there's a scene in the book where Queenie has therapy, and when she described where she was having this therapy, I realised that I have had a very similar type of therapy in the exact same building. And that happened quite a few times throughout the book.

In this respect, I could see why I should have liked this book, if not loved it.

So I was, and am, really disappointed by the fact that I was disappointed by the novel.

For a start, I could not sympathise or empathise with the character of Queenie at all. Whether this is at the beginning of the novel, or after we found out why she is the way she is, she never sat right with me. I feel like I disagreed with most things she said, she was a really bad friend, she made every single thing that happened revolve around her, and it got to the point where I couldn't stand her.

But the character of Queenie isn't the only thing that I didn't enjoy about the novel.

For me, even if a character is unlikeable, a good plot can still save the story, and I really didn't enjoy the plot.
In a way, it felt like it was two different stories. The second of the two was about Queenie's past, what she had gone through, and how this had shaped her, and for the most part, this was okay, and I understood why the book focused on this.
But the first story was about a girl whose life was just getting worse due to things that were caused by her own actions. Everything stemmed from the fact that she was on a break from her boyfriend - but everything she did just felt like an overreaction based on the flashbacks of them together, where their relationship never seemed that strong.
Neither of these plots were particularly interesting. And for me, it was the lack of interest in these plots, rather than Queenie's character itself, that made it hard for me to get through the story.

One of the most prevalent themes of the book is race, and because I don't ever really see/read fiction books with black protagonists set in the modern world, I feel like I never see race being discussed the way it was in this book, and I suppose that was supposed to be refreshing.
However, I just disagreed with so many race-based things in the book that I felt a bit let down. For example, Queenie and her best friend, Darcy, have a slight disagreement about an incident where a black man was shot by the police. The way Queenie reacted to Darcy's innocent question changed the conversation from what can be done about this incident, to Queenie and her struggles, which happened so many times.
And then there's Queenie's friend Kyazike, who is her only black friend and is used as a mouthpiece for everything to do with race that Queenie doesn't say herself. Kyazike is a character that I really liked, more so than any of the other characters, actually, but I felt like she was made to be some kind of caricature for 'black women'. The best way I can describe this is that it felt like she was at the extreme end of a spectrum, and every piece of dialogue written for her was written from the point of view of 'what would a black girl say?' rather than 'what would Kyazike say?', and I felt like the only black character in the novel not related to Queenie deserved better than that.
But in the same way, all the characters felt like their only purpose was to further Queenie's story. And while this makes sense because she is the protagonist, I would have liked the characters to be able to stand on their own.

Still on the subject of race, what I found confusing and then really interesting was the fact that both Queenie and Kyazike make a point of saying that Queenie only dates white boys, and as we read on we see that the reason for this is linked to Queenie's past. And while I liked the explanation for this, I felt like if it was going to be done, there had to be a reason that Queenie gravitated towards white boys. However, I feel like there was nothing to suggest why it was white boys that Queenie gravitated to, other than the fact that they were just 'there'.

The problem with this is that, every boy in this book (bar maybe one or two) was white, and basically all of these boys weren't great people (which is an understatement), but because Queenie couldn't date black boys, this justified her picking wrong guys and then making it seem like white boys in general were the problem.
And in a way, this goes back to the portrayal of men in general in the novel. There is not one male figure who is seen in a positive light by Queenie apart from her boyfriend Tom, who I've already mentioned, it didn't seem like she even liked him that much until they went on a break. The whole boy situation with Queenie confused me.

What was good?
I never felt like this story was inauthentic. It is so clear that Carty-Williams really knows her writing, she knows who she is writing about, and she knows who she is writing for. Nothing feels unrealistic, and there wasn't a point where I didn't believe what Queenie was saying or experiencing, even if I didn't agree with it.

What was bad?
I think I've pretty much mentioned everything I didn't like about the book. However I'll just say that while the story was realistic, it all just felt a bit bland. I didn't care that much about anything that happened, and that was the downfall of the story for me.

Overall
I probably wouldn't read this story again, but I also wouldn't tell anyone else not to read it. There are a lot of interesting, important things in this story that will be especially interesting if this isn't a world that is close to you.
I think maybe, because this world is so close to me, I might not have been the intended audience.

1.5/5 Stars

Lou