Queenie

By: Candice Carty-Williams

Narrated by: Shvorne Marks

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political, and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place. 

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy break-up from her white long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. 

As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?” - all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her. 

With “fresh and honest” (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.

©2019 Candice Carty-Williams (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

The Black Womans Burden

Whew Chile......this book was a breath of fresh air. As though being black wasn't enough but being a black jamaican coconut (black shell but white inside) living in London was the topping on the cake. Talking about the taboo of therapy in the black community and how being strong is holding in feelings and keep going. Queenie's life echoes so many black women. Her trauma growing up, her relationship with her mother and grandparents was spot on. Her support system, friends, and coworkers. Her not knowing her worth or not seeing her beauty and settling for ain't shit men, white men because she didn't think she was beautiful enough for a brother to love her. Queenie slept with different men after a miscarriage and a breakup with her boyfriend if 3 years. Racism was visited along with sexual harassment, and sexism.Through therapy she was able to free herself from generational black women issues. Chessca, Darcy, and Cassandra were her real friends, I love their love for her. Friends holding one another accountable and having each other's back. This book is highly recommended for all women of color. #mentalhealthawareness #book24of2019 #bookworm #whatsnext

Growing up for Grownups

I chose the all star rating because narration, plot, the unfolding of the story, with character development, all flavored with amazing humor, pathos, and the blossoming of the characters, presented in a bird’s eye view of the story, blended together to create an outstanding novel. The theme of interracial relationships between black and white delved into fear, power, and differences between outward appearances of both racial groups. It dismissed stereotypes of racial sexuality. It displayed the folly of misconceptions that humans base relationships on, with a delightful description of the beauty inherent in all humans. PLEASE read it to discover life. Would be a great book for high school students with the psychologies presented regarding motives for sexual activities.

Don't touch her hair !!!!

Where do i begin with this one?
Queenie, Queenie, Queenie. She sort of reminded me of myself when i was younger. Not the promiscuous parts but the "not having your shit together parts".
I LOLed several times. I enjoyed this audiobook. There were a few shock factor moments but all in all it was a good book. Don't listen with children around though. I was listening while in a fast food drive thru with my window down and had to turn it off until i was able to close my window back.
Reminded me of a Jamaican Bridgette Jones maybe?
The narrator was perfect.
I do recommend it for a little mindless chic-lit.

Great Read

I thoroughly enjoyed listening. The story is very relatable. I have been Queenie. Totally recommend this book !

Queenie !

Love love loved it!
Queenie is addictive!
Quick read just do it!
You will laugh, cry and pondering the issues Queenie faces.

I wanted to like it

I was underwhelmed with this story as it flitted about jumping from one issue to another. It had the potential but it never really grabbed me.

Queenie went through some hardships as a child, which made for a hot mess of a grown-up Queenie. She’s has low self worth and engages in some pretty risky encounters with white men after a breakup with Tom, her white boyfriend who thought nothing of his uncle using the N-word when referring to her.

Good for her for walking away.

What baffles me is - why would she take such a hard stance with Tom about racist comments and then go out to carry on with white men who objectify her and use her (horrifically) to satisfy their curiosity of being with a black woman.

And then there were the little detours into the realm of BLM. If you are going to take that on... commit to it. Give it the space that it deserves.

The story was just flat to me. It didn’t know what it wanted to be.

A Dose of Reality

Narration and narrative were both exceptional.
wanting everything to be well for the main character, I found myself getting angry with her choices. The novelist does a good job of pulling the reader into Queenie's reality. She has a world full of family and friends none of whom can save her from the pain of her past.

Best Book I Have Listened to/Read This Year!

This is a real, get your life together in your mid-twenties, kind of story. The main character is frustrating and makes some poor choices but you never stop rooting for her. This is an awesome book for women in college, those in their own quarter-life crisis, or women who have already lived through it.

A tour through dysfunction, depression and men

An honest, hilarious story of a young woman coping with her past trauma, coming of age, and the shit the life keeps throwing your way. Americanah meets Bridget Jones is pretty apt. It's told from the POV from a black Jamaican woman in London and, as a result, is able to highlight issues and experiences that don't get told enough in literature. Not to mention the grey areas of unhealthy sex as well as body issues and mental health. Three cheers for tackling relatively heavy topics in a light weight format.

Coming of age for this time

Queenie is complicated. She is Black British young woman in a family of Jamaican ancestry, navigating gender, sexuality, and race in her daily life. She deals with the issues facing people who share identity markers with her in ways the reader can't quite predict, and may not understand. Things aren't cut and dry. The author didn't try to make her likeable, and didn't make her like unnecessarily difficult to make a point. It is realistic, and while it's possible to not relate to Queenie, the situations and outcome will make you question what you believe and why. The narrator does a good job, but sometimes missing a cue, so intonation or volume is off when there is a question or a whisper. I finished this in about a day, always wanting to know what would happen next.