Queenie
Ratings62
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings62
Average rating3.8
ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2019 BY WOMAN’S DAY, NEWSDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BUSTLE, AND BOOK RIOT! “[B]rilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking.” —Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You 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 twenty-five-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 long-term white 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
4.5 Really enjoyed this audio. So honest and of the moment, realistically veering from the truly funny to the very real work of dealing with mental health and trauma, with a main character who grows and learns through the arc of the book. 20s me found much to relate to here! The female friendships were great and relatable but I do wish she had explored more of Darcy's relationship story, because there were always hints it was bad but that thread was left hanging. Kyazike and Cassandra's stories felt more fully realized. Will definitely be looking out for what Carty-Williams' writes next .
I'm going to be lazy by quoting the Goodreads description and agreeing with it: “Americanah meets Bridget Jones Diary” is a super apt description for this book. Queenie is at once so relatable in the mid-late 20s anxieties of work life, dating, and struggling with anxiety and not relatable (but certainly informative) in being a Black woman in London from a different ethnic/cultural background. It was a fun read and the actual text message bubbles and formatted email chains, which could have veered into tacky, worked well here. An enjoyable read overall.
