Queenie

So I've read Queenie at least twice, and sometimes I'll listen to it at the airport or on roadtrips. I keep coming back to it because it comforts me, makes me laugh, and helps me to cry.Its plot is familiar: woman in her mid-twenties (Queenie) flounders through relationships, work, and friendships. The story is differentiated in part because of its specificity and thoughtful exploration of intersectionality: being a dark-skinned, curvy black woman of Caribbean descent in London, navigating race, being the grandchild of immigrants, interacting with toxic men, and trying to find one's footing in patriarchal and racist workplaces.What I love about this story is its masterful understanding of character. Queenie is such a well-developed, complicated, and lovable character. She's a disaster, but she's smart and funny. You'll relate to her, root for her, and cry for her as she blunders through some really complicated challenges. As a black reader, I love that Queenie gets to be imperfect and vulnerable throughout the story. The story holds her accountable for her bad choices and mistakes, but also understands that Queenie is confronting racism and sexism and a culture that doesn't care about people outside the dominant culture.I also loved Queenie's Jamaican family, her best girlfriends, and the story's setting. If you binged watched the show Insecure and are looking for something similar, you can find it in this novel. It deserves more praise than it got, and to have been nominated for the Woman's prize or a Man Booker. It's really well-written and it's the kind of book that will remind you why you love reading, and why you're a people person after all.

I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with Queenie. I thought overall the book was well written and enjoyable. You’re sucked in within the first few pages. Queenie as a portrayal of a black woman however was quite cringy and frightening to say the least.Immediately after starting the book I was very confused on why she was so devastated over Tom. She texted and called him so frequently at first I feel like I was almost at Chapter 2 before I realized they technically were supposed to be on a “break.” There’s flashbacks of their relationship in between present day which gives you glimpse of her dynamic not only with Tom but with his family as well and it was very unimpressive. I became even more confused when I realized one of their last so called fights began with his uncle calling her by a derogatory term. Tom not only didn’t defend her he could barely make eye contact with her after it happened and then when she got upset blamed the entire situation on her and told her she was overreacting. I have nothing against interracial dating if that’s your thing, love is love. However being with a man who clearly doesn’t seem to understand or can’t come to your defense in the face of blatant racism, even if that is his family, is just NOT IT. At some point I got the feeling she only wanted Tom because it felt comfortable.One of my biggest issues with Queenie was she wouldn’t date black men but yet she let white men literally run through her and walk all over her. Ted honestly annoyed me and was way too persistent. At one point it just felt like harassment. Queenie kept telling him no but he couldn’t take no for an answer. And as soon as she gives in shit literally hit the fan🤦🏽‍♀️ Guy was basically using her as his personal sex doll. He wasn’t even gentle with her like at all. He talked to her like she literally didn’t matter. Even if a relationship is purely sexual for both parties there’s still a thing called common decency and respect. Which he had NONE! Guy was just the worst but she slept with a LOT of other people and didn’t even use protection. Like seriously WTF.  Also Queenie gives me a lot of low self-esteem vibes. I feel like she only goes for certain men simply because they give her attention, whether that attention may be negative or positive. She’s also a compulsive liar. I notice she lies a lot to her family and her friends. I get keeping some things close however she was really going through some stuff like the miscarriage and yet she didn’t tell anyone. She just shoved it to the back of her mind and never dealt with it. It also incredibly annoyed me that I felt like all her friends knew it was over between her and Tom and wouldn’t give her a reality check. At some point I was wondering are they even really friends? Queenie honestly seemed jealous of her friend’s happiness and if it wasn’t ALL about her she seemed less than enthused and almost negative in some instances. She didn’t lose out on Cassandra however. Her anger in that situation was completely misplaced and she knew damn well she was mad at the wrong person. Queenie didn’t deserve that treatment for someone she had been friends with for over a decade. I couldn’t believe that situation played out like that.Queenie also seemed to lack ambition. She has been working for the newspaper for quite a few years yet hasn’t accomplished anything since being there which she even acknowledges herself. It’s like she has nothing motivating her or pushing her forward. Also why did it take for her to be at “rock bottom” after a breakup with Tom to even start considering putting more effort into something she claimed was her passion? When she first met Tom she told him she wanted to change the world. What the hell happened to that Queenie?!?!? It’s like she was comfortable just coasting through her mediocre life with her less than mediocre relationship. It’s depressing even thinking about it.I feel like the author is SUPER talented and the story definitely sucks you in from the beginning. I personally couldn’t put it down. Even though Queenie ended up getting help and going to therapy at the end overall this story is a very damaging and a harmful narrative for the black woman.

So even though the main character frustrated me to no avail, I cared about her and couldn't put the book down! Sign of a great story and author. What an entertaining and heart warming story! Love!

It was not an easy read, for some things my resilience ended. They say it's funny and fun, a "Bridget Jones". NO. None of that, it's not a fun diary of situations that funny.Queenie is a woman in her twenties going through difficult things from page one, without stopping to breathe. The men around her are the worst, the demands of her family, work and even her friends. I really stopped half to listen to the writer and the opinion of readers, I needed to stop to see the opinion of the first voices.I understood many things and what the writer really tries to tell. There are many taboo themes in Jamaican culture, which is where the Queenie family comes from, and at the same time between the different roots of each person of color. At the beginning of the book I did not feel that the book was profound, things happened to her, unpleasant characters and she continued to apologize and try. But then everything starts to get worse and I wanted so much that she had a character that makes her understand that she was not alone, A good friend who figth and that almost reaches to the end of the book, luckily.In Queenie You will find a voice that tries to be heard, that deals with growing, with being understood and that does not lose focus on who he is as a person and with his family. Together with her family and her friends, she begins to define herself and be well with her and the things that must change.

I loved this book. It was so great. I watched the Series. But this book so ama!ing. This was so well written. I laughed cried. I didnt want it to end. I will definitely read more work from this Author....

Quem nunca se sentiu perdida na vida aos 20 anos? Eu me sinto. São muitas possibilidades e muitas responsabilidades surgindo a todo momento. Queenie é uma jovem que atravessada por questões raciais, da forma física e da sua origem encontra -se completamente perdida após o fim de um relacionamento. E mais, lida com isso de formas não saudáveis colocando até sua própria vida em risco. Deixando,assim, o leitor desesperado por ela.Mas o livro mostra como podemos nos reerguer,como nossos verdadeiros afetos estarão lá para nos chamar atenção e nos apoiar. É um livro sobre resiliência, sobre amadurecimento,sobre se impor e se colocar em primeiro lugar. O livro é lindíssimo, a escrita leve,mas ao mesmo tempo bem forte. Queenie vai te irritar, vai fazer você se apaixonar por ela e querer protegê-la e também vai te deixar orgulhosa quando ela se reconstrói.Que possamos todos nos reconstruir.

Didn't enjoy it one bit. It simplified depression too much for my liking and abruptly finished and tied everything with a neat bow just to summarize the long drawn narrative. No depth in narration and visually didn't drum up anything in terms of memorable scenes. Don't even understand why this book was so highly recommended.

I absolutely loved this book! It was a great, quick read; entertaining and at times could be disturbing because these can be real life experiences for some. I truly recommend this book to gain some perspective on what black women go through.

Easy and enjoyable reading. Not in the list of my favorite books, the plot was interesting but the content and the theme could be developed much more

Incredible book. It made me cry a !ot, but I also felt that for the first time I got a real glimpse of what it feels like to be a colored person in a white world. I'm so ashamed of us! All these hundreds of years of brutal racism, and nowadays all we middle -class white liberals who are proud to hate racism but have no clue what it actually means to live among us with another skin colour! I'm so sorry! Please, everyone, Read it! BLACK LIVES MATTER.