Queenie

by Candice Carty-Williams

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1,548	60	11,656	(3.7)	65
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 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.… (more)

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Recommended: Yes!!
For people who are ok with honest depictions and discussions of all kinds of sex, as well as racial barriers barriers women face. For those who are ok laughing while reading a book ^.^

OHMYGODDDDD. Okay, I'm not usually one to fall into hyped books, but man this is hyped for a reason. Candice Carty-Williams promotes writing about underrepresented perspectives, and she leads by example! I hardly ever get to read from the POV of a black character, particularly a black woman, and it was enlightening as a suburban white girl who's never lived in very diverse areas. I learned what a weave is! But Queenie is also just such an enjoyable woman, even when she's at her worst points, you don't dislike her. You just feel her pain, because who HASN'T been there before? It's also hilarious, and I laughed out loud while reading enough to prompt my boyfriend to ask if it was a comedy book. Do yourself a favor and just read it. I'll be waiting. :)

See full review & more here! --> https://baileysbooks.home.blog/2019/06/10/queenie-by-candice-carty-williams/ (

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Jenniferforjoy | Jan 29, 2024 |

I went into this expecting standard rom-com chick lit and got something else entirely.

Queenie is 25 and a real mess: She’s breaking up with her boyfriend, estranged from her Mom, screwing up at work and drowning her sorrows in reckless, casual sex.

I assumed that all her problems would he solved when she fell slowly in love with her nebbishy co-worker or a guy she “met cute” but that’s not the case! We deal with her downward spiral and how it impacts her life and relationships and how she starts to right the ship again.

A fast read, couldn’t put it down once I started.
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hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |

Queenie Jenkins is a Jamaican British woman in her mid-20s, whose break-up with her boyfriend is one of the catalysts for a mental health crisis. Much of Queenie is about how she learns to work through past traumas, realise that she's not okay, and come to a better understanding of herself.

This is Candice Carty-Williams' first book, and it has a lot of the typical problems associated with a debut novel: the character voice is strong but much of the characterisation is sloppy and sometimes verges on the cartoonish; Queenie is at times a believably warts-and-all protagonist, but at others she reads more like a 15-year-old than a 25-year-old; the tone and the content sometimes clash. (The marketing for this is fairly inexplicable—this is not a light, Bridget Jones-esque comedy.) That it's a quick and compelling read despite those issues is a testament to Carty-Williams' promise as a writer. I'll keep an eye out for further books by her, even though I didn't really love this one. (

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siriaeve | Dec 2, 2023 |

I loved this. Queenie is a beautiful, loving, and needed story of a women dealing with tough s***. As soon as I finished, I wanted to read it again! (

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michelleannlib | Aug 12, 2023 |

Ew.

Edit: I have to much to say about this book to leave it at that. This is literally the WORST depiction of a 25 year old person’s mental break down ever. None of the characters actions or thoughts or feelings make sense also like if you’re gonna have a mental breakdown go all the fucking way. Take a page out of my year of rest and relaxation and black out for a year, or at least depict more of therapy than “deep breathing and safe spaces.” As someone with mental illness I found this to be a profoundly stupid depiction of it and every word made me want to scream in frustration. Only gave 2 stars because I reserve 1 star books for those that should actively be banned in schools (and I don’t agree with banned books…but some books are such an insult to literature that they should be) (

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willowzz | Jun 27, 2023 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Carty-Williams, Candice	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Marks, Shvorne	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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▾Awards and Honors

Awards

BookTube Prize (Quarterfinalist – Fiction – 2020)

British Book Award (Winner – Book of the Year – 2020)

The British Book Industry Awards (Overall, Debut – 2020)

Comedy Women In Print (Shortlist – Published Novel – 2020)

Costa Book Awards (Shortlist – First Novel – 2019)

Diverse Book Awards (Longlist – Adult – 2020)

RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist – Relationship Fiction – 2020)

Waterstones Book of the Year (Shortlist – 2019)

Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist – 2020)

Distinctions

Book of the Month Club Selection (March 2019)

NPR: Books We Love (2019)

Notable Lists

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection – 2019)

RUSA CODES Listen List (Selection – 2020)

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Canonical title

Queenie

Original title

Queenie

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Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Brixton, London, England, UK

Important events

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Epigraph

Dedication

To all the Queenies out there - you are enough. Trust me.
In loving memory of Dan O'Lone and Anton Garneys

First words

Queenie:
In the stirrups now.
Wish you were here...

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

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Wikipedia in English

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▾Book descriptions

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 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.

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Book description

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 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.

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