I don’t think this book was for me. I felt like all of the characters acted about half their age and made very immature choices. I did however find this book very funny and commend the author for inclusion and discussion of mental illness.

Queenie was heartbreaking, raw and funny all in equal measures.

Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddles two cultures and slots neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper and after a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places, including several men who do nothing to help her self-worth.

As Queenie lurches from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself searching for the meaning of life.

I loved all of the characters in this novel and the writing style, which was very easy to lose myself in. It was great that the author, Candice Carty-Williams, addressed issues of mental health, sexual harassment and abuse and interracial dating, among others, which made this story really stand out for me.

I can't wait for the next offering by Candice Carty-Williams!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Orion Publishing/ Trapeze via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Set to be an absolute smash hit, Queenie is sharp and witty and everything I wanted it to be going in. Had heard amazing things and was not disappointed!

I read this on the beach on holiday and sped right through it! A really relevant and honest but entertaining debut novel from Candice. An insight into the Caribbean culture in the UK, particularly from a young woman's perspective and all that entails.

I loved Queenie. I couldn't put my finger on what was so compelling about Queenie herself but I found myself returning to the book constantly when I should have been doing other things. It made me laugh out loud, and cringe, and think more carefully about a whole host of issues. I've recommended it to a bunch of people.

Great book. Throughly enjoyed it. A must read and a great addition to any book collection
Thank you to both NetGalley and Orion for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I fell in love with this book, and with Queenie. I've seen a lot of people describing her as a 'black Bridget Jones' which I feel misrepresents the book hugely, as it is so much darker than that. The women's fiction title it most reminded me of in fact was Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes - and it has that same perfect combination of sad and funny as that book. I have recommended it to many people (in fact, my book club is reading it this month) and I will continue to do so.

Queenie is a book that everyone should read. Discussing racism around modern day dating, this is a book that does not shy away from any topic.

Queenie is 26 years old, lives in London and is of Jamaican decent. But even if you are none of these things, I think everyone can relate to Queenie in some way.

The book is very funny, but also very dark at times. Detailing her life after splitting from a long-term boyfriend, Queenie has trouble coping with single life. While some of her encounters are hilarious, she is dealing with mental health issues and a lack of self-worth that leads to some very dark and dangerous ones. I think the book deals with the issues raised very well, and Queenie has friends and family around her to point out when things are not okay.

We also find out more about Queenie’s previous relationship which she is still mourning with flashbacks, as Queenie gradually comes to terms with the fact it may also not have been as perfect and happy as she thought at the time.

I thought this book was great, and did a wonderful job of dealing with the numerous issues raised throughout, including racism, sexism, fat shaming and sexual assault.

Lots of people whose opinions I respect and values (and who my reading taste usually matches up to) have really liked this. I really didn't. I really wanted to, and I can see that it's well written and there are interesting themes being explored, but I found Queenie herself hugely irritating - so many bad choices.

Chalk it up in the not for me column and I know I'm in the minority here.

Queenie is a wonderful character in a great novel. A young black woman from South London, negotiating her love, sex , work and home life, while finding her own self worth in a world that refuses to acknowledge its racism. Queenie’s mental health suffers as she is treated badly by men and at work. It’s funny, sometimes dark, ultimately life affirming and very political. It touches on the changing face of London, the Jamaican businesses of Queenie’s childhood priced out of Brixton, the value (but also the stigma within her family) of therapy. These are serious themes dealt with in an often very funny and easy to read novel with friendship at its heart. Queenie, the book and the character, deserves to go far. Highly recommended.

I wanted to really like this book, it being billed as a bit ‘Bridget Jones’, unfortunately for me I felt this book didn’t really know what it wanted to be, it was neither comic or social comment.
When we first meet Queenie yes she is a little bit like ‘Bridget’ but as the story progresses it becomes obvious that she is a deeply troubled character. The story moves from starting to be comic to touching on elements of racism but not in any great depth. The characters glance over the racist elements as if to say ‘ well that’s just life’. I would have liked to have discovered more about how the character really felt about the comments and there was no real education back to those that had spouted it, which left me disappointed.
On occasions I found some of the speech/slang difficult to work out and felt that sometimes the author forgot that she had given certain characters an accent as they seemed to drop in and out of it.
On the plus side it was great to read a book that has mainly black characters in the central roles and as the book concludes Queeine emerges from all her troubles a more rounded person.

4.5*

Queenie is such an addictive, compelling and on times funny book which most certainly packs an emotional punch. I found it completely unputdownable and flew through the pages. Queenie's story was so sensitively handled and eye-opening.

An important and timely read, I can't wait to see what Candice Carty-Williams does next.

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London. After a painful breakup from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie goes off the rails, seeking comfort in the arms of men who are all wrong, pushing her friends away, and putting her career at risk.

I really enjoyed the honesty of the narration. Queenie is well aware – throughout the entire book – that she’s making bad decisions. She knows that what she’s doing isn’t good for her and questions why she’s doing it, then does it anyway. It actually took me a long time to warm up to Queenie. I’ve also recently gone through a very painful breakup, but I couldn’t sympathise with her meek, desperate attitude towards her ex. It wasn’t until her deeper, childhood issues were covered that I was able to understand where she was coming from.

I adored Queenie’s family (especially Diana and her grandparents), and the Corgis group chat was brilliant. However, this book isn’t all fun and humour. Queenie is funny, with a witty narrative voice and some entertaining stories, but the book also goes to some pretty dark places. The sexual content was completely unexpected and quite explicit, while the mental-health issues explored are really serious. Queenie is marketed as something along the lines of Bridget Jones’ Diary, but it’s a lot more intense and real than that.

On the whole, this is a reasonably enjoyable, relatable and relevant book, with a strong (but not over-bearing) feminist feel to it. But I’m not sure it’s a book that we “need”. Unlike other culturally important books (I’m thinking The Hate U Give), I don’t think I’d describe Queenie as a must-read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Queenie is one of the best things I've read in a long time. It's heartbreaking, funny, fresh and modern all at once. Candice Carty-Williams has created a character that bursts from the pages in a mix of frustrations, contradictions and vulnerabilities. I loved it - a messy, hopeful story of modern womanhood.

Queenie is a book with so many facets it makes it a most satisfying read. It is funny, harrowing, up-lifting, emotional and very readable. I loved to read it and cannot recommend it enough!

Queenie is one of the most anticipated and hyped books of 2019 so far, and it's easy to see why. It is the perfect read for those who love feisty female characters who truly kick butt. Queenie fits the bill beautifully and she really comes alive on the page; by the end of the novel, I classed her as a friend. I feel the reason that the story resonates so heavily with readers is that it encompasses all of the different trials and tribulations we go through in life and their associated emotions. Needless to say, this is a moving, sardonic, and thoughtful powerhouse of a novel which will stay with me long after turning the final page. I hope Ms Carty-Williams carries on writing as I for one would be interested in reading where she goes next.

Many thanks to Trapeze for an ARC.

It’s not often that we’re given the chance to read a book set in the UK from a black protagonists perspective, and here is a great book to do just that. I’d also like to say though, that although this book was lauded as a cross between Bridget Jones and Americanah, I’m relieved that I’ve read a book that was wholly it’s own story. It’s not a comedy, although there are parts that were funny, and it’s not a story of immigration, because Queenie is second generation British-Jamaican. However, it does hold up to us issues surrounding race - how when a white person thinks they’re being accepting of other cultures, many of them aren’t - and mental health.
Queenie has a breakdown after she splits up with her (white) boyfriend, and suffers so badly with anxiety. Her family believe that the ‘cure’ is to pull herself together, and can’t understand the need for counselling. I’m glad she does it though, because her actions after the split had involved risky sexual behaviour, and her life (personal and work) was unravelling. This is just what happens to some people with anxiety. And Queenie’s childhood has been far from ideal.
Queenie is a great character though: she’s funny, intelligent, outspoken, sensitive and independent. She has some great friends, and her family, even though they have their faults (and whose family doesn’t?!), are there for her - and they’re all fascinating characters.
I really, really enjoyed this. It’s not some cute and fluffy read, and it can be quite raw at times.
For those who appreciate trigger warnings, there may well be some in this book, but it’s a book that reflects Queenie’s life.
Candice Carty-Williams will definitely be a name that I watch out for in future!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Queenie was an interesting read and I’m still unsure what to say in this review. This book was recommended to me as being the “new Bridget Jones” - although it is written from the view point of a young female living in London but I feel the similarities stopped there for me
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This book has some amazing characters whom I absolutely loved reading about but I struggled to warm to Queenie herself at times. I adored her group of female friends and her quirky family, even her boss. The novel tackles many difficult topics and is very dark in places, so the frequent humour that shone through was very welcome.

The book had so many different layers. Some I loved, some I struggled with. I’m not entirely sure if all the layers fit together.

I’m pleased I read it as it’s certainly written with a very different voice to many novels out there. Will I be recommending it? I think half my book club would love this, to other half wouldn’t so the jury’s still out.

Queenie is one of those books which has been hyped for months, so when it became available on NetGalley I couldn’t resist. I loved the cover, I loved the premise – and people I trusted were saying it was amazing. Where could I go wrong?

It’s not often a sure thing comes along in fiction, but I loved it. I blitzed through it in weekend. But it’s not an easy book. Yes, it has funny moments, and some of the characters are utterly delightful, but I actually found some of it quite painful and very sad. I would like to take a moment to note the trigger warnings I think should be noted for this book – dubious consent, sexual violence, self-destructive mental health issues, racism, and mentions of child abuse and body-shaming.

Anyone who has ever suffered from mental health issues will recognise very quickly what Queenie is going through, even as she denies it and buries it. Following the break-up with her long term boyfriend, we see her making progressively worse choices, caring less and less about herself, and letting men abuse her because she feels like she deserves it. This is before we even get into the racist microagressions which she faces continually – even through flashbacks to during her relationship, when she was happy – and as a reader it made me angry and sad and exhausted. A thousand tiny and not-so-tiny cuts each day, even when she should have been safe.

There were times reading this book that I felt very emotional. Perhaps that was what pushed my speed through it, I needed to know there would be a positive resolution. The first-person narration brought me so much closer to Queenie’s thought process that I’ve felt in other books with first-person narrators, and it seemed so vivid.

Also addressed was the stigma that comes with mental health disorders and seeking treatment. Specifically, the book looks at this stigma in the Caribbean-British community, and the sense of shame for the whole family that mental illness means. Queenie’s family are an interesting study – they clearly love her dearly and are set in their ways, but Queenie seems to feel detached from them, alienated. It seems that as much as anything else in the book, she struggles to marry her British identity to her Caribbean family, and that is another aspect of her life which she faces bullying about. She feels like she has to be strong and independent all the time, which means she struggles to rely on the people around her, which compounds her situation as it progresses. Isolation seems to be a key feature of Queenie’s life, and she seems to be torn between embracing it and fighting against it.

She’s not always a likeable character – often combative or defensive, irrational and irresponsible, but Queenie is always an empathetic character. As the book continues and some of her negative traits become more pronounced, it becomes clear they are also in some ways a symptom of her mental illness and the traumas. She is a strong-minded, passionate woman, with clear principles and a sense of right and wrong, but it becomes unfocused and jagged as she finds herself struggling to handle her illness. She misdirects a lot of it, instead of getting angry at the people who are really treating her poorly she seems to get angry at herself.

It’s very hard to review a book about a black woman’s struggles as a white woman with all its associated privileges. I don’t want to feel as thought I am making blanket statements and assumptions because I am unaware of the social and cultural nuances which come with Queenie’s experience. The book gives me insight into her personal thoughts, emotions, and experiences, but how they reflect those of another Caribbean-British person I couldn’t say.

What I can say is that this book has such a strong, clear voice. Queenie’s struggles are familiar to me from the perspective of her mental illness – they may be familiar to other readers from her social or cultural experiences. One thing I do know is that Queenie’s voice is out there and it will be heard, and I think it might help make some parts of the world a little gentler, whether it is readers being kinder to themselves, or to those around them.

Briefly:

At its heart, this is a raw and very intimate story about mental illness and the way it can send spidering cracks into all areas of your life, even when it doesn’t seem relevant to them.
It certainly made me even more aware of the micro-aggressions and minimisation that black people face in society. This seems particularly relevant given recent political tensions, and I hope this book brings this sort of thing more to the fore, will help people police their language and think before they speak.
This is a political book because sadly black people and mental health are political issues. There is a wonderful line in it when Queenie is faced with someone playing “devil’s advocate”, where she says it must be nice that he can divorce himself from an issue that is her life.
Rating: 5/5 – There have only been two books which have ever made me cry, but Queenie came damn close a couple of times. It’s an honest and open book, and it’s something very special.