Queenie

By: Candice Carty-Williams

Narrated by: Shvorne Marks

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

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, number one New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You)

For fans of Luster and I May Destroy You, a disarmingly honest, unapologetically Black, and undeniably witty debut novel that will speak to those who have 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 breakup 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

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.

MUST READ-Humorous and insightful

Someone wrote my in another review that this book is the perfect marriage between “The Bridget Jones Diary” and “Americanah” (both favorites) and I couldn’t agree more.

I thought I’d be bored because I am well beyond the age of the protagonist but I was thankfully wrong! I identified with the experiences, mistakes and feeling of both my younger and present self. I most appreciated the candor and wit that enfolded within the story.

I liked the main character and hated some others which is a good sign-in my reading experience, apathy towards characters equates to poor story telling, character development, etc and usually results in immediate dismissal of a book.

The ending mimicked real life in that all problems cannot be solved just because the book ends. Progress not perfection...

Good from start to finish.

not Bridget Jones Diary

Was not the best for a mother daughter book club, the description needs updating. Very mature situations!

Really poignant message about being objectified

Great story about learning from our mistakes and realizing it sometimes takes a village to make a positive change for yourself. I love the support that Queenie get from her besties!

vivid, dramatic, funny, and real

loved the vivid story telling and attempt at complex grappling with issues of race, family, career, and love.

Poignant and funny!

I loved this book! I pictured every scene as if it were a movie and immediately wanted more from this author. Hopefully someone will take notice and make this a show or movie because the story was great, and funny as hell! This is only 1 out of a few books that actually made me LOL

it about us 👊🏾

I loved this book, so many recognizable situations to my life and friends, definitely sharing

mSelf love conquers all!

Loved Queenie as a character and the book overall! It reminds me that we each have struggles daily but how we react to the circumstances determines our growth. Just take each day one at a time!

Why is Queenie’s Head Bowed?

This book. First half broke my heart, not in the traditional way. Enough that I had to talk about it with my grown son and husband at lunch one day. I know a protagonist must sabotage but why was Queenie so hell bent on such passive self destruction? Why was her head bowed on the book cover?

My husband reminded me what I knew, of the plight of the young black woman, of the weight she carries, of what is fact about the way men treat her without regard for her person. (As lawyers we are both more aware, and his job in particular makes him see these facts almost daily). The book, however hard to digest, was absolutely factual and on point.

I read on and that night I turned a page that made it all click. Oh. Duh. OH.

In the end, Queenie’s predicament was expertly handled and explained. The anxiety that she and countless numbers of her generation experience (and how counseling can help) was portrayed in a way that I could really understand. Also a great explanation of what #blacklivesmatter means and what it doesn’t mean. So glad for this book.

Bridget Jones but so much more!

This book was compared to “Bridget Jones,” but it was so much more. Yes, there’s plenty of comical witticisms and funny situations, but it gets deep too. Really explores the themes of mental health and intersectional feminism. Overall, I thought it was a beautiful testament to the power of love from friends and family. They play the major role in Queenie’s life, not sidenotes like in B.J. I really love that she didn’t end up with a man, but instead ended up gaining some self-love.

I thought Shvorne Marks was a fantastic narrator! Each accent was so unique and distinct and really brought a little something extra to the character.

At times, specifically in the beginning of the story, it was hard for me to understand what exactly was happening when Marks was narrating the text threads or the emails or the Tom flashbacks. I’m assuming that it is more clear when you have the actual book in front of you and you can see the difference on the page. But it wasn’t a hindrance to my enjoyment of the book. It didn’t take long for me to figure it out and then I didn’t mind.