September’s book club pick needs no introduction but we’re going to serve you one up anyway. This month, we had the pleasure of reading Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams – winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year.
It tells the tale of 25-year-old, Queenie Jenkins, a 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. When she takes a break from her long-term boyfriend, Tom, her life starts to unravel and she 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.
Find out how Team Zoella enjoyed one of the most anticipated reads of 2020!
Darcey
I absolutely loved Queenie! I inhaled this book within a few days and found myself not wanting to put it down as I was so invested in Queenie’s life. Carty-Williams explores so many issues so perfectly, from mental health, to consent and to racism, you really feel as if you follow Queenie navigating through these issues, which seem to have entangled themselves throughout all aspects of her life. This book isn’t short either of some hilarious moments, Queenie and her friends feel so real and that’s what makes this book so engrossing too, I almost felt as if I was her friend too trying to help her through this difficult time. Would 100% recommend!
Rating – 4/5
Would you recommend? Yes
Lareese
Well, what a knock-your-socks-off debut from Carty-Williams! Queenie is a luminous and timely novel, sparkling with honesty and grit. I felt immediately engrossed and invested in Queenie’s complex character; her lived experience, her vulnerability, her humour and her often hilarious missteps. Carty-Williams does such an incredible job of handling a variety of nuanced topics, and in doing so she writes a very real, raw and flawed protagonist you’ll be utterly gutted to leave behind.
Rating – 3.5/5
Would you recommend? Yes
Danielle
Being named debut novel of the year AND book of the year is obviously amazing but it comes with the downside of people having SO much expectation when they pick up the book. Similarly to ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ I picked up Queenie when it was at the peak of the hype! Right off the bat the characters we’re completely fully fleshed and for me, the best part of the book. I loved how Candice played with dialogue in the form of texts and emails making it feel truly modern as that is where so many of our conversations take place. Queenie made a great protagonist and she was extremely likeable, I found it both frustrating and upsetting when she wound up in awful situations, but they were realistic and unfortunately common. Definitely give Queenie a read but try and squirrel away the hype and any notion that it has a ‘Bridget Jones’ vibe.
Rating – 3.5/5
Would you recommend? Yes
Maddie
Queenie was hailed as the modern age Bridget Jones’ diary, a story of a mid 20s Jamaican British woman living in London. Queenie is stumbling through life, making mistakes (repeatedly) and that’s what makes her real and believable as a character. Where Bridget Jones is fairly lighthearted and surface level, Queenie goes into some very dark places with regards to mental health, trauma and sexual encounters. That being said there are a few amazingly cringe and hilarious moments speckled throughout and the general tone of the book is written in a way that makes you feel like you’re one of Queenie’s friends and I really did feel attached to her by the end.
Rating – 4/5
Would Recommend – Yes
