Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I haven’t struggled that hard to get through a book since I read The Odyssey back in high school. 

I picked up Queenie while shopping in Target back in January, full of inspiration to read more books in the new year! I bought it solely for the cover. Reading the synopsis, I thought it would be a book I’d be interested in- black girl, mid-twenties, living in London, struggling with boys, and trying to figure out what she’s doing with her life. Minus the whole London thing, the main character, Queenie, sounded a bit like me!

After fighting to finish that book, I came to the rough revelation that those were just about the only similarities between Queenie and me. I’ve never been introduced to a fictional character who is more self-destructive, selfish and annoying than Queenie. I understand that the author, Candice Carty-Williams, wanted to tell a story about the raw and real struggles of young black women, but she took 200 pages to even show the readers some semblance of a breakthrough with Queenie. 

It took too long to see Queenie actually change and possibly become an actual, semi-decent person that I’d maybe one day want to hang with. We spent the entire book having to witness and deal with Queenie’s horrible actions and frustrating attitude, only to finish the book on a halfway decent note. 

The book wasn’t all bad though. I actually liked a couple of aspects. One, of course, is the discussion of physical and mental health. Though Queenie struggles with both throughout the book, I do admire that she actually takes steps in addressing her issues by visiting sex clinics and taking up therapy. 

I also appreciated how the author name-dropped one of my favorite musicians, NAO, who actually is from London. This namedrop came in the last few pages of the book, so needless to say, Queenie only gets good at the end. 

If you’re into reading books with a super annoying and incredibly frustrating main character with very little reward, then I would recommend reading Queenie. If not, then read literally anything else.

Sahara’s Space Rating: 1/5

This post was reviewed and edited by Arjuna Ramgopal, Producer of Was It Good Podcast