Synopsis:
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.
MY RATING :
⭐⭐⭐💫 / 5
Meet Queenie Jenkins: Journalist. Catastrophist. Expressive. Aggressive. Dramatic. Loved. Lonely. Relatable. Her boyfriend has asked her to leave their apartment. Her boss doesn't seem to see her. Her Jamaican British family doesn't seem to hear her. Her best friends try to help her. The series of men she meets online treat her hideously....and yet, she doesn't stop seeing them.
Queenie is in a spiral.
But what makes this breathtaking debut novel so fresh is that this is a spiral mostly of Queenie's own making. The world isn't just happening to her, doing her wring. Instead, as Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, as we all do these days, "What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?"
With humor, heart, and "honest" (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a darkly comic and bitingly subversive take on modern life that will have you nodding in recognition, crying in solidarity, and rooting for this unforgettable character every step of the way.
#IAMQUEENIE
That was all included in the inside book sleeve. I've been seeing this book all of Instagram and saw some mixed reviews so I decided to read it for myself.
I must say, while I was reading this book, I was taken back in my memory of 25 year old Claudia (ME) and reliving a lot of my early 20's. Queenie and I went thru many similar things. A hard breakup, parties, hangovers, and relationships with men who didn't recognize or value my worth. I found myself yelling at Queenie many times like...."NO!! What are you doing? Don't text him first. Don't text him again! He hasn't responded to your last message? Come on, Queenie! Catch the hint."
But when you are living in that moment, its hard to catch the hint. Especially when you don't want to see it. Almost like you don't want to accept the hurt and pain.
Before going into further detail, let me just say that this book goes into some very dark places, so this just a fair warning.
First off, Ms. Candice's dedication at the beginning at the front of the book really spoke to me.
"To all the Queenies out there--you are enough. Trust me."
Of course, I didn't know what it meant until after I read the book, but once I saw it, I got this feeling of confirmation like "Yea, I am enough." I can't tell you how many times in my early 20's that I felt like I WASN'T enough. Reminiscing about that time in my life while reading this book brought back that feeling like I wasn't enough, I appreciate that she dedicated this novel to the Queenies who have, or are going through what Queenie goes through.
Queenie has quite the year. Her boyfriend, Tom of 3 years, has her move out of their apartment because they need "space", which we all know is a solid, "Yeaaaa, I don't want to be with you anymore, but I don't have the balls to tell you." The story goes from present day to flashbacks. A lot of stories of how they met and what led to their "break" that Tom wants to take and other parts and events of their relationship.
After she moves out, it seems like her whole life spirals out of control. She starts having sex with, quite frankly, anyone who gives her attention, I feel. And its not even good sex. The men she starts sleeping with CLEARLY have a fetish with hooking up with a black woman and she doesn't seem to mind that they completely treat her like crap.
She has a few good friends who try their best to keep her spirits up, because they clearly know that things are not going to be looking good for her. They are all so cute, though. Queenie starts a group chat with all of them, even though some of them haven't met, but they are funny and try to give her advice, which she doesn't always take.
Things start hitting the fan when she meets a guy and they start seeing each other regularly for sex, but he is very rough with her. When she goes to the clinic, which she actually starts going on a regular basis since she's been having all this sexual affairs with different men, the doctors think she is getting sexually abused. The suggest to her more that once that she should probably seek therapy, to which she ignores.
Let the spiral continue when she is finally asked to take a leave of absence from work because one of her "affairs" files a sexual harassment claim to Human Resources about her. And when I say "affair" its, literally and AFFAIR. The dirtbag at work that she slept with is married. And when she goes to ask him why he hasn't responded to any of her messages, someone interrupts them and asks him where he went on his honeymoon.
The leave of absence is the last straw. She has a nervous breakdown. Wouldn't we all? I'm, at this point, very concerned with Queenie. I'm invested in her. After all, I see a lot of myself in her. Everything going on in her life has completely pushed her over the edge.
Now, I've gotten into the habit of going to spoilers then telling you what my final thoughts are. And while I enjoy doing that, my more recent posts, I've looked up discussion questions and answered them and I feel like I enjoy doing that a little more. This is a book club, after all. We are supposed to discuss the books. Not me just tell you all the spoilers.
So, I found some questions online on a website called LitLovers and I'm going to answer a few of them .
Ready? Here we go.....
1. What were your first impressions of Queenie? Did you like her?
♛ My first impression of Queenie was "Hey, I like her." She's a journalist, which was my dream career, before life had other plans. She seems smart, funny. She's someone I could get along with. The more we got to know her, the more you realize that she may have some underlining issues we don't know about, that we eventually get to and learn why she is so closed off.
2. Describe the structure of Queenie. What’s the effect of the shifting time frame? How do the flashbacks help you better understand Queenie and her relationship with Tom? Do the texts and emails that are included also help you better understand what Queenie is thinking? If so, how?
♛I really like how the book went back and forth the parts of the past. We got to learn WHY Queenie is at this part and point in her life. All the events in her childhood and relationship with Tom gave us a better understanding of who Queenie really is. After all, we all have a little bit of Queenie in us. We've all had to deal with some of the heartbreaks and events that she went through. The flashbacks of her relationship with Tom helped me understand Tom's point of view. Often times, we only hear one side of the story and the story always gets told to make the other person to be the villain. Tom wasn't the villain in this relationship. And we got to see the downward spiral that Queenie put herself through.
3. After Queenie pitches an article designed to shine a light on the Black Lives Matter movement, one of her colleagues responds by saying, "All that Black Lives Matter nonsense.… All lives matter" Discuss Queenie’s reaction to this assertion. Why is it so important for her to cover the movement?
♛ "All Lives Matter" is such a joke. I can't believe people have the audacity to say that as a defense. I think her reaction was completely justified. There was a train of thought that Queenie had when she pitched the idea and got the negative reaction from her college that made me take a step back and think...HELL YEA! I never thought of it that way, but its completely true and will continue to follow in those footsteps. She told her boss, "Well, I was thinking I could pitch something about how it would be great to see all the liberal white money who were tweeting fervently from the women's march at a Black Lives Matter march? And when her boss questioned her she said, "Well, all these white women in the office seem to bleat about going to the women's march but I was at a BLM march yesterday and I didn't see anyone I recognized." That really made me take a step and think, "Oh, she's absolutely right." This movement is very important and if her publication isn't covering it, I feel like that is low on every aspect. As a news publication, it is their job, like literally their job to cover all events that take place, even if the people working at the publication don't agree with it. They have to put their bias aside when you are a journalist and I'm very proud that she addressed that issue at work.
Next Book:
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
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