I Loved Queenie But!… |Book Review
Queenie piqued my interest not only because it was one of the most anticipated books of 2019 and people couldn’t stop talking about it on Bookstagram/BookTube, but also because of the beautiful book cover.
This highly celebrated book- Queenie is the debut novel of British writer, Candice-Carty Williams.
The author used the first-person narrative technique to tell the story of the titular character, which was set in south London. Queenie begins the novel by texting her boyfriend Tom. Tom and Queenie are a biracial couple who are having relationship problems. They paused as a result of this complication. Except for Queenie, everyone knew that the ‘pause’ meant the end of the relationship.
Aside from dealing with her boyfriend’s cold treatment, Queenie (25 years old) struggled to maintain her shaky self-esteem while attempting to fit into society with racism and depression at her heels. This is evident in Queenie’s dissatisfaction with her job at the newspaper firm because she was not free to address topics she truly wished to address. After all, her boss was afraid of touching such topics.
Queenie is an important character, especially for people of colour, because she mirrored many of the struggles that people like her face daily. Especially in terms of mental health.
With that said, what are my thoughts on this book? It gets two stars from me. One star for the message and another for Queenie’s likeability. I got to the end because I genuinely enjoyed Queenie’s journey and learned a lot from her.
What I didn’t like about the book was how the author was determined to break a very important rule: ‘show, don’t tell.’ The author appeared to have little faith in her readers because she kept giving everything away by spelling out the meaning of every message, including jokes told in the book. It was almost as if I wasn’t supposed to think for myself. I understand that when dealing with sensitive issues such as racism and mental health, it is expected that the correct message is conveyed. However, as a reader who enjoys the freedom to interpret messages in my own way, I always adhere to the show, don’t tell rule.
Most of the scenes in the book appeared forced in her attempt to ‘tell it all.’ I enjoyed the story, but the delivery was subpar in my opinion. If you’ve read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
