Queenie was written by Candice Carty-Williams and published in March 2019 by Trapeze, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group. Carty-William’s debut novel earned her the historic accolade of becoming the first black author to win Book Of The Year at the 2020 British Book Awards. Queenie was almost nominated for the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Novel and the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction.

Queenie is an essential piece of modern contemporary for our day that combines chick flick witticisms with the seriousness of mental instability and politically tantamount themes. It follows the story of Queenie Jenkins, a 26-year-old Jamaican descent British born woman, whose recent break-up from her long-term partner Tom, leads her down a destructive path of regrettable decisions and unresolved childhood trauma.

The narrative has a casual millennial tone that is truly representative of modern-day relationships, making it a book that many young readers will share an affinity with. As well as this, it fittingly articulates significant political issues by giving voice to a black female perspective. It explores race and gender-based discrimination, fetishization, racialised microaggressions and the severe affects of anxiety and abandonment issues.

As a black female reader myself, and one from London and of Carribbean descent no less, it was easy for me to relate to Queenie and to empathise with her experiences, which by extension I’m confident will touch base with all female person-of-colour readers. Critically speaking, I felt like all the wit and banter felt slightly incongruous against the more solemn moments of the narrative.

Despite what I felt was a slight structural imbalance, I utterly devoured this book, completing it within only a couple days. Queenie is a vitally important book, abounding in much more than just quippy entertainment, it also projects wider political issues that desperately command our attention. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BlackLivesMatter

The Black Lives Matter movement is not just a hashtag or a trend nor does it promote exclusion of any kind. It campaigns for a more equal society, in which black people are not discriminated against because of their race or have to suffer at the hands of racially charged police brutality.

To find resources on how you can help support the Black Lives Matter movement, please visit the website; https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/