Queenie, the title character in Candice Carty-Williams’ novel, is a 25-year old Jamaican British woman who’s going through a messy breakup with her white boyfriend. She’s dealing with it in some pretty self-destructive ways and barely holding on to her job as she struggles with the emotional turmoil.
For obvious reasons, it’s been described as “Bridget Jones meet Americanah,” but in reality Queenie’s problems are more complicated than the number of cigarettes she’s smoking daily or her parents getting divorced. Queenie is smart and timely, funny, and sometimes painful. It reflects the times we’re living in, and addresses feminism, racism, code switching, Black Lives Matter, workplace inequality, and mental health. If that seems like a lot, yeah, so are the times we’re living in.
Queenie is also an important lesson in empathy. I’m sure some readers will say, I just couldn’t relate to her or the situations she’s facing. And that’s right. Relating to a character is about you, empathy is about seeing and understanding the world through another person’s eyes.
While I’m a PoC, I’m not black or Jamaican, but there are familiar elements in Queenie’s story… fetishizing/exoticizing certain ethnicities, how non-Euro cultures view mental health and therapy. Other parts of it I experienced second hand.
Someone else will have to comment on the specifics of the representation, but for me, Candice Carty-Williams is injecting a fairly universal plot with realism that illuminates how those experiences can be vastly different depending on the protagonist. It wasn’t always easy to read, mostly because it was easy to see Queenie going into a spiral, but you’re powerless to do anything about it. Sometimes I yelled, “No-no-no-no. What are you doing?!” and I knew how her friends felt. You’re rooting for Queenie, doing your best to support her, and hoping she finds her way out.
Queenie comes out on the other end of this very trying period with new realizations and better equipped to cope than when she went in. And in 2019, that feels like the best any of us can do.
Listen to an audio preview of Queenie.
Get Queenie on Amazon.