I don’t know where to start with this book. It’s the most offensive depiction of a black woman I have ever read. She is depicted as lazy, promiscuous, desperate, and broke. The first chapter was fine and then the rest was just awful.
A lot of the reviews I have seen are talking about Queenie being a hot mess. Isn’t that how most black women are contrived? Either that or angry black women. I wouldn’t say Queenie is a hot mess; I would just stay that she is a woman who hates herself. I don’t mind the interracial dating at all, I do it too, but I do mind the way that she just accepts the microaggressions in her relationships and fetishization that her sexual partners put her through. But you teach people how to treat you and she was letting anyone treat her anyway that they would like.
The way that the story is framed is problematic from the start because she is heartbroken about her boyfriend who is making her move out of their shared apartment. The same boyfriend who did not stand up for her when his uncle said a racial slur, who sent her home when she asked him why he wasn’t sticking up for her against the uncle when she said that what he said wasn’t acceptable, the same boyfriend who did not text her or speak to her for three months after asking for a break. Her New Year's Resolutions are about being nicer to people and getting back with Tom. She hasn’t been mean to anyone in this book. She literally has let people use her like a doormat. She believes she is beyond repair, creativity is not for her, she just negs herself into sleeping with men who do not care about her; all the while ruining her career over a heartbreak when Tom doesn’t care about her. She chases men who could never love her because she doesn’t love herself.
Look, I get trying to make black women seem vulnerable and fragile because that is the opposite of the media portrays but I don’t understand why this Queenie needed to be that person without any redeeming qualities. She is 25 years old even though she clearly has PTSD, she doesn’t talk about her past with anyone so that she can get past it. I understand the Jamaican against therapy thing. I’m Jamaican American; therapy is very much looked down on, but Queenie is an adult living in a first world country, she has deviated in every other way from her roots, why not this as well? And even when she does go to therapy, it’s not something she chooses; it’s recommended and she just allows it happen. Just like she allows herself to be sexual degraded and abused by someone who won’t even allow her to touch him; she is having sex with these guys unprotected. Reading this was traumatizing.
Every sentence seems to denigrate her. Writing in her notebook is soiling it, throwing some glitter on her face instead of taking care of herself. She is off for a long holiday and she just binges and cleans up after other people.
Slipping the black lives matter stuff in this narrative feels so forced. She won’t even speak up when she is given the chance and at the same time is trying to write about the police killings in America. The author alludes to Queenie being overlooked at work because she is black. But SHE DOESN’T DO ANY WORK. She has a full-on hour argument with one of her dates after going home with him about racism. She’s walking out because he calls her chocolate and the whole scene just devolves from there.
The author discusses why Queenie doesn’t date black men for a second. For one sentence. Why bother give an explanation at all if you are going to gloss over it? It can just be a preference and that’s fine too, but don’t tell your readers it’s because of anxiety or abuse. It can hardly be surmised that a person will steer clear of an entire race of people because childhood trauma with one person. I mean, come on.
Characters:
Cassandra is a bad friend...Seriously asking if a restaurant is black enough and you make her the voice of reason who then turns her back on Queenie for sleeping with her boyfriend. She comes back at the end of the book, doesn’t even apologize, insults Queenie for being accepting and grown up about forgiving her and then just is accepted back into the party. The things that Cassandra said would not be forgivable, AT ALL. But we are just accepting this. It happens so close to the end of the book that it just feels like lazy writing and further evidence that Queenie has no respect for herself.
Darcy is the only work friend who is not awful and yet we get no character development for her. She is simply a non-problematic foil for Queenie.
Kyazike is a good friend but I feel like the author uses her to highlight “blackness”; the stereotypes are strong and exaggerated with this one.
All of the men - I don’t know what kind of propaganda this is, but there was not a single male of dating age who was decent in this book. Tom is awful for the aforementioned reasons(see paragraph 3), Ted is a married man with a pregnant wife who has sex with Queenie in the office toilets and then hounds her until he finally corners her to talk to her and then writes her a letter demanding that she not tell his wife. Adi fetishizes her body and has sex with her and then bad mouths her in front of his wife in the street. Guy is in a relationship with Cassandra and has sex with Queenie so roughly that the clinic she goes to thinks that she’s been sexually abused. Courtney, the guy Queenie goes on a date with after she starts therapy, is an all lives matter guy who believes in reverse racism. Even Sid the drummer has difficulty with understanding the word no.
Seriously. What is this?
The Ending
Everything just get wrapped up; which Queenie literally recounts in the bathroom mirror at the end of the book. I’m glad she doesn’t end up with a guy at the end, but it’s not for lack of trying. It’s honestly odd that even at the end, she has to be told not to call her ex, who has a girlfriend and even though she says “he made things better”, he never did. In the end, this is a book that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
I’m not saying that the story didn’t need to be told, but not this way. I am at a lot for words as to why this was so well received. This book is an embarrassment. This book is a dangerous thing. This book could have been something that black women could read and feel inspired to change and grow and soar. It could have inspired black women to make a change in their lives but I couldn’t sympathize or empathize with Queenie because the character was weak and coddled by the people around her. She didn’t grow because everything works out in the end and she has no real consequences for her actions.
It’s a no from me. 1 star.
A lot of the reviews I have seen are talking about Queenie being a hot mess. Isn’t that how most black women are contrived? Either that or angry black women. I wouldn’t say Queenie is a hot mess; I would just stay that she is a woman who hates herself. I don’t mind the interracial dating at all, I do it too, but I do mind the way that she just accepts the microaggressions in her relationships and fetishization that her sexual partners put her through. But you teach people how to treat you and she was letting anyone treat her anyway that they would like.
The way that the story is framed is problematic from the start because she is heartbroken about her boyfriend who is making her move out of their shared apartment. The same boyfriend who did not stand up for her when his uncle said a racial slur, who sent her home when she asked him why he wasn’t sticking up for her against the uncle when she said that what he said wasn’t acceptable, the same boyfriend who did not text her or speak to her for three months after asking for a break. Her New Year's Resolutions are about being nicer to people and getting back with Tom. She hasn’t been mean to anyone in this book. She literally has let people use her like a doormat. She believes she is beyond repair, creativity is not for her, she just negs herself into sleeping with men who do not care about her; all the while ruining her career over a heartbreak when Tom doesn’t care about her. She chases men who could never love her because she doesn’t love herself.
Look, I get trying to make black women seem vulnerable and fragile because that is the opposite of the media portrays but I don’t understand why this Queenie needed to be that person without any redeeming qualities. She is 25 years old even though she clearly has PTSD, she doesn’t talk about her past with anyone so that she can get past it. I understand the Jamaican against therapy thing. I’m Jamaican American; therapy is very much looked down on, but Queenie is an adult living in a first world country, she has deviated in every other way from her roots, why not this as well? And even when she does go to therapy, it’s not something she chooses; it’s recommended and she just allows it happen. Just like she allows herself to be sexual degraded and abused by someone who won’t even allow her to touch him; she is having sex with these guys unprotected. Reading this was traumatizing.
Every sentence seems to denigrate her. Writing in her notebook is soiling it, throwing some glitter on her face instead of taking care of herself. She is off for a long holiday and she just binges and cleans up after other people.
Slipping the black lives matter stuff in this narrative feels so forced. She won’t even speak up when she is given the chance and at the same time is trying to write about the police killings in America. The author alludes to Queenie being overlooked at work because she is black. But SHE DOESN’T DO ANY WORK. She has a full-on hour argument with one of her dates after going home with him about racism. She’s walking out because he calls her chocolate and the whole scene just devolves from there.
The author discusses why Queenie doesn’t date black men for a second. For one sentence. Why bother give an explanation at all if you are going to gloss over it? It can just be a preference and that’s fine too, but don’t tell your readers it’s because of anxiety or abuse. It can hardly be surmised that a person will steer clear of an entire race of people because childhood trauma with one person. I mean, come on.
Characters:
Cassandra is a bad friend...Seriously asking if a restaurant is black enough and you make her the voice of reason who then turns her back on Queenie for sleeping with her boyfriend. She comes back at the end of the book, doesn’t even apologize, insults Queenie for being accepting and grown up about forgiving her and then just is accepted back into the party. The things that Cassandra said would not be forgivable, AT ALL. But we are just accepting this. It happens so close to the end of the book that it just feels like lazy writing and further evidence that Queenie has no respect for herself.
Darcy is the only work friend who is not awful and yet we get no character development for her. She is simply a non-problematic foil for Queenie.
Kyazike is a good friend but I feel like the author uses her to highlight “blackness”; the stereotypes are strong and exaggerated with this one.
All of the men - I don’t know what kind of propaganda this is, but there was not a single male of dating age who was decent in this book. Tom is awful for the aforementioned reasons(see paragraph 3), Ted is a married man with a pregnant wife who has sex with Queenie in the office toilets and then hounds her until he finally corners her to talk to her and then writes her a letter demanding that she not tell his wife. Adi fetishizes her body and has sex with her and then bad mouths her in front of his wife in the street. Guy is in a relationship with Cassandra and has sex with Queenie so roughly that the clinic she goes to thinks that she’s been sexually abused. Courtney, the guy Queenie goes on a date with after she starts therapy, is an all lives matter guy who believes in reverse racism. Even Sid the drummer has difficulty with understanding the word no.
Seriously. What is this?
The Ending
Everything just get wrapped up; which Queenie literally recounts in the bathroom mirror at the end of the book. I’m glad she doesn’t end up with a guy at the end, but it’s not for lack of trying. It’s honestly odd that even at the end, she has to be told not to call her ex, who has a girlfriend and even though she says “he made things better”, he never did. In the end, this is a book that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
I’m not saying that the story didn’t need to be told, but not this way. I am at a lot for words as to why this was so well received. This book is an embarrassment. This book is a dangerous thing. This book could have been something that black women could read and feel inspired to change and grow and soar. It could have inspired black women to make a change in their lives but I couldn’t sympathize or empathize with Queenie because the character was weak and coddled by the people around her. She didn’t grow because everything works out in the end and she has no real consequences for her actions.
It’s a no from me. 1 star.