Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

339 reviews

angievansprang's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really enjoyed this read. Queenie is a young, Black, 20-something trying to find her way in London while coming to terms with some realities about her life. There are LOTS of terrible men, beautiful female friendships, complicated family dynamics, and most importantly, the rocky journey towards self love & self acceptance. Though Queenie is by no means perfect, I found her to still be a lovable character. You want everything to work out for her in the end. Check trigger warnings before picking this one up because there are definitely scenes that are hard to stomach, especially when you as the reader can recognize Queenie’s self-destructive behavior before she does. I thought the mental health representation of anxiety & panic disorders was completely on par in this book and I appreciated that rawness from the author. It was one of the many ways in which Queenie comes alive off the page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Physical abuse

bookzombiee19's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Abortion, Miscarriage, and Panic attacks/disorders

rachela_7's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Police brutality

justcallmeemily's review against another edition

funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

If it wasn't for book club, i would've DNFed a long time ago. Definitely not my kind of book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Cursing, Child abuse, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Minor: Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

sandysmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I'm gradually adding books I've read in 2021 to give a true reflection of the books I've read since keeping records.  This was the first book I read in 2021, and is what kick started my reading journey having put reading on the back burner whilst bringing up the children, previously being an avid reader.  Queenie is a black journalist navigating her life. Its about live, race and relationships. She and the other characters are not very likeable. She badly navigates the dating scene. Mysogony and racism make uncomfortable reading. I wanted to shake her to make her come to her senses. After counselling it does get better fo  her, but I really disliked some of the characters and situations she found herself in. It's a Bridget Jones type book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Miscarriage

megansoetaert's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Queenie 😭😭😭 This book stressed me out!!! All I can say is i’m glad there is growth & reflection happening by the end of the book. thank god for therapy & family. 

Even though Queenie was a complete mess, she still felt endearing. I was rooting for her even though I was cringing the whole way through! Alsoooo, almost everyone around her was awful and not making her life easier. I think this’ll be great as a show, i’m excited for the tv series’ release! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Sexual violence

djcarter's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I enjoyed this book. I felt like I could relate to Queenie when it came to her dating life and also her anxiety. The way her oncoming panic attacks were described made me remember how mine also felt. I’m happy that in the end of the book the focus was on Queenie and how much progress she made throughout the book and she didn’t need to end up with another man to have a “happy ending”. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Fatphobia, Racism, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment

ghostmomxoxo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Misogyny, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol and Drug use

bobinsbooknook's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I wanted to enjoy this book more but overall found myself really struggling to get through this audio book. 

The majority of the characters felt very 1 dimensional. I found Queenie to be incredibly difficult to enjoy as a character for a vast portion of the book and it was only watching her develop towards the end that actually sold it for me.

The fact that pretty much every guy in this book has some form of black fetish or is racist just made the characters feel so impactful in places. Also that Queenie is a so self centred until she has therapy and even then it’s still such a minor change in terms of her actually giving a shit about the people around her.

I can understand the comparisons so similar coming-of-age style books like Bridget jones but the decisions made by Queenie really took me out of a lot of the story and made it very difficult to sympathise with at times when you realise she is meant to be 25/26 and for a huge part acts really immature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism and Miscarriage

Minor: Racial slurs

rockyreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In full transparency, I saw a lot of myself in this book. A lot of my darkest times and worst decisions is reflected in Queenie and what she went through. We're human, we're not perfect, and sometimes we go on paths of self destruction before coming back out of the rubble and realizing who we are and what we deserve.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism