I hated this book. Not because it wasn’t well-written, it was. Not because the plot wasn’t well-developed, it was. Not because the characters weren’t interesting, they were. I hated this book because I hated the main character, Queenie. She vexed my spirit.
I should have known that Queenie would give me the blues when in the first chapter she literally has had a miscarriage and didn’t know it. Her white boyfriend puts her out of the apartment they share and basically ghosts her, and from there she goes on a series of bad dates where her promiscuous behavior sends her into a mental health crisis. To keep it simple, Queenie is a mess!
She likes her job as a journalist at British blog/magazine and wants to do well at it. However, she is always late, takes extended tea breaks, sleeps with one of her co-workers, and leaves in the middle of the day to get tested for STDs. She has rough sex with her neighbor in the car and random guys on online dating sites, all the while texting her ex-boyfriend, Tom, waiting for him to take her back when it’s clear to everyone, but Queenie that Tom has decidely moved on.
After a series of bad circumstances including the loss of one of her best friends and a very bad panic attack at work Queenie is forced to confront the fact that she needs serious help.
I was supposed to read and discuss this book with my niece, Ashlyn, who quit on me after about chapter three. I had to forge ahead. I didn’t understand why Queenie didn’t seek therapy after the unexpected pregnancy and miscarriage. I didn’t understand why she didn’t sshe didn’t tell Tom about the pregancy and seek therapy, not that they needed to stay together, it was evident that the relationship was toxic by the racist treatment of Tom’s family toward Queenie which he never checked because he didn’t see anytthhing wrong with what they were doing and saying. “Why is she with this dude,” I would scream in my head. Maybe racism is handled differently in Great Britain. I’m not sure, but every man she dated, and they were all white or non-black, had some type of racist black girl fetish and they have sex with her and then say racist shit to her right before they left. I just couldn’t fathom why she would constantly subject herself to such horrible treatment.
