Candice Carty-Williams’ debut novel Queenie arrives as both a mirror and a magnifying glass, reflecting the fractured reality of contemporary Black British womanhood while examining the microscopic details of one woman’s spectacular unraveling. Like watching a car crash in slow motion, readers find themselves simultaneously horrified and unable to look away as Queenie Jenkins careens through a series of increasingly destructive choices following her breakup with long-term boyfriend Tom.
The Architecture of Collapse
A Life in Fragments
The novel opens with Queenie literally in the stirrups at a gynecologist’s office, texting her ex-boyfriend during an examination—a visceral introduction that immediately establishes both her vulnerability and her desperate need for connection. This opening scene perfectly encapsulates Carty-Williams’ approach: unflinchingly honest about the messy realities of women’s lives while maintaining an undercurrent of dark humor that prevents the narrative from drowning in its own misery.
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman navigating the treacherous waters of London’s media landscape while straddling two cultures that never quite feel like home. Her work at a national newspaper serves as a constant reminder of her outsider status, surrounded by white middle-class colleagues who seemingly effortlessly belong in ways she never will. When her relationship with Tom implodes—largely due to her own self-sabotaging behavior—Queenie spirals into a pattern of destructive sexual encounters and increasingly poor decisions.
The Craft of Chaos
Carty-Williams demonstrates remarkable narrative control in depicting Queenie’s lack of control. The novel’s structure mirrors its protagonist’s fragmented mental state through a non-linear timeline that weaves between present-day disasters and flashbacks that illuminate the origins of Queenie’s trauma. Text messages, emails, and group chat conversations punctuate the narrative, creating an authentic portrayal of how modern relationships unfold across digital platforms.
The author’s background in marketing and her work championing underrepresented voices through the BAME Short Story Prize clearly inform her understanding of contemporary culture and voice. Her prose crackles with authenticity, capturing the specific rhythms of Black British speech patterns and the exhausting code-switching required to navigate predominantly white professional spaces.
The Weight of Representation
Cultural Schizophrenia
One of the novel’s greatest strengths lies in its nuanced exploration of cultural identity. Queenie exists in a perpetual state of not-quite-belonging: too British for some, not British enough for others, caught between her Jamaican heritage and her London upbringing. Her relationship with Tom’s family serves as a particularly sharp examination of well-meaning liberal racism, where she endures casual microaggressions disguised as inclusion.
The Christmas scene where Tom’s uncle suggests team divisions based on “dark shirts versus light shirts” only to pointedly exclude Queenie despite her white dress represents a masterclass in depicting everyday racism. Carty-Williams doesn’t belabor the point with heavy-handed commentary; instead, she allows the moment to land with devastating simplicity, trusting readers to understand the weight of such seemingly casual cruelty.
The Therapy Generation
Perhaps most impressively, the novel tackles mental health within Caribbean families with remarkable sensitivity. Queenie’s journey toward therapy represents not just personal growth but a generational shift. Her grandfather’s eventual support for her counseling—”Maybe if all ah we had learned to talk about our troubles, we wouldn’t carry so much on our shoulders all the way to the grave”—serves as both character development and social commentary on changing attitudes toward mental health in immigrant communities.
The Politics of Pain
Sexual Autonomy and Self-Destruction
Carty-Williams refuses to sanitize female sexuality or present easy answers about sexual empowerment. Queenie’s encounters with various men post-breakup range from the merely disappointing to the genuinely concerning, yet the author never judges her protagonist for seeking connection through sex. Instead, she examines how trauma, abandonment issues, and internalized racism manifest in destructive patterns.
The revelation of Queenie’s miscarriage—experienced alone and never shared with Tom—adds layers of complexity to her behavior. Carty-Williams handles this devastating loss with remarkable restraint, showing how grief can distort decision-making without excusing harmful choices.
Workplace Warfare
The novel’s depiction of newsroom culture provides sharp social commentary on diversity and inclusion in media. Queenie’s passionate pitch for Black Lives Matter coverage meets with the predictable “All Lives Matter” response from colleagues, highlighting the exhausting reality of having to justify one’s humanity in professional settings. Her eventual workplace scandal with married colleague Ted feels inevitable given the toxic environment and her psychological state.
The Art of Authentic Voice
Language as Identity
Carty-Williams demonstrates exceptional skill in code-switching throughout the narrative. Queenie’s voice shifts seamlessly between professional polish and Caribbean vernacular, reflecting the constant performance required of code-switching individuals. The group chat between “The Corgis”—Queenie’s friend group—buzzes with authentic millennial energy, complete with abbreviations, inside jokes, and the particular intimacy of digital communication.
The author’s decision to include various forms of digital communication isn’t merely stylistic; it serves the deeper purpose of showing how contemporary relationships exist across multiple platforms simultaneously. Queenie’s desperation becomes palpable through her escalating text messages to Tom, while her friends’ concern manifests through increasingly worried group chat exchanges.
Critical Considerations
The Limits of Likability
While Queenie’s flaws make her compellingly human, they occasionally test reader patience. Her capacity for self-sabotage can feel exhausting, particularly during the middle sections where she repeatedly makes obviously poor choices. However, this frustration serves the novel’s larger purpose: examining how trauma creates destructive patterns that resist easy solutions.
Some readers may find the supporting characters less fully realized than Queenie herself. While her grandmother’s pragmatic Caribbean wisdom and her grandfather’s eventual emotional breakthrough provide powerful moments, other characters sometimes feel more functional than fully human. Ted, in particular, exists primarily as a plot device rather than a complete person.
The Therapy Narrative
The novel’s resolution through therapy, while realistic and important for representation, occasionally feels somewhat neat given the complexity of Queenie’s issues. Mental health recovery rarely follows such a clear trajectory, and some readers might find the conclusion more hopeful than entirely convincing.
Contemporary Relevance and Literary Merit
A Voice for the Times
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams arrives at a crucial moment in British literature, adding a essential voice to conversations about race, identity, and mental health. Carty-Williams joins authors like Bernardine Evaristo, Kit de Waal, and Afua Hirsch in expanding the landscape of British fiction to include previously marginalized perspectives.
The novel’s exploration of social media culture, workplace dynamics, and contemporary dating feels remarkably current without being tied to specific platforms or trends that might date the work. This universality within specificity marks strong literary craftsmanship.
Technical Achievement
From a craft perspective, Carty-Williams demonstrates impressive control over tone and pacing. The balance between humor and pathos prevents the novel from becoming either too light or unbearably heavy. Her ear for dialogue and understanding of contemporary communication patterns creates an immersive reading experience that feels immediate and authentic.
Similar Reads and Literary Context
Readers drawn to Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams might appreciate Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for its exploration of cultural displacement and identity, or Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid for its examination of race and class dynamics. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris offers another perspective on navigating white workplace culture, while Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney provides a different take on messy relationships and self-destructive behavior.
For readers interested in Caribbean-British literature, Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo and The Mother by Yvvette Edwards offer different generational perspectives on similar cultural terrain.
The Verdict: A Necessary Voice
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams succeeds as both entertainment and social commentary, offering readers a protagonist who embodies contemporary anxieties about belonging, identity, and mental health. While Queenie Jenkins may not always be likable, she feels undeniably real—a woman struggling with the weight of representation, the legacy of trauma, and the simple human need for connection.
Carty-Williams has crafted a debut that announces her as a significant new voice in British fiction. The novel’s unflinching examination of race, class, and gender dynamics provides essential perspectives often missing from mainstream literary fiction. More importantly, it does so with humor, humanity, and hope.
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams represents exactly the kind of contemporary fiction we need: messy, honest, and unafraid to examine the complexities of modern identity. It’s a novel that trusts its readers to engage with difficult questions while providing the satisfying character development and emotional journey that makes literary fiction worthwhile.
For readers seeking authentic portrayals of Black British experience, explorations of mental health and trauma, or simply compelling character-driven fiction that doesn’t shy away from contemporary realities, Queenie delivers with remarkable power and precision. It’s a debut that establishes Carty-Williams as a writer to watch and a voice that British literature desperately needed.
