Play Book Tag discussion

Queenie is a 25 year old Jamaican British woman trying to make it in the world, the first in her family to graduate from university with a job that matches her career ambitions writing news hoping she will be able to make a mark having her voice heard. Unfortunately, the day that she is moving out of her shared flat with her long term boyfriend because he needs a "break", she also learns that despite an IUD, she suffered a miscarriage. From there her world implodes on a very painful to watch path of self destruction. With unresolved stepfather trauma, her relationship with men is degrading at best as she tries so hard to not be alone. The consequences of these continued poor choices reach out and affect all aspects of her life. Queenie must hit bottom to shift her perspective and reassess her life goals.

This book was painful but powerful of girl gone wrong as she accepts all that society, men, systemic racism throws at her. She is passive in trying to fit into a broken system. There are also fun moments of support with her lovely friends and family supporting as they can and through a great group text of Queenie and her Corgis. The book is thoughtfully written and I hope to read more from this author.

Nice review.

I really liked this book as well. It was a much better and much more thoughtful book than I expected it to be.

The constant subtlety racists hits he took were both jarring and eye-opening.

Booknblues wrote: "Nice review.

I really liked this book as well. It was a much better and much more thoughtful book than I expected it to be.

The constant subtlety racists hits he took were both jarring and eye-op..."

Yes, each detail was so thoughtfully considered to really show all of the micro and macro racism. Jarring is a good word but I was glad to understand better.

Jen K wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "Nice review.

I really liked this book as well. It was a much better and much more thoughtful book than I expected it to be.

The constant subtlety racists hits he took were both..."

It is a really good book and I would encourage more people to pick it up and read it .

It is set in the UK, but it certainly has relevance in the USA as well.

I couldn't get through this. Maybe because I had wrong expectations - I expected something along the lines of Bridget Jones or Shopaholic but with a black woman's life. The heroine is so dysfunctional and so in denial of it that I couldn't stand to go through more of it to get to a potentially happier resolution.

I did like this book, but I totally agree with Robin that the description of the book definitely did not match the tone.

It was marketed as a Bridget Jones-like book and it was definitely NOT that. While I still liked the book, I think i would have enjoyed it more if it had set more realistic expectations.

Agree that it was marketed differently than it actually was .

I put off reading it a bit, because I didn't really like the idea of reading a Bridget Jones kind of book.

As I was reading, Queenie, I felt a jolt. "Hey, this isn't what I expected." I was pleased that it wasn't, but I know books have been ruined for me when I was expecting something that wasn't there.