Queenie

by Candice Carty-Williams

“Only this to go,” Eardley said in a strong Yorkshire accent that seemed incongruous with his dark-brown skin and gold teeth

lol what?

“My skin is the perfect color for my foundation and if I stay out in the sun I’ll get darker. It won’t match, Eardley,” Leigh pleaded.

Okie dokie

He looked like my mum’s old partner, Roy. Stocky, short, dark-skinned, and with a bald head that I think he shaves so closely with a razor so as not to let any Afro hair come through,

....why

Sam goes by Sambo.

.....

“Okay, well, why don’t you just give, like, a sass face?” another girl suggested. “Mmm, I don’t think so. I reckon I’ll just look pissed off, and guys don’t seem to go for that angry black girl thing.”

*groans*

“Don’t tell me to calm down! I can’t keep doing this, James. It’s not just you and Evie. It’s me working a full-time job and coming here to iron your shirts and cook your dinner and then you coming home late or not at all! Yet you still won’t let me move in!

Why would you want to move in with and marry a man who acts like this anyways? That's your bad for going to someone ELSE's home and doing THEIR chores after work.

“Ah, come on, I beg you, suck it,” Adi said, frowning. “It’s not going to happen, I’m afraid,” I said. “Will you kiss it, then?” “Will I kiss your penis? No, I won’t.” I only wanted a bit of sex to tide me over, not all of this back and forth. “Just a peck, I beg you.” Adi pouted. “… I don’t know what to tell you, sorry.” “Just lick it one time.” He shrugged. “Nope.” “All right, spit on it, then,” Adi suggested. “I just feel like, the more you ask me these things, the more you’re going to get annoyed. So I would stop here.” “All right, all right, jeez. You black girls are so up yourselves, innit.”

Ick

“So anyway, the guy comes to my bay. He’s so buff, he’s light-skin, he’s got these hazel eyes, and his hair? Waves, fam, like the ocean. The eye contact is strong and he’s biting his lip when he’s chatting to me, so I know he’s feeling me. But then I check his accounts: minus four hundred pounds in his current, six grand in debt on his credit card. Queenie, I just bid him a good day and let him pass—” I stopped hacking at the thick string holding the weave in place. “But this could have been ‘the one,’ Kyazike. What if you fell in love? You could have financially guided hi—” “Financially guided who? Excuse me, Queenie, I cannot be with someone in that much debt. I have a lifestyle that needs sustaining. My Mr. Right cannot have minus money.”

Hilarious and the only thing said in this book that I agree with so far.

“CAN YOU TURN THAT OFF, GRANDMA?” I shouted down. “YOU KNOW I AM STRUGGLING.” There was a long pause. “Who yuh tink yuh talking to?” my grandmother shouted back. “Yuh tink say you can be DJ inna my house ’cause of a man?”

Yesssss granny!

Now, I am no stranger to pain. I had my hair relaxed every two months from the age of eleven to twenty-three, and the feeling of your scalp burning away so that it weeps and scabs over the next day has set me up to deal with any injury you can throw at me. Sexual or otherwise.

Who wrote this? (Rhetorical question) Why would her head be bleeding and seeping from a perm? It's said as if this is the norm as opposed to the result of gross misuse. So, I wonder who this was written for. I'm no perm girlie nor do I have anything against perms, I used to get them but describing them this way seems like it was intended to invoke something in readers who know nothing about perms.

He lifted a hand to my hair and stroked it. “You make me happy too. I love you.” “Tom, don’t touch my hair.”

Queenie was absolutely insufferable most of the book but Tom was foul too by not protecting her from some of his racist family members.