Queenie

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams     Audio Book:  9 hrs, 45 mins      Hardback Book   336 pages                    Genre:  Adult Fiction   Growing up Jamaican in London,   Mental Breakdown -  Human Implosion

This was a REALLY good book.   One I couldn’t put down.    It walks you through a Jamaican young woman brought up in England, Queenie’s, life before her breakdown during her breakdown and dealing with her breakdown.     Circumstances in her life come together all at a volatile juncture and it is as if her brain is short circuited and she finds herself on this self-destructive path in which she keeps trying to sabotage herself.    It is as though her filter that would designate to her mind some folks are not to be trifled with – they are bad for you – ceases to protect her and she goes running at top speed with arms wide open embracing all that is wrong in the world.   She has a strong family background but keeps running into brick walls with this mixed up “I’m worthless and don’t deserve anything good to happen to me, I am unloveable and unloving and I just need someone or something to put me out of my misery” attitude.    Her friends try to be there for her, but, she just seems to want to hurt herself in spite of it all.   Things in her life go so wrong even worse because she is helping them to.   Her depression nearly takes her out many times and it is a wonder if therapy will do her any good, will she even stick to it.    Why can’t she move on and leave this funk behind?    She didn’t want what she had, but now that she doesn’t have it, she thinks she needs it to survive.   Some people no matter how much you love them just can’t be helped no matter how much friends and family try to pad the way for you and lead you by the hand.   Run, run. Run but who’s there when you fall flat?    Good book.   I highly recommend this one to Middle School through adult.    Takes the reader to new depths and understanding – Wow!

 - Shirley J