Queenie

Critics Review

• Hilarious, compelling, painful, enlightening, honest. I loved it.

  Dolly Alderton

• Queenie is a masterclass in how to write accessible political fiction about race and gender. Funny, relatable, sad, and hopeful; Candice Carty-Williams is a writer to watch.

  Christie Watson

• Brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking

  Jojo Moyes

• Funny, wise and of the moment, this book and this writer are the ones to watch

  Kit de Waal

• Queenie has all the things you want in a debut novel – a startlingly fresh voice, characters you fall in love with from the very first page, and a joyous turn of phrase that makes this book almost impossible to put down. In turns hilariously funny and quietly devastating, Queenie is an important, timely story.

  Louise O'Neill

• Adorable, funny, heartbreaking

• Queenie is the sort of novel you just can’t stop talking about and want everyone you know to read. Snort your tea out funny one moment and utterly heart-breaking the next … I absolutely loved it

• Hilarious and off the wall and tender

• Candice gives so generously with her joy, pain and humour … a beautiful and compelling book

• I ate this up in one greedy, joyous gulp. I loved Queenie and was cheering her on all the way

• I was engrossed and loved Queenie – her humour, her pain, her politics, her friends, her family!

• A really special book with much to say about black female identity, sexual politics, group chats & emotional becoming in a way that feels totally unforced. Filthy, funny & profound

• Queenie is the best mate we all want – funny, sharp and more than a little vulnerable. I loved climbing inside her mind and wish I could have stayed longer. I adored this novel

• Candice Carty Williams is my new favourite writer and she will be yours, too…I needed this book in my early twenties. I have never felt so seen in fiction. My heart is full.

• I enjoyed Queenie a lot; sharp, relatable, and incredibly evocative

• This smart, funny, and tender debut embraces a modern woman’s messiness.

  Booklist

• A black Bridget Jones, perfectly of the moment.

  Kirkus

• One of the buzziest debuts of 2019

  THE GUARDIAN

• This year welcomes Candice Carty-Williams to the literary scene. In 2016, best-selling author Jojo Moyes offered the use of her rural cottage to a wannabe novelist trying to finish a book; she selected Candice from more than 600 applicants.

  GRAZIA

• perfect for anyone who loved Fleabag

  MAIL ON SUNDAY

• Incredibly funny, this is the book that everyone will be talking about.

  CLOSER

• This debut is original, heart-breaking, funny and clever, and also carries many important messages… [this] book blew my mind in all the best ways. I’m still rooting for Queenie long after turning the final page.

  DAILY MAIL

• We are irresistibly drawn into Queenie’s world by a romcom which is wry and often hilarious.

  DAILY MIRROR

• A candid and funny, no-holds-barred exploration of a young black Woman’s life… Carty- Williams is a talented writer with a fresh perspective that the publishing industry desperately needs. Joyous, memorable and necessary.

  EVENING STANDARD

• This is an important, timely and disarming novel, thirst-quenching and long overdue: one that will be treasured by “any type of black girl” and hordes of other readers besides.

  GUARDIAN

• A blistering blend of funny, filthy, frank and dark, this is the mark of a true voice at work.

  HEAT

• A delight from start to finish… a little bit of Fleabag but less double-barrelled and more relatable

  I

• [A] smart and breezy comic debut

  OBSERVER

• Honest and heartfelt

  PSYCHOLOGIES

• Smart, thoughtful and funny

  RED

• We are irresistibly drawn into Queenie’s world by this fresh romcom which is wry and often hilarious, even when it goes to some dark places.

  SUNDAY EXPRESS

• Filled with raw emotion tempered with wry humour, this debut is bitter-sweet.

  SUNDAY MIRROR

• This topical, timely debut’s bracing frankness has a blazing purpose… vital and often funny

  SUNDAY TIMES

• This is a funny, clever, heartbreaking lightning bolt of a first novel, by a writer bristling with talent.

  THE TIMES

• The plot spoke to my soul…Queenie’s journey as a millennial is relatable on so many levels. I’m so besotted with [Queenie] that I’m heavily delaying finding out how this enchanting tale ends. It’ll be a bittersweet day when it finally arrives.

  Refinery29`

• This is an amazing novel about what it means to be a black girl whose world is falling apart and needs to find the strength to put it back together