I’m not even done with the first episode of Queenie on Hulu and it is fantastic. It is so spot on for the adaptation of the novel.
Queenie tells the story of a 25-year-old woman of Jamaican descent who is battling the constant stream of microaggressions (and not-so-microaggressions) from her white boyfriend’s family, job, and dating world. After a devastating breakup and a doctor’s appointment that left her questioning her entire life, Queenie makes some unsavory and sometimes dangerous decisions, looking for something more.
I loved the book, and I will defend it with my life. I saw so many Black women hate on Queenie with their whole chest, citing that Queenie was messy and so unlikeable, especially for pining after such a mediocre white boy. These arguments play right into the critique in the novel: people reducing a Black woman’s expression of any feeling as anger to be dismissed.
But I read Queenie as a nuanced story about a young woman trying to find herself while dealing with the fallout from trauma, both from recent developments and her childhood relationship with her mother. I’ll be honest: I’m not as interested in the stories of Black women who are thoroughly respectable or how those women’s respectability is used as justification for them to live their lives for other people. I want stories about real Black women.
I highly recommend both the show and the novel, although all the instances of microaggressions can come across as a bit much. The story will have you reflecting on how our previous relationships affect our current and future ones.
