I feel pretty bad, as I don’t remember the last time I gave a book a 1.5 star rating. I think that the main drag for me was that it isn’t my kind of book and I didn’t get along with the main/titular character.
My review is going to be a bit against the grain, as I know so many people are raving about this book. I don’t know if it is just on everyone’s radar at the moment and so people are bigging it up because it’s the ‘in’ book. But I’m not down for this hype.
Queenie is a self-absorbed, workshy, annoying, egotistical girl from London, who has all manner of problems; some admittedly are mental health problems which aren’t the issue I have with her, some are social problems which are pretty much all her. I didn’t like her from the start, just because she annoyed me basically. Her attitude to people and her job etc is just that of a bratty teenager and I didn’t have much patience with her.
I think this book overall tries to cover a lot of ground, which while commendable in theory, is lacking when it comes to the execution, as there just isn’t enough detail on each topic. It is as though the author has mentioned these buzz word topics, applied it to Queenie, then left it out any further exploration.
Toward the end of the book I was softening to Queenie a little, and I think had some of the issues been dealt with more in depth then I’d have got on better with her. Her accepting the counselling and going through that was a positive for me and also her looking as though she was turning a corner with her depression toward the end… I was rooting for her. But not enough that I was excited to carry on reading any more about her.
I finished this book and just felt a bit ‘meh’.
As I mentioned at the start of this ramble, it isn’t my kind of book. I read it as part of my reading goal of reading something out of my comfort zone each month and I am 100% glad I did. I just don’t want to read it again!
I hope you have better luck with this that I did. Have you read it?
Becca x
The Beautiful Book Break 