Queenie

Darcy is one of Queenie’s best friends and her confidant. They work together and talk constantly, chatting in the meeting rooms or emailing one another. This often gets them in trouble. Although Darcy’s whiteness and eternally optimistic outlook sometimes gets in the way of her doing or saying the right thing, Queenie knows that Darcy loves and supports her. Darcy has responsible opinions and tries to help keep Queenie on track but also knows when to just say what Queenie needs to hear.

The narrative reveals the character of Tom mostly through Queenie’s perspective and her flashbacks; the only time his character speaks for himself is when Queenie shows up at his flat. For much of the book, Tom is merely a symbol of love and stability for Queenie, not an embodied character. What the flashbacks reveal about him is that although he and Queenie had sweet moments, he resented her for not sharing her full self with him, which she was unable to do because of her trauma. In addition, the flashbacks show how racist Tom’s family is and how much more he valued keeping peace with his family than protecting Queenie.

Queenie’s friend from college, Cassandra is opinionated and hot-tempered, and she has moments of being both a good and a very bad friend throughout the book. Cassandra uses her smart psychoanalysis of other people to tell them truths that they might not want to hear about themselves. At times, this is a helpful tactic, but sometimes Cassandra abuses it to hurt people. Crucially, Cassandra doesn’t apply the same level of psychoanalysis and criticism to herself that she does to other people, leading her to act in cruel, sexist, and regrettable ways. Although Queenie envies some aspects of Cassandra’s life, such as her amazing father, her financial stability, and her “caring” boyfriend, Cassandra makes choices just as questionable as those Queenie makes. By the end of the book, it’s difficult to tell whether the pros outweigh the cons in Queenie’s relationship with Cass.

Kyazike is one of Queenie’s closest friends and, like Queenie, is Black. The two have been friends since elementary school, where they found each other among a lot of white children. She’s Ugandan, works at a bank, and lives with her mother. Unlike Queenie, she’s very confident and has high standards for men, often rejecting them after the first date. Kyazike doesn’t take “shit” from anyone and is unafraid of confrontation, often offering to mess with the people who mess with Queenie. Although Kyazike often asks Queenie to do her hair or bring her snacks, she’s always there to support Queenie too.

Ted is a man at Queenie’s office with whom she has a brief affair. He’s initially very persistent, sending her cheesy and romantic emails and finding her around the office to ask her out. Once the two of them have sex—in the office—his true colors come out, however, as he ignores Queenie’s physical and verbal queues, using her body to fulfill his own desires and fetishizing her in the process. It becomes increasingly clear that he’s selfish and mean, as he pins the incident on her and reports her to HR, leading to her temporarily losing her job. Even after this, he has the audacity to try to make Queenie feel bad for him and ask for her to take him back should his wife leave him.

Guy is a cheating, violent man who (although Queenie doesn’t know it initially) Cassandra’s boyfriend. In all Queenie’s encounters with him, he’s immature and sexually violent, and he makes her feel bad for having any expectations of intimacy or boundaries. While he pretends to be a good boyfriend to Cassandra, he continually cheats on her. Queenie’s ability to set boundaries with Guy and stop seeing him is a huge sign of her growth.

Queenie’s boss, Gina, is a complicated character who has moments of kindness, reminding Queenie to go easy on herself, offering her time off, and continuing to try to find ways to get Queenie to stay at the job. However, she also has many moments of harshness and rudeness, commenting on Queenie’s appearance and flat-out rejecting most of her pitches for stories as too “radical” or “abrasive” without offering much real help or constructive criticism. Gina is a realist about the world’s injustices and doesn’t seem to imagine, or hope, for them to change, encouraging Queenie to have a sort of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality.

Queenie’s grandmother, Veronica, is an important figure in her life because of her consistency. Queenie’s always welcome at her grandparents’ home, where Veronica always gives her a plate of food. Veronica shows love through things like food and cleaning but also gives Queenie a lot of tough love, telling her to be stronger and get over her emotions; this is a symptom of Veronica’s own struggles: She and her own mother immigrated to the UK and experienced much suffering. As the story progresses, Veronica comes to terms with Queenie’s going to therapy and facing her trauma, showing that she loves Queenie unconditionally. Another reason Veronica is important is that she connects Queenie to her Jamaican culture, feeding her Jamaican foods and speaking in patois.

Queenie has a difficult relationship with her mother, Sylvie. As a child, the two were extremely close, but when Sylvie married a man named Roy, he abused them both and tore their relationship apart. Since then, Sylvie has been a fragile, quiet woman, and Queenie has felt anger towards her for abandoning her. Sylvie understands Queenie well and deeply regrets what happened between them, but she’s not pushy about having a relationship. As Queenie spirals into a state of sadness and attends therapy, she experiences a lot of the things that she resented about her mother, like losing her job and being unable to eat, and thus gains compassion for her. Meanwhile, Sylvie’s court case with Roy is reaching closure, and she’s healing from some of her own anxiety. Despite everything they’ve been through, by the end of the book their love for one another and desire to continue strengthening their relationship are clear.

Queenie’s grandfather is an observer; he doesn’t speak often but makes an impact when he does. He helps Veronica understand that going to therapy will make Queenie’s life easier than theirs has been and, as Queenie heals, tells Veronica how much growth he has seen.

Maggie is Queenie’s extremely religious aunt. Despite Maggie’s conservatism, woo-woo beliefs, and denial of mental health conditions, she’s a stable and loving presence in Queenie’s life and is a maternal figure at times, taking Queenie to the doctor’s office or picking her up from work when she has a panic attack.