Monique

It's summer in New York City, and a sweltering heat wave stifles the area. The entire city is on edge. Tensions between the Hasidic and Black communities of New York have been steadily escalating since a tragic incident a few weeks ago left a Black teenager dead. Then, two rabbis are killed in a gruesome attack at their synagogue. Meanwhile, FBI agent Janet Maclin has dreams of finally being appointed the FBI's first female director, when she is diagnosed with stage IV cancer and given four months to live.

Do you have a “ride or die chick” in your life? A “ride or die chick” is a Black woman who holds down her family and community. She’s that friend or family member that you can call up in the middle of the night to bail you out of jail, if ever needed, and you know she’ll show up and won’t ask any questions. She does anything for her family, friends, and significant other, even at the cost of her own well-being. “No” is not in her vocabulary. She’s beloved by you and many others, but her ride or die trope becomes a problem when she does it indiscriminately.

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.