Island Queen

Before reading Island Queen, had you read other books set in the colonial West Indies? What were your impressions about the time and place before you read Dorothy’s story?

What does Dorothy take away from her early years, enslaved by her father, living in the shadow of her parents’ tumultuous and unequal relationship? How did her mother use what very little power she had to protect Doll and Kitty, and try to secure a better future for them?

Early in the novel Dorothy says of John Coseveldt Cells, “I had a piece of his heart. I knew it. I gripped it in my hand. Didn’t know if I’d have to give it back.” How would you describe the long relationship between Dorothy and Cells? Why do you think he made the choices he did, particularly with regard to marriage and his children with Doll? If he had married Dorothy, how would their lives have changed?

What did you make of Dorothy’s relationship with Mr. Foden? Did he view her differently than the other men around her did? Was she right when she said “That man was better to me than my own flesh. Better than the man I loved.”?

During an argument, Dorothy tells Cells: “We are a mirror, two people who want the world, but I live in the truth. I live in my skin. My black skin.” How are Doll and Cells mirror images? Why does she throw the truth of his birth in his face in that moment? Does Doll live a more authentic life than Cells because the truth of her birth and her race cannot be hidden? How does that play out later in her relationship with their daughter Catharina, who was raised as White?

Dorothy frequently suffers from deep depression after her children are born. Do you know women who have suffered the same post-partum depression? Do we treat it differently in modern times?

How does Doll’s life and fortune depend on her ability to leverage her relationships with powerful men (Foden, Cells, Thomas, Prince William)? Are women today still dependent on relationships with men for status and security? What has changed and what hasn’t?

At her daughter’s wedding, Doll reflects: “Pure happiness couldn’t exist without sacrifice.” What do you think brings Doll pure happiness? What sacrifices has she endured to achieve it?

Although she struggled to free herself from slavery, Doll later chooses to enslave others. Is she deceiving herself when she tries to justify it? Can her decision ever be justified? Did your opinion of Doll change when she crossed that line?

When the Entertainment Society reaches out to Doll, she says, “All my life I’ve been singled out as that one woman… Now I’m sitting with women, good powerful women.” Why has it taken so long for Doll to form bonds with women outside her family? Why is her alliance with the Society transformative?

When Dorothy, her daughters, and granddaughters appear in London society, why does she defy the whispers and proudly bring her family to the ballroom?

At the end of the novel, Dorothy finally gets the assurances she wants from Lord Bathurst. Why did the author set up the novel to open and close with this encounter? What about Dorothy’s life made her able to journey to the heart of the British Empire and defend her fortune?

In the author’s note, Vanessa Riley writes that finding women like Dorothy “restored my soul.” How does our understanding of history change when we focus on women like Doll and her peers? Why have they been left out of traditional history?