Lauren Lanz's Reviews > You Should See Me in a Crown

“I never needed this race, or a hashtag, or the king to be a queen. I was born royalty. All I had to do was pick up my crown.”

This was a really sweet, empowering story!
You Should See Me in a Crown was brought to my attention when the Black Lives Matter protests in America started this year. BLM protesting sparked here in Canada as well, and I came across several lists of books to support by black authors. This one was mentioned a lot, with a premise that seemed lovely!

~★~ What is this book about?

Liz Lighty is stuck: she has no way of paying for her dream college.
An unlikely opportunity presents itself in her high school's prom; the king and queen will receive the money she badly needs.
Though Liz's chances of success seem slim to none, it's her only shot. The only problem is that she's falling for the competition, one of the girls trying for top spot alongside Liz.

~★~

You Should See Me in a Crown was enjoyable to the last page, with a romance that warms the heart. When thinking about it, there are plenty of prom stories out there. What there aren't plenty of are prom stories that black girls and queer girls can see themselves in. It makes me incredibly happy to know books like this one exist, which give visibility to groups that don't receive enough representation.

Liz was a character that I took a liking to immediately. There was something about her personality that really clicked with me from the start. I loved her approach to challenges; she never entered something expecting to fail, but instead did her best to surpass her expectations for herself.

While Leah Johnson's writing didn't differ much from your typical contemporary narrative, I still enjoyed it. The content of the story and Liz herself more than made up for the rest. I would recommend this one for sure!! :)