Bookishrealm's Reviews > You Should See Me in a Crown

This was definitely a solid 4.5 stars!

TW: death (off page), homophobia (on and off page), illness, and outing

What a beautiful book! This is the book that I could have used when I was growing up. I needed a book where the main character was a Black queer girl who was trying to not only figure out her identity, but just wanted to make the best of her high school experience and be successful. Leah Johnson captures such a beautiful narrative in this novel and I need more stories like this in my life.

When I originally read the synopsis, I thought that this was going to be an enemy to lovers plot line, but I couldn't have been more wrong. It was a book about family, love, identity, and friendship. Liz not only spent the novel attempting to figure out who she was and who she wanted to be, but she also spent a great deal of time healing from the loss of her mother (not a spoiler). I LOVED the way Johnson dealt with her grieving and healing process especially since I just read a book last month that did not handle these topics well. There is also this subtle discussion of being Black and queer and going to a predominately White school as a Black student. It's not that Johnson didn't want the reader to be aware of these narratives; however, I think that they were a perfect background to Liz's overall discovery of her self. This self-discovery and relationship building that Liz had with her grandmother and brother were perfect and absolutely beautiful.

My favorite part of this book? The romance. I can't tell how you how many people seem to forget or negate the fact that Black women can be queer. I wish I had this story when I was going through the process of figuring out my identity. The relationship literally gave me butterflies. The moment that there was a flicker of attraction, my heart began to swoon. It's rare that I feel that way in a book. But Leah Johnson did such a great job building such a beautiful relationship and romance that gave characters self-confidence and hope for a better future in this small town in Indiana. And there was hope. Was the ending perfect? No. Did it completely solve the issue of homophobia in this town? No. But we got to see a Black girl filled with joy AND a community that was committed to one day turning away from the traditional values that have been set forth in many countries. I've heard stories of proms where students are not allowed to wear what they want if their gender does not align with "traditional standards" or rules where same sex couples aren't allow to interact or engage with each other at the event. It's disgusting, but I know it happens and I'm so happy that Johnson uses her characters as catalyst to address these very same issues that are faced by high school students all over the world.

I could not give this book a solid 5 stars because there was a conflict between two characters that I could not get over. The character in the wrong was selfish, conniving, and in some ways self-righteous. The fact that they ended up getting off so easily bothered me especially when they made Liz feel uncomfortable in her own skin. I mean at one point Liz was afraid to wear her hair in a certain way or wear certain colored clothes because she was fearful of standing out. In my personal opinion, an apology doesn't fix that. It would have taken a much longer time to fix that relationship.

Other than that I found this novel to be amazing and I hope that so many more people have the opportunity to read it this year.