Her unstoppable ambition to attend her school of choice regardless of the cost and how she carries it all. How she would be treated if she was openly queer, her family’s pinched financial situation, Liz’s younger brother’s declining health, and the demands of winning the title of Prom Queen. We see the discrimination for being black. Liz is one of the few black students who attends a private school in Indiana. Though You Should See Me in a Crown is filled with a joy you want as your own, Johnson does not shy away from some significant facts and truths that Liz Lighty faces as a queer black girl. Her heady wit and clever humor will have readers laughing and feeling as though they have found a long lost friend they never knew they needed. It’s not just the exposition that captivates, but the voice Johnson writes for the main character Elizabeth Lighty. Her writing transports us into the high school scene so vividly, capturing all the drama, the cliques, the ebb and flow and crushing tsunami of adolescence. You Should See Me in a Crown is just that: the bright spot, the rays of warmth you covet in a blistering cold that seeps into your bones. Where you still crave to be in the same proximity of the novel (even though you’ve finished it days ago) because the book’s energy and beauty is something you want near in an otherwise dismal world. My ReviewĪfter you finish the last page of a novel, have you ever had that feeling of rightness? The feeling that blossoms in your chest like a flower in spring opening to face the sun for the first time, something akin to happiness. With a chance to win the coveted title of Prom Queen (scholarship included) Liz will have to overcome her anxiety of being in the spotlight to reach her goal of getting into Pennington College.Īnd like every great story, Liz finds herself gravitating to the new girl who just so happens to be running for Prom Queen too. A senior whose college plan comes to a crashing halt with a rejection letter of a much needed scholarship.īut an opportunity arises that Liz can’t pass. You Should See Me in a Crown is about Elizabeth (Liz) Lighty. Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown is a treasure of a book.

You should see me in crown book