Reviews tagging 'Grief'

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

46 reviews

frantic_vampire's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was such a fun read! It was bright and fluffy, but it also didn’t shy away from talking about racism and homophobia. I just freaking loved that Liz was just, so done with all of it and decided to do her own thing. This was just such a good book and it’s definitely a perfect way to kick off your summer reading!

I think the thing that I loved the most about You Should See Me In A Crown was that it didn’t feel like a typical YA contemporary romance. Sure, it had a lot of the tropes that seem to plague YA books these days, like the house party drama, the miscommunications, the friendship break up, the popular cheerleader mean girl, etc., but this book took all of those tropes and breathed a new life into them. There wasn’t a single thing about this book that I hated, except for Rachel...she is the worst sort of person.

Liz is just such a cool character. She’s a band geek, an AP student, a music nerd, and I could see so much of my friends and my own high school experience in her (she definitely would have fit right in! 😊). She’s got this nerdy, cool, badass thing going on and she doesn’t even know it! She’s anxious and stressed but she doesn’t let that stop her from going after the things she wants. I also loved her interactions with the other prom contestants! They ranged from hilarious to downright awful, but she always managed to bounce back. Oooh! I can’t forget her friend squad!! They were just so fun and quirky. And they just loved each other, even when they are being dumb and stubborn. I just loved them all to pieces.

So....as you can tell, I really liked this book...a lot 😅. If you haven’t read it yet, you really should! It’s so freaking good...I just want to dive back into it. This is getting a solid five stars!
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teddieplaysbass's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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fictionalportal's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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nyoom's review

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emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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aseel_reads's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

this was super duper cute!! i loved the platonic friendship we had been Liz and Jordan!! i liked the anxiety rep too. i thought the intersectionality stuff was a bit off but it's a hard topic to cover in a ya contemporary
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memorable's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a cute read which could not be more U.S.-American. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it was hard for me to relate to lots of things, even though I’d consider myself knowing most things about high schools in the U.S. The whole prom thing is just really weird to me.
I loved the characters, but I got to admit that either my expectations were too high or I wasn’t in the right mood for it. 
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bookish_otaku's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I recently watched the movie Prom on Disney+ and realized that I actually don’t like prom stories all that much? It just feels archaic and stereotyped and generally anti-climactic, but I must say, Leah Johnson managed to breath life into a trope I otherwise find unbearably boring. 
 
First, the intersectionality of Liz as a character. A young black girl that’s still closeted in her relatively traditional town, what is she to do when a spunky and undeniably charming new girl comes to town? Especially when this new girl could pose a threat to her chance at winning the title Prom Queen and the substantial scholarship that comes with it? Then we remember her brother who lives with genetic sickle cell and the emotional toll that takes on their family, especially when they’ve already lost their mother to the disease. It’s layer upon layer, and done in such a seamless way. 
 
I absolutely loved watching the entirely platonic friendship that was Liz and Jordan. Honestly, the friendships in this book feel so underrated?
Gabi’s relationship with Liz should have been capitalized on more in my opinion. It was messier and more complex which could have led to a stronger and even more beautiful relationship after they made up, but it kind of felt brushed off. Like it was a check mark and suddenly, just like Gabi had feared, Liz didn’t need her anymore for plot and suddenly that was over. That was really disappointing to me.
 
 
The romance felt a little too much like insta love to me. I could feel that author trying to pace the relationship, but there was just no real space to do that in such a short book. Liz goes from feeling simple attraction to sounding like she’s about to pledge her soul and her future progeny’s soul this girl within a span of 200 pages. This is just my own personal taste though. I’m very much a fan of the slow burn and the platonic relationship. 
 
I really loved the exploration of allyship and what it means to be a true friend. How good people can still do bad things and that even though they are good, they still need to be held accountable. It’s honestly such a nuanced and underrated perspective that I wish I saw more of everywhere, so I’m really happy it was included in this book. Alas, probably not capitalized on as much as I would have preferred, but oh well. 
 
Liz’s character also struggles a lot with anxiety and I thought the representation of this was just so well done. I loved seeing Liz not be limited by her trauma and the symptom (anxiety) it bore, but how she adjusted and learned to live beside in it a ways. It didn’t go away, but it didn’t overshadow her and it didn’t limit her. So not only is she a black queer woman, but she’s also got that wonderful mental health rep. Oh, and she’s a great person, there aren’t too many of those around anymore are there. 
 
A little pet peeve I did have was when tension was created between Liz and her love interest because of lack of communication. I think if Johnson had explored more deeply the reasons WHY Liz was too embarrassed to properly communicate, then it could have been more understandable and also held a nuanced introspection on something that, again, is not spoken about widely enough. Unfortunately, that fell a little short for me. 
 
Near the end the pacing started to feel a little slow as we all knew what was going to happen and it felt like there was a lot of mental babble just to buy time. I understand that Liz was nervous, but it was a little too much and I wish it had been summed up by the author in a more concise way. We all knew how it was going to end and the rambling just felt torturous at that point. 
 
I also wish that some of the side characters had gotten more development. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the evolution of Liz, but it felt a little wrong that I could not tell apart two of her best friends to save my life. Actually, I think it was three. They just felt so inessential to the overarching plot, it was a bit of a pity. The antagonist’s character could have also used some depth, although if it was Johnson’s point to make her a racist homophobe, then I guess she really didn’t deserve any depth, huh? 
 
All in all, I must commend Johnson’s ability to revive what was, for me, a tired trope. I quite enjoyed this read!
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kelseyland's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A completely heartwarming and endearing queer teen coming of age story. I loved everything about this book. 
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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Liz enters into her school's prom queen competition in order to have a shot at a scholarship. Along the way, she deals with the ups and downs of friendship, racism, homophobia, classism, and the nuances of dating. I've never been a huge fan of the pagent trope, but it wasn't overdone and I really enjoyed this read (though the audio narator pronounced manga as may-n-ga) . The characters were compelling and the story was a lot of fun. I felt genuinly angry when bullies and friends pulled stupid stunts on Liz, and appreciated the glimpses we got into Liz's self reflectiomy. 
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ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I’ve learned all the ways to keep my head down, to hide, to make myself scarce. But I never really learned how to say when enough was a enough. Until now.

This book was delightful, and despite suffering from what I now like to call the "YA dead parent syndrome", I found myself smiling cheek to cheek at the end which is something I truly needed in this particular time of my life.

[For all the people who'd like to listen to this audiobook but doesn't have the means to access to audio reading platforms: this book is available on Spotify (together with a whole other bunch of audiobooks).]

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