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A review by themermaddie
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
2.0
i feel mislead by the synopsis; i'm very much the minority that did not like this book, but i'm glad other people found something worthwhile in this story. one star for representation, and another for pride of all sorts.
i'm sorry for the incoming rant.
i have never been so relieved to finish a book; despite being a quick read, this story just seemed to drag on forever. the blurb pitched a prom queen social war, rivals to lovers romance and i cannot stress how much this was not that. this 'great romance' literally takes place over like 3 weeks and i feel like we hardly get to know mack beyond just being nice and pretty and also having a dead mom. the romance doesn't feel like the main plot but also it doesn't really feel like there is one? even prom kinda disappears for a second. the story just kinda meanders from plot point to plot point, like a weekly updating wattpad story. frankly i'm not sure where all 330+ pages went because so much happened but also like nothing happened?
there are so many subplots in this book and i didn't care about any of them, the only one that would've been worth developing in further depth was liz's mom and her brother's illness, which as it stands, feels very underdeveloped. i kept expecting to get told WHY liz wants to study medicine, but instead it's just bc her dead mom also did medicine and had the same disease as her brother. like okay, can you tell me about your passion for medicine? how you want to improve the lives of sickle cell patients? things you want to study in the field of sickle cell research? but no, liz just wants to follow in her dead mom's footsteps and go to her alma mater. i feel like that's something to work thru in therapy or maybe even just consider that you don't actually want to become a doctor too.
speaking of which, the logistical issues with this story are a massive mindfuck. it has the logic of a disney channel movie. the scholarship for prom queen is $10k, which is nothing to sneeze at tbf, but are you telling me this $10k is going to make or break her entire college fund? what about tuition for the next three years, and med school? and okay, let's assume that $10k DOES make or break it: if you're going to be a doctor, take out a student loan for $10k. private college in indiana is like ~$25k/yr on average, you'll be able to pay back a loan for $10k when you're a doctor. maybe i'm being cynical, bc if she just took out a loan then we wouldn't get this story, so i'll concede for argument's sake. say this money will solve everything: then what? she meets mack and is ready to risk it all for her even though they just met like two weeks ago. liz is pitched to the reader as this driven and hardworking student who's scrappy and ready to kill for that scholarship. instead liz is basically dragged kicking and screaming to prom court, egged on by Gabi and her brother, and then starts to get distracted once she and Mack start dating. liz is an incredibly passive character, she doesn't act in any way that matches her supposedly impressive transcript.
speaking of THAT, it is absolutely absurd to me that in a town that's supposedly so obsessed with prom court, legacies, traditions, and rankings, that Liz is VALEDICTORIAN and still describes herself as an invisible wallflower. yes, i know part of that is her social isolation as one of the only black people in school, but if anything, her achievements in a school that values surface level success (such as academics) would make her stand out MORE as a minority. people would expect more of her in a model minority way, not think she's an uncool nerd, especially when academics are Literally part of the prom court rankings. also they make such a big deal about how liz can't be seen with mack because people will think she's ~queer~ and this little town is so homophobic and no one will vote for her if she's gay!!! but then literally the second she gets outed everyone is super supportive and goes out of their way to be proud allies, including the teacher who up to this point has not shown any love for liz??? like??? what was the point. WHAT was the point. it was such a dumb plot point, jesus.
and okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the pop culture references. dear god, i will lose my fucking mind if i see one more pop culture reference. it feels like there's one in every other paragraph and it sounds so much like a millennial trying to be down with the kids and it hurts my fucking soul. stop praying to beyonce, stop referencing the kardashians, stop namedropping kanye, simone biles, idris elba etc into normal conversations. nobody talks like this, least of all teenagers. the dialogue is absolutely unforgivable, it reads like cringey CW riverdale dialogue but in book form. it makes every single character sound wooden and cartoonishly unrealistic. they're all just caricatures of their archetypes; britt is the edgy one w the piercings, mack is the new manic pixie dream girl, jordan is the misunderstood ex-friend, and stone is literally not even a person(she simply exists to say ditzy hippie shit like "your negative aura is affecting me so badly today" and "mercury retrograde incoming"). don't even get me started on rachel collins and her friends; absolutely cartoonish villains with no depth, even the ones like Quinn, Lucy, and the others who are nice to Liz speak the way that middle-aged men imagine dumb teenage girls speak. these are not characters, these are stereotypes. the writing is also just... not good. i feel like i've implied that already but to be clear, i was not a fan of the writing.
and for the love of god, the social media in this book made me roll my eyes so hard. it literally sounds like the author has never used social media in her life and it is painful. there's Campbell Confidential which is basically an instagram rip-off exclusively for their high school, and it's used as a cheap narrative device to show when liz is doing well or poorly in the prom "race" (which is a farce; it's literally just a chart of who's more talked about on CC, who does the most community service, and who has the best grades).
i'll probably cool down in a bit and try to find some things i liked about this book but for now i am feeling annoyed and frustrated with it. i really hated reading this book, and i'm very sorry about it, because it has good rep and i liked seeing Liz demand that this small white indiana town make space for her. this frankly feels like a first draft, and i can't believe this supposedly went through an editor. it was just not a good book, i'm sorry.
i'm sorry for the incoming rant.
i have never been so relieved to finish a book; despite being a quick read, this story just seemed to drag on forever. the blurb pitched a prom queen social war, rivals to lovers romance and i cannot stress how much this was not that. this 'great romance' literally takes place over like 3 weeks and i feel like we hardly get to know mack beyond just being nice and pretty and also having a dead mom. the romance doesn't feel like the main plot but also it doesn't really feel like there is one? even prom kinda disappears for a second. the story just kinda meanders from plot point to plot point, like a weekly updating wattpad story. frankly i'm not sure where all 330+ pages went because so much happened but also like nothing happened?
there are so many subplots in this book and i didn't care about any of them, the only one that would've been worth developing in further depth was liz's mom and her brother's illness, which as it stands, feels very underdeveloped. i kept expecting to get told WHY liz wants to study medicine, but instead it's just bc her dead mom also did medicine and had the same disease as her brother. like okay, can you tell me about your passion for medicine? how you want to improve the lives of sickle cell patients? things you want to study in the field of sickle cell research? but no, liz just wants to follow in her dead mom's footsteps and go to her alma mater. i feel like that's something to work thru in therapy or maybe even just consider that you don't actually want to become a doctor too.
speaking of which, the logistical issues with this story are a massive mindfuck. it has the logic of a disney channel movie. the scholarship for prom queen is $10k, which is nothing to sneeze at tbf, but are you telling me this $10k is going to make or break her entire college fund? what about tuition for the next three years, and med school? and okay, let's assume that $10k DOES make or break it: if you're going to be a doctor, take out a student loan for $10k. private college in indiana is like ~$25k/yr on average, you'll be able to pay back a loan for $10k when you're a doctor. maybe i'm being cynical, bc if she just took out a loan then we wouldn't get this story, so i'll concede for argument's sake. say this money will solve everything: then what? she meets mack and is ready to risk it all for her even though they just met like two weeks ago. liz is pitched to the reader as this driven and hardworking student who's scrappy and ready to kill for that scholarship. instead liz is basically dragged kicking and screaming to prom court, egged on by Gabi and her brother, and then starts to get distracted once she and Mack start dating. liz is an incredibly passive character, she doesn't act in any way that matches her supposedly impressive transcript.
speaking of THAT, it is absolutely absurd to me that in a town that's supposedly so obsessed with prom court, legacies, traditions, and rankings, that Liz is VALEDICTORIAN and still describes herself as an invisible wallflower. yes, i know part of that is her social isolation as one of the only black people in school, but if anything, her achievements in a school that values surface level success (such as academics) would make her stand out MORE as a minority. people would expect more of her in a model minority way, not think she's an uncool nerd, especially when academics are Literally part of the prom court rankings. also they make such a big deal about how liz can't be seen with mack because people will think she's ~queer~ and this little town is so homophobic and no one will vote for her if she's gay!!! but then literally the second she gets outed everyone is super supportive and goes out of their way to be proud allies, including the teacher who up to this point has not shown any love for liz??? like??? what was the point. WHAT was the point. it was such a dumb plot point, jesus.
and okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the pop culture references. dear god, i will lose my fucking mind if i see one more pop culture reference. it feels like there's one in every other paragraph and it sounds so much like a millennial trying to be down with the kids and it hurts my fucking soul. stop praying to beyonce, stop referencing the kardashians, stop namedropping kanye, simone biles, idris elba etc into normal conversations. nobody talks like this, least of all teenagers. the dialogue is absolutely unforgivable, it reads like cringey CW riverdale dialogue but in book form. it makes every single character sound wooden and cartoonishly unrealistic. they're all just caricatures of their archetypes; britt is the edgy one w the piercings, mack is the new manic pixie dream girl, jordan is the misunderstood ex-friend, and stone is literally not even a person(she simply exists to say ditzy hippie shit like "your negative aura is affecting me so badly today" and "mercury retrograde incoming"). don't even get me started on rachel collins and her friends; absolutely cartoonish villains with no depth, even the ones like Quinn, Lucy, and the others who are nice to Liz speak the way that middle-aged men imagine dumb teenage girls speak. these are not characters, these are stereotypes. the writing is also just... not good. i feel like i've implied that already but to be clear, i was not a fan of the writing.
and for the love of god, the social media in this book made me roll my eyes so hard. it literally sounds like the author has never used social media in her life and it is painful. there's Campbell Confidential which is basically an instagram rip-off exclusively for their high school, and it's used as a cheap narrative device to show when liz is doing well or poorly in the prom "race" (which is a farce; it's literally just a chart of who's more talked about on CC, who does the most community service, and who has the best grades).
i'll probably cool down in a bit and try to find some things i liked about this book but for now i am feeling annoyed and frustrated with it. i really hated reading this book, and i'm very sorry about it, because it has good rep and i liked seeing Liz demand that this small white indiana town make space for her. this frankly feels like a first draft, and i can't believe this supposedly went through an editor. it was just not a good book, i'm sorry.