You Should See Me in a Crown: 08/03/20

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson is set in Campbell, Indiana, a town obsessed with senior prom. Where some towns offer sports scholarships, this one offers them for the king, queen, and court.

Liz Lighty wasn't planning on running for Queen until her financial aid to Pennington College fell through. To keep her grandmother from selling her house to fund her education, Liz is going all out to win the crown.

Liz goes into the contest knowing it's flawed and antiquated. There are homophobic / transphoic rules. No same-sex dates to the prom. Participants must dress/compete as their assigned at birth gender.

In the usual mix of the competitors, there's a new girl. She has ties to the town but is a new comer. They're competing against each other but they're also falling in love. Can they stay in the competition but still be true to each other?

Throughout, I loved Liz's voice. She remains upbeat even when things appear to be against her. That's not say she's always polite or always perfect. She's sarcastic in an intelligent, geeky way.

Although this novel is set during the last weeks of the school year, the set up and the basic vibe, reminds me of If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann (2019).

Leah Johnson's next novel is Rise to the Sun (2021).

Five stars

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