You Should See Me in a Crown

Liz Lighty needs a scholarship, and in her small Indiana town the surest route is winning prom queen, a contest she has every reason to avoid as a poor, Black, queer student with anxiety. Johnson writes the campaign as a genuine comedy while being honest about what the town costs her, and the romance with a rival candidate is charming rather than cautious. A joyful young adult novel that refuses to make its heroine suffer for the reader’s benefit.