Tag: Pride

You Should See Me in a Crown | Book Review by Sam

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You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson is a young lesbian girl’s coming of age story. The main character Liz Lighty is in her senior year and waiting to see if she will be selected for a scholarship in her dream orchestra program at her dream school. She ultimately decides to enter her school’s prom court contest to try to earn the title of queen and the scholarship that comes along with it.

Review:

In You Should See Me in a Crown we have another example of Black excellence and the pressure that can come along with it. Liz Lighty excels both in the academic arena and the music space. She doesn’t get the orchestra scholarship that she has been looking forward to for all of her high school career. It was the scholarship that was meant to help her get to the same college as her late mother. Her next opportunity to get the scholarship money is to enter her school’s contest to become prom queen. This is completely out of character for her but, her friends and family step up to help her along the way. 

Liz entering the contest shakes up the dynamic in her small Indiana town. Poor black girls aren’t supposed to win prom queen. They aren’t supposed to have the audacity to believe they can disrupt the town’s traditions in this way. But, Liz doesn’t care – her focus is achieving her dreams of honoring her mother’s legacy and going to the same college as her. We learn that there is more that makes Liz other than her race and socioeconomic status. She also likes girls. She begins to date and fall for the love interest Amanda (bka Mack).

Liz’s journey towards accepting herself and  finding her tribe/where she belongs is an inspiring story. Even though this was a Young Adult novel, I found that I learned more about myself and found some confidence as I read. I was rooting for Liz start to finish. I just want all Black girls to win. 

This has been one of my favorite reads of the podcast. It was a beautifully written story of family, friendship, and first love. She faced several academic and personal challenges, realizing in the end  she doesn’t have to face them alone. Everyone should pick this book up, it was a delight to read. 

Pride | Book Review by Sam

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Pride by Ibi Zoboi  is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Instead of England the setting is Brooklyn, New York (specifically Bushwick). The Bennets have become Benitez and are Afro-Latina (Haitian and Dominican) and Mr. Darcy is now Darius, an African American teenager from an affluent family that moves into the neighborhood. 

Review:

It was difficult for me to dive into the retelling as I started the story due to my slight obsession with the original Pride and Prejudice. I did a high school book report on the novel and then started on a journey of watching every TV and movie version I could get my hands on. As I read the book I kept thinking this is different, this is different. Eventually, I convinced myself to see it as a stand alone novel and also found myself captured by the poetry of the main character Zuri. Her words served as a transition from chapter to chapter and set the tone of her feelings as different events transpired. 

Readers who are familiar with Pride and Prejudice will find several similar elements in the  modern retelling of Pride, but will eventually see it as a coming of age story of a young Afro-Latina girl who is having to come to terms with all the changes happening in her life. Zuri’s neighborhood is changing. Her family is changing. She is changing. 

The Bushwick neighborhood is going through gentrification, and Zuri sees Darius Darcy as a reason for the area becoming unaffordable for her family. Zuri’s sister who she’s been waiting for to come back from college has fallen in love and is not around as much. Zuri herself is getting ready to go away to college and is having to come to terms with the possibility that she cannot always be there to be the protector of the family. To be the guardian of her family and her neighborhood she will have to accept change as well as evolve herself. 

Zuri also must realize that everything is not as it seems and not to make quick judgments. Reading this book you will learn about Bushwick and growing into yourself. I would suggest this book to people who have a connection to New York, the way the author details the neighborhood, I believe New Yorkers who grew up in the Bushwick area would find it like a love letter to their childhood. I also believe this book is worth reading for Zuri’s poetry alone, every word I read touched my spirit.