Liz Lighty has always felt like she was too black, too tall, too...everything to really fit in. Campbell is a small town, but there is a big divide between the rich and everyone else. Liz has spent her whole life trying to be successful and simultaneously fade into the background. She also has some serious anxiety issues and feeling "seen" by her peers is a major trigger. Her mother died from complications due to sickle cell anemia, and her younger brother has it, too. She has plenty of reasons to worry.
Everything went to the next level when her best friend Jordan came back from football camp the summer before 9th grade and very publicly blew her off. Since then, she's just stuck to her core group of small friends, becoming valedictorian, and her clarinet. Liz loves music, and she's pinned her hopes of attending her mom's alma mater on a band scholarship.
When that plan falls through, she vows to find a solution on her own. She knows if she tells her grandparents, they will sell the house to get the money, and she definitely doesn't want that. Her solution? Run for prom queen. It's totally out of character, but the queen and king each get a $10,000 scholarship. That's almost exactly what she needs to make up the difference between her savings and her tuition.
But Liz has spent all her time trying to become invisible. How is she going to pull this off against Rachel Collins, her academic rival and resident mean girl? There's also the fact that she's not really out at school. Her family and close friends know she's into girls, but it's definitely not public knowledge, and she knows the truth will take her chances of winning that scholarship to zero.
The problem? Mack, a new girl at school who might be changing Liz's ideas about love at first sight. As the race for queen puts Liz ever more in the spotlight, she feels like she has to present a false identity to win, but is the scholarship even worth it if she can't be herself?
Leah Johnson's debut novel is sweet and funny. Is it realistic? No way, but that's just part of the charm. Suspend your disbelief, and enter this world of ridiculous proms and an unlikely queen taking control of her own life. The romance in this book is sweet and clean, but there is some very well placed profanity about three-fourths of the way through that would bump it up to YA for my middle school library. Highly recommended.
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