Cover Story: Yikes
Drinking Buddy: Watered Down
MPAA Rating: R (murder, violence, language, sexuality, alcohol)
Talky Talk: The Shadow Knows
Bonus Factor: Whodunnit?
Anti-Bonus Factor: Racism
Bromance Status: Save Me a Dance
Cover Story: Yikes
Yeah, that kind of says it all. This is one of those books you set something on top of when you’re not reading it, so she’s not staring at you. I couldn’t even turn it over, since the lower half of her face is on the back.
I’m not sure I agree with the cover blurb. Obviously, somebody didn’t love her, and there are many suspects.
The Deal:
Popular high school student Nova Albright just was elected the first Black homecoming queen at her Mississippi high school. This thrills her pal Duchess. Unfortunately, there are some people who claim that the voting this year was rigged to favor the Black kids, who are mostly transplants from when Hurricane Katrina destroyed their school. The most vicious opponent is Tinsley McArthur, who feels the crown should be hers. Her grandmother, mother, and older sister all wore it, and now she’s going to miss out because the school had to be ‘politically correct.’ When threats and bribes don’t work, Tinsley drunkenly proclaims she wishes someone would murder Nova and dump her body in the old slave cemetery she’s trying to restore.
That night, someone murders Nova and dumps her body in the old cemetery.
When the video of Tinsley’s rant goes viral, it’s pretty obvious who the murderer is. So why aren’t the cops arresting her, like they arrested that Black guy last month on flimsy circumstantial evidence? I guess it pays to be rich and white.
Duchess is devastated when her friend is murdered and looks forward to seeing Tinsley in prison. And she scoffs when Tinsley begs her for help in proving her innocence. But here’s the thing…Duchess realizes that Tinsley is likely not the murderer after all. With Duchess desperate to get justice for her friend and Tinsley determined to prove her innocence, the two form an unlikely alliance.
Drinking Buddy: Watered Down
The story is told in alternating points of view. And since we’re in Tinsley’s head, we know right from the start that it wasn’t her. And for the first time in her life, her parents’ money can’t buy her what she needs.
The problem is, I didn’t care for either of these characters, especially Tinsley. Duchess was kind of a doormat, especially when it came to her girlfriend. ‘Yes, I went behind your back, destroyed your relationship with your father, torpedoed your murder investigation, and am trying to dictate who you hang around with…so here’s a milkshake. We cool?’
Tinsley had a personality like chewing on tinfoil. She was almost a caricature of the privileged rich girl. Through most of the book she’s not concerned that a girl died, but about her own innocence. She harasses Nova’s mother. She gets another kid arrested. Her character arc isn’t ‘POC face a lot of microagressions and blatant racism that I’ve never had to deal with, and the the law is a lot harsher toward them.’ Instead it’s ‘OMG! Black people are like totally human beings! Who knew?’ It was a bit much for a POV character.
Also, Tinsley’s bisexuality seemed tacked on and added nothing to the story.
MPAA Rating: R (murder, violence, language, sexuality, alcohol)
Tinsley’s boyfriend dumps her the second she becomes a suspect (as do the rest of her friends). Duchess’s relationship with her girlfriend, Ev, seems rather unhealthy. And Tinsley’s excuse about where she was on the night of the murder was that she was blackout drunk while driving home, an issue that’s never really addressed.
Talky Talk: The Shadow Knows
This should have worked better, but the characters were too wooden. Ev was an author avatar, explaining to us about about racism. Tinsley was too much of a Kardashian to care about. Her parents were over-the-top villains. It’s bad enough that her mom is racist and once cost Duchess’s mother her job. We didn’t need the ‘How is your mother? Still alive, I assume?’ crack (she’d died of cancer earlier). I would have preferred a slightly less obnoxious Tinsley or a book solely from Duchess’s POV.
Bonus Factor: Whodunnit?
So if not Tinsley, then who did bash Nova to death with her own scepter? Why is Duchess’s father, a police officer, so reticent to arrest Tinsley? Why was Tinsley’s father spotted talking to Nova? Why is the chief of police so antagonistic to Tinsley’s mother? Why was Nova’s mother so angry with her own brother? Why did Nova ask Tinsley about how she’d feel about her dating a white guy? Who left the threatening note in Nova’s locker? Who is texting threats to Tinsley?
This really kept me guessing and the resolution was satisfying.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Racism
So we don’t need to read a book to know that racism is bad. But this book did a nice job of showing the double standard of law enforcement when it comes to POC. Duchess, despite her policeman father, knows that if Tinsley were black, she’d already be in jail.
Also, there’s more subtle things. There are two academic programs at the high school. AP classes for the advanced kids, and regular classes for the Black kids. Sure, it’s not spelled out like that, but the numbers add up. And when the principal announces that this year’s homecoming queen will be selected from the regular classes, it’s pretty obviously it’s a ham-handed attempt at diversity. And a lot of students (and teachers) feel the need to mention that to Nova.
Bromance Status: Save Me a Dance
I enjoyed this one, despite not liking Tinsley, and I’ll be sure to pick up this author’s next work.
Literary Matchmaking
Susan Vaught’s Things to Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry is another mystery with a racist past.
Sarah Jude’s The May Queen Murders is another book about a murdered ‘queen.’
The Reunion, by Kit Frick, is another ‘ritzy people accused of murder’ book.
FCC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor booze for writing this review.
