THE BLACK QUEEN by JUMATA EMILL
A REVIEW BY ALEXA DUNCAN
How far would you go if the one thing you ever wanted in life was taken away from you? That’s the root of The Black Queen by Jumata Emill, only with way more murder, teenage angst, and drama. The book follows a Black teenager named Duchess and a white teenager named Tinsley in a high school barely touched by modern standards of integration. Not a single Black girl has ever won homecoming queen–until Nova Albright. When Nova wins the title of queen–a title Tinsley expected to win because of her family’s history–the school celebrates…but not Tinsley. After Nova turns up dead, Tinsley is accused of her murder while Duchess, Tinsley’s best friend, is left to figure out who killed Nova and why before the school’s other Black students die, too.
The Black Queen was an interesting read for me. I was hooked from the first page and definitely wanted to keep reading. However, as I kept going, I realized I had s
ome complaints. One of my quibbles was that the dialogue felt a little clumsy. For instance, there was a lot of “teen speak” and I did not always think it flowed as well as it could. There was also the issue of Tinsley herself. She’s an awful character from a terribly racist family. She’s quite racist herself, and reading her perspective was, frankly, not fun for me. Furthermore, a book that centers so much around anti-Black racism in the South, it felt…odd to read so much from the white girl’s perspective, especially one who hated Nova and the other Black kids at school so much, Duchess included.
Tinsley does eventually get a “redemption arc” at the end of the book, but I didn’t quite buy it. I also guessed who Nova’s killer was from the first couple of chapters. Despite these complaints, this would be a great starter book for teens looking to read more mysteries and thrillers in the YA space. And also, look at that cover!