I found it very hard to get past the first few pages of the book. The writing seemed disjointed and unengaging.

My Rating: 4/5 stars

My Review:

I received an digital ARC of this book from the publisher via TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review and place on this blog tour – thanks!

Thrillers are not usually my cup of tea- they aren’t a genre I tend to pick up without some prompting. However, I am forever fascinated with the American obsession with monarchs in their high school (despite their history with them), and a murder mystery was an intriguing plot around it. So I couldn’t resist signing up for this blog tour, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

First and foremost, Emill’s writing was easily my favourite part of this book. Apart from the very abrupt start of this story, I was immediately obsessed with the story. Its written at a really nice pace, one that keeps the intrigue high even though it is quite a long book. My sign of a good mystery/thriller is being able to think back on the beginning of the story and see the breadcrumbs for what they are, and The Black Queen did a really great job with that.

For about half of the book I thought I knew who was responsible, but Emill did a really great job making twists come out of left field in a way that was (for the most part) believable. I will say, perhaps, there were too many *twists*, that all of them together felt a bit unbelievable/extra, but I loved the drama so I cannot complain too much.

One of the biggest themes of this book was certainly institutional racism, and with Tinsley as one of our narrators, we get to experience her ignorance start to come undone as the story progresses. She is held responsible, by Duchess and several other characters, for her privileged views of the world and her relationship to the social structure of their school. I thought that Emill did a good job balancing between her and Duchess, and laying their motives out very clearly.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book. I read it one day, I just needed to know how it ended. As is the case with most high school set stories, there were some theatrics that were a bit over the top, but I feel like for the most part it added to the campiness of the book. Thriller fans and non thriller fans will definitely enjoy this one. So be sure to pick it up!

The Black Queen released January 31st, 2023

Thank you to Delacorte and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I am happy to say that this is not a redux of almost every other murder mystery young adult novel that I have read in the last few years, This had a message behind it while also being extremely entertaining. There were several red herrings that I enjoyed and I did not see the suspects at the end and their motivations coming which is always a nice surprise. Highly unique and enjoyable.

A school in, I believe, Alabama, has recently redistricted and now the lower-income Black students attend the same school as the rich white kids. They're still not very subtly segregated - the white kids are "smart" and "in the AP courses" while the Black kids take a regular course of study. The school, in order to 'solve' the homecoming queen problem, is starting a pattern of letting an AP student win the crown one year, and a regular course kid win it the next year. Which, essentially, is a pattern of a white kid, then a Black kid, so on and so forth.

Well, it's Nova's turn to win homecoming queen, and she does. The book is told in alternating POVs between Duchess, Nova's best friend, and Tinsley, who would have been a shoe-in for queen if they hadn't enacted the rotation rule. The reason Nova doesn't have her own POV is because she gets murdered the night of her coronation, and her body is left in a local slave cemetery that she spent lots of time keeping clean over her short years.

And conveniently, hours before the murder, Tinsley was recorded drunk saying she was mad enough she could kill Nova! And dump her body in the slave cemetery!! Things do not look good for her!!

But Duchess eventually comes to realize it probably wasn't Tinsley and the two of them begrudgingly start to work together to bring actual justice to Nova's case.

The two uncover secret after secret about Nova, and about the people around them in general. Some of the reveals are super juicy!

The book is bogged down for me, unfortunately, by the heavy handed social justice topics. The topics themselves are so important - the way Black policemen are treated by the Black community, the things Black people have to strive for just to barely be seen as equal with white people, the way white people are assumed innocent by police when Black people are assumed guilty, the way Black murders don't always seem to matter as much to the general public... really important stuff! But the terminology and discussions are SO robotic and shoehorned in and just not very subtle, ESPECIALLY considering that it's for an audience, teens these days, that generally hadn't even started grade school when Trayvon Martin was murdered. Like, these kids are so used to this world and the unfairness of it all. They really don't need social justice article terminology to help them process it. They DO need media that makes them feel seen in the worries and stress of coming of age in a pretty broken America, but talking at them instead of to them just isn't the way to do it, I feel.

Overall, it was exciting enough, I liked the audiobook, and it was interesting seeing the unlikely duo of Duchess (who is also a lesbian, to toss that rep in there too!!) and Tinsley working together. But even that feels a little icky? Like Duchess didn't really spend a ton of time talking about how Tinsley went on a drunk racist MURDEROUS rant?? And also Tinsley drunk drove home from the beach that night, at like, what, 17 years old, and literally no one questions that, not even the police officers... like I know you have a murder on your hands... but come on mamas

Disclaimer: I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Black Queen

Author: Jumata Emill

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Queer Sapphic Black MC, Queer Sapphic Black character, Black characters

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery, murder mystery, thriller, suspense, LGBT

Publication Date: January 31, 2023

Genre: YA Mystery Thriller

Age Relevance: 15+ (racism, sexual content, abortion, bullying, language, physical violence, underage alcohol consumption, murder, parental death, police brutality, COVID, cancer, sickness, childhood sexual assualt, alcoholism, religion, power imbalance relationship)

Explanation of Above: Racism is shown and mentioned in this book. There is some sexual content mentioned and abortion is mentioned and discussed. There are scenes of bullying and some cursing. There is some physical violence shown along with murder mentioned and a body shown. There is some scenes of underage alcohol consumption and alcoholism is mentioned. There is parental death mentioned by cancer, sickness is mentioned, and COVID is also mentioned once. There are scenes of police brutality and a power imbalance relationship between a teacher and a high school student who is of age are shown. There are a couple of mentions of the Christian religion. Childhood sexual assault is mentioned a couple of times, but nothing graphic is mentioned or shown.

Publisher: Writers House

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Nova Albright was going to be the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High—but now she's dead. Murdered on coronation night. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Other Black Girl will love this unputdownable thriller. Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating. Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition. No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t fact the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk. Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her. But Tinsley has an agenda, too. Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.

Review: I’ve never had a book that made me want to sit and fully take a moment to think about what I just read. And neither have I had a book that made me need to take breaks while reading it. This book is equal parts beautiful and brutal with the story. The story is about Nova, who is the high school’s first Black homecoming queen. This is a title that one of our duel protagonists, Tinsley, wanted in order to continue the family tradition of holding this title which has also upset her mother greatly. When Nova’s body is found after her coronation as queen, suspicion quickly falls on Tinsley after a video goes viral of her spouting racist rhetoric and threats on Nova’s life while she was drunk. The book quickly becomes a murder mystery in which our other protag, Duchess, commits herself to in order to get justice for her best friend. I overall really loved this book and I found the commentary on BLM and police brutality very honest and informative. I also enjoyed the side conversation about how police brutality, while disproportionately effecting BIPOC persons, can also effect white people with ineffectual policing, warped interpretations of the law, and skewed investigations. I also very much appreciated the discussion on reverse racism, what it is, and how it’s harmful. The book had great character development and good world building. The twists were twisty and I suspected but didn’t see the outcome happening.

The only issue I had with the book is that sometimes the pacing slowed down quite a bit during some moments, which felt a tiny bit disjointed to me.

Verdict: It was amazing! Highly recommend!

I feel conflicted about this one, and it also feels hard to appropriately critique it without spoilers (and I hate spoilers in reviews so I’m not doing that). Let me start by saying I was SO excited to get my hands on this story. After the first few chapters, I almost DNF the entire thing. I felt frustrated at the characters not acting like their established selves. No one changes from being a bigoted racist to a “learning and growing ally” in a matter of days/weeks. A lot of the dialogue between teenage female characters felt a little phony and corny to me. I did decide to finish because there was a little more intrigue in the middle, but the twist ending felt very unsurprising. I liked the concept. But I wanted to like the execution more and it just didn’t hit for me.

Thank you to Jumata Emill, Random House, and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a story! I loved it! I enjoyed how I never really knew who murdered Nova. I saw that other people totally knew but I enjoyed how it jumped around to person to person. It was nice to see some relationships rekindle even if it did take some time and some arguments. I did not see the plot twist coming at the end. I am absolutely purchasing this for my library collection.

3.5 out of 5 stars


There was a lot that worked really well with this book and made the story very engaging with its various twists and turns. The mystery had me questioning how the murderer was up until the reveal, which is rare for mysteries with me. I really liked the alternating perspectives, especially when it came to the difference in writing style and use of slang based on which POV we were in.

There was a lot of good commentary and information in this book regarding systematic racism, though I think that focus often overshadowed the other issues the book was discussing such as infidelity, parental and societal pressures, and inappropriate relationships. There were some sensitive subjects that I felt were brushed over but could have been developed more to fill out the story. There was a background crime also occurring throughout the book and I wish that could have been expanded on more rather than the white girl suspect always using it as a cop-out. Obviously, that was the biggest reason for the background crime but I think it could have been interesting for both cases to have interacted more rather than just be background fuel for either.

My main issue was that these are two high school girls and it often didn’t feel like that in the narrative, their introspection, or in their interactions with each other. There was also negative commentary in regard to divorce, which as a child of divorce, rubbed me the wrong way but again, I believe that was more for the sake of the character’s tone-deafness rather than the actual author’s thoughts.

Overall, I enjoyed this read and had fun with it! I would’ve enjoyed about 100 more pages to further develop everything happening in the background so it felt less like “scandals” were being thrown in last minute to tie up loose ends.

I can totally understand why this book was written, especially on the heals of Tiffany D. Jackson's success with The Weight of Blood and in light of the important conversations surrounding race in our country right now. There was so much potential here for a twisty, thrilling mystery with so many conversation pieces at the core, but ultimately, this book just felt underwhelming and a little bit messy. The mystery was very predictable and the ending felt like evaded effort in my opinion. I think a younger YA audience without much experience in the thriller or mystery genre could enjoy this for the entertainment factor alone, but unfortunately, that wasn't enough for me to enjoy it.

This book started off reading like a mixture of She's All That meets Bring It On meets Prom. The first few chapters were fully of sass, drama, and made me roll my eyes and not miss my high school days..then out of nowhere, the book turned into a murder mystery. Once you are convinced you know who killed the "Queen," you're thrown in an opposite direction that you would have never expected.
The book was quite the page turner once it got going and makes you feel like you are in a crime TV show playing detective from a 18 years perspective.
There are many heavy topics that get covered in the book, so please check your trigger warnings on the interwebs.
Trigger Warnings: Murder, talk of abortion/pregnancy, lying, gaslighting, racism, innopropriate relationships, sexual abuse, threats of violence and etc.

This was fantastic!! Loved the writing, loved the plot! This book was just aggravating on how they were so mean towards each other! This was a fascinating take on racism at its finest. Not delicate in no way but really showed what it was like. A great read and thank you so much for the ARC!!

This is one of those stories that you LOVE from the beginning. This thriller of a book does trip some trauma tropes that are normal for African American writing, and other tropes that felt uncomfortable, but this book goes hard, and it leaves a mark.
Which felt like it was the point.
But one thing I can say about this book is that it is gripping and requires you to take notice!
___
Nova Albright was going to be the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High—but now she's dead. Murdered on coronation night. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Other Black Girl will love this unputdownable thriller.


Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.

Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.

No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t fact the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk.

Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her.

But Tinsley has an agenda, too.

Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.

Definitely a great read! The writing is engaging and the premise is really thoughtful. I've posted about it on my Bookstagram (@readbyjules)

There's a lot to unpack with this one. First and foremost, this is a very entertaining read. I had a pretty strong suspicion about who did it (and I was correct) but the red herrings did have me thinking maybe it was someone else.

I actually listened to the audiobook - which is FANTASATIC. The production quality is amazing and there are two narrators as well as ample sound effects.

However, I'm struggling with what to rate this because 1) The characters aren't super likable and 2) it feels weird that the book about a white girl figuring out she's racist and that the world we live in in systemically racist. There are many characters that check her throughout the story, but still odd to me that that's the focus.

Ultimately, I do think this book may help some white kids unpack systemic racism, but I'm unsure how many of the teens who really need to do that will pick this one up.

I have been excited to read The Black Queen since it was announced. On the positive side, although I intuited the big reveals long before the characters discovered them, and I know who the killer would be well in advance, I still felt compelled by the story and the storytelling to keep flipping pages quickly. However, on the negative side, I will say I feel like this story placed too much focus on the white narrator and not enough on the Black narrator. I wanted more from Duchess! Instead, this felt more like a way to explain to white readers how to be actively anti-racist, what it means when you "unintentionally" say racist things, etc. It sadly didn't so much feel written for the Black reader, which I think is unfortunate since the author is Black and I have a feeling a lot of the teens who will pick this up will be Black kids hoping to see themselves centered on page.

When we meet the lavender eyed black girl Nova she is an intense debate with Tinsley. Until recently Tinsley was the it girl at Lovett high school, but since the beautiful Nova in her look-alike mom Donna move back it seems Tinsley is being replaced. The whole argument is over Nova being nominated for homecoming queen and it looks like she’s going to ruin the McCarthy family tradition because for decades the females in Tinsely family have all been homecoming queens they expected the same from her. A few days later when Nova is named homecoming queen tinsley isn’t happy at all. She will deal with her problems the same way a lot of disappointed teenagers would and that’s to go get drunk with her friends The night of the homecoming coronation. She gets so drunk that her friend secretly videotaped her saying that she wish she could kill Nova and bury her in the slave cemetery that N loved to clean up. Unfortunately for Tinsley her friend put it online the night before the black beauty queen was found dead in the slave cemetery. Nopa‘s best friend duchess is the daughter of a Lovett town detective and she is devastated when she finds out her beautiful friend is dead. when Tinsley finds out she also finds out about the video and that everyone thinks she did it. Both girls take on the mission of trying to find out who killed Nova and in the end they will both see things differently in May just agree before it’s over. Want me just say I love this book there was not a moment that dragged or appointed the book where I got bored but I do want to say I felt sorry for Duchess because she seems to be a big ball of negativity. She blames everything on race even when her and her girlfriend argue she wanted to know why life is so hard for people of color? I also found it funny that when a black person was arrested she didn’t believe it but when given the exact same evidence for a white person she totally believed it… I don’t get that. I think the point is there’s no matter what color do you are we all have faults also in the book Tinsley was hyper aware of people being racist and would quickly call them out for it but with Dutchess it was open season on white people entry called them everything but cracker and I am a firm believer that being prejudice is bad regardless of which side your animosity is pointing towards. I do however recognize that Duchess suffers from what a lot of small towns and inner-ciiesy children suffer from and when her world gets bigger I’m sure her few points would change. I know she is a Dictatious person but I’m sure there’s a real duchesses out there. I really love this book and totally loved the ending this is a definite five star read and one I highly recommend. I love The Other Black Girl and I love this authors authentic way she tells both sides of the stories whether that’s good or bad. She is definitely an author I will be looking for in the future. I received this book from NetGalley and the author but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

“Who knew one girls murder would uproot so many scandals”.

What a time for this book to be published! I ate this book up and the plot was well done! This is a story about a town in Mississippi with a high school where the Black and White students are very segregated by the AP and non-AP students. One year, the first Black homecoming Queen is awarded to a Black student, Nova. Tinsley, her opponent, who feels like she rightfully deserves the title and feels some type of way about losing (to say the least). The next day, Nova is found dead and I promise you’ll spend the rest of the book suspecting EVERYONE!! If you were a fan of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder or Ace of Spades, you’ll love book. There are some important messages about racism and police brutality that come through with this story. There were however a lot of stereotypes that thus book played into, but I throughly enjoyed reading this book.

The Black Queen is a captivating YA thriller told through alternating narratives from Tinsley and Duchess as they each investigate what happened to Nova. I loved getting to know each of these characters and their very different backgrounds. Emill does an incredible job of truly rounding out these characters and allowing the reader to not only get to know them as individuals, but get a feel of their families and how their upbringing and personal experiences have shaped them as people.

There is a lot to unpack in this story from racism to the examination of social commentary to societal pressures to family dynamics. Emill somehow manages to satisfyingly incorporate it all together into an addictive read. While I did end up guessing the truth fairly early on, I was still very invested in the progress and details that Emill wove together.

TW: This book touches on some sensitive topics in both minor and more major ways. As always, I recommend checking out a full listing on Storygraph before picking up a copy.

A huge thank you to Books Forward PR for my gifted copy!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
👀 enjoy a good mystery
📖 love YA novels
👥 like dual POVs
👍🏻 are looking for diverse representation

• 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄

After Nova Albright is killed after being pronounced Homecoming Queen at her coronation, two unlikely girls will team up together to find her killer.

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

Tinsley and Duchess are two girls you would never expect to find together. Tinsley, the popular and rich white girl, and Duchess, a Black queer girl, used to be best friends, but that was a long time ago. Now Duchess is best friend’s with Nova, the new girl. Nova is a shoe-in for Homecoming Queen, leaving Tinsley angry and casting threats. So when Nova turns up dead after a video circulates over TikTok with Tinsley threatening to kill Nova, all eyes are on her. Claiming innocence, Tinsley and Duchess end up working together to discover who really killed Nova and why.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was such an amazing read, in so many ways. I loved the inclusiveness of the story. It has so many diverse characters, backgrounds, and storylines. Jumata does an incredible job of writing two very different personalities! Each girl seemed very real with their unique voices echoing off the pages! While I did guess the killer, it was because I was able to pick up on a lot of hints and clues Jumata left for us throughout the story! He wrote a fantastic novel, and I really hope to see Duchess and Tinsley team up together again in the future!

I’m still not really sure how I feel about this one. It has all the key characteristics of a good mystery. It’s an easy read and engaging, although it was easy to figure out who the MAIN villain was early on; this story had plenty. Overall it wasn’t a bad story, but there were a few things that made it hard to digest. In 2023 I’m really over generic stereotypes. The story is told in dual POVs and of course the black kids are speaking in outdated AAVE and the white kids are using standard English. There was no real character growth. Tinsley is still a spoiled rich kid who gets whatever she wants and Duchess is the queer black girl looking for acceptance.
Oh… and the fact that a black girl had to die in order for a rich, white chick to finally open a book and learn the meaning of ‘white savior complex’….really upsets me. This is YA and maybe I read too much into it, but…this could have been a lot better.