Review: The Black Queen - Jumata Emil








Review: The Black Queen - Jumata Emil - January 2023

This was one book I was so looking forward to as I had read The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson which had murder, suspense, and racism in it with the main character being half-black/half-white and I enjoyed that book. The Black Queen caught my attention with the cover as the cover is amazing and TDF. However, as I started reading the book - we were already on the racism track with the school divided into AP and Standard classes, Black and White Homecoming Queens alternating, etc and this year our Black Queen is Nova who is the first Black female to be crowned Homecoming Queen in their small town. Tinsley who is the White Princess - daughter of a wealthy family is outraged as the crown has been in her family for generations and it should be hers but with all the "woke" stuff happening in town, it looks like the crown is going to Nova without a doubt. The night of Homecoming, Nova turns up dead and the prime suspect of course is Tinsley.  Nova's friend Duchess wants to find out the truth about who killed her friend and Tinsley wants to clear her name as she didn't hate Nova enough to kill her, it was just a bit of fun high school rivalry for her. Sadly, for me, this book was too political and focused just a bit too much on Racism, Police brutality against Blacks, and Black Lives Matter.  I know these are important issues and I don't mind reading about them in books, but there does need to be a balance when appropriate as sadly in the case of this book - it became too filled with Politics that it overshadowed the mystery and death of Nova - so much that at times it felt like Nova's death was pushed to the side and the overall Black Lives Matter campaign was more important than the death of a teenage girl. Therefore my rating goes down from a 4P to a 3P.


Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ZzPiTg





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