Thank you so much to Jumata Emill, Random House, Book Forward & NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

I am not going to beat around the bush, holy moly this book is FANTASTIC!! I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous to read this as I had recently read Tiffany D. Jackson' The Weight of Blood and thought it was going to be similar (just based off the title and cover) but it was not! 

The first black Homecoming queen was crowned and less than 12 hours later, Nova Albright is dead. All signs point to TInsley McArthur who was very vocal about her hate for Nova. Did Tinsley commit the crime? If she didn't, then who did? 

"Innocent people don't hide. They walk around with their heads held high." 

This book is told from two POVs (which is a favorite of mine) - one from Nova's best friend Duchess and the other from high brow beauty queen Tinsley. As a reader, I do not tend to read synopsis prior to starting a book as I like to go in completely blind as sometimes I think they give away TOO much so not knowing why the main characters perspective was not included was a mystery to me until it wasn't. Duchess and Tinsely were such complex characters and were such opposites that it was great seeing how their dynamic played out. I love that they had reservations about each other and neither could fully trust one another which made them a perfect pair for teaming up to find Nova's killer. 

I have never met a bigger villain than Tinsley's mother. She was such a scary person and I think what made her scarier is that this could be your neighbor, your teacher, a family member. She is your definition of white privilege who think their shit don't stink and her actions would ripple down to her children's actions.  It made me so angry to read her character which i am sure is what Emill was trying to evoke from the reader.  This led to bigger conversations on race, discrimination, white privilege and systemic racism. It was an important piece of this book right from the beginning and was woven in throughout the whole book and played such a role. 

The beginning started off slow setting up the scene but once Homecoming night happened it flew by. I was definitely kept on the edge of my seat and there were so many twist and turns. When I thought it was going to go one way, it definitely took a turn the other way.  I had paired this with the audio about halfway through courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio and the audio was fantastic. And added element that I think should be included in more audiobooks is that knocking sound when someone hears it or the sound of a phone ringing in the background when its happening in the book. It made it extra enjoyable. 

Congrats on a wonderful debut Jumata Emill! 

I highly recommend this and will definitely be sharing this with my friends.