efore I even begin, how is it we do not have this cover? I love this cover. It is so much better than the one we have.

Pushing all that aside, I saw this book up on the new releases and the premise sounded so interesting. Set in Louisiana a few years after Hurricane Katrina, African-Americans have integrated into one of the most white schools. Unfortunately, this does not mean the racism against colored people has stopped. It is still there and very real. When Nova decides to run for Homecoming Queen, this seems to upset Tinsley, who believes that since her family has held that title, so should see. The two girls hate each other and one night, everything changes in their lives. Nova has been murdered and her body dumped in a slave cemetery. This is the same cemetery she has been passionate about cleaning up. For Tinsley, she becomes the first suspect after a video comes out showing her saying how she wanted to KILL Nova and dump her body in the slave cemetery.

But there are secrets Nova took to the grave and her friend Duchess is determined to bring the killer to justice and she has eyes set on Tinsley. For Duchess, she believes that the only way she can get Tinsley to confess is by befriending her, but Duchess learns that this will not be an open-and-shut case for her and there is far more going on than she realizes.

This book was an amazing read. I was able to devour it within a few short hours and the twists and turns to this book had me hoping for the most satisfying ending -

And we get one. One of the most satisfying endings I have read yet. I loved Duchess. I loved how she went beyond everything to find the killer that had taken Nova's life. Even Tinsley redeemed herself in my eyes. It took a while but she really became someone I could feel sorry for.

The characters are great. There are some you will hate with a passion and some you sympathize with. This story shows that racism is still very much alive and it has never left. These are affluent white people who don't like the notion of colored people coming into their well-manicured world and disrupting it. They don't like changes and certainly having a colored woman as Homecoming Queen is just not going to happen in this school.

Seriously, you need to pick up this book and read it. It is well worth it. Trust me when I say this. ( )

I wanted to like this. It turned out to be one of the most boring YA murder mysteries I've read in awhile. The opening comparisons of these original book characters to already-established movie characters is a choice that might make sense if the opening character were planning to major in film in college or something. Instead, this book has multiple POVs, and I was often unable to tell the difference between each. This is weak writing. There are half-baked cliches every other page. The characters are so one-dimensional. The supposed character arc is unearned, plus both heavy-handed and poorly developed. I grimaced every time it was hinted to develop. I was unable to predict the murderer because there were too many characters in this book, none of whom were given enough development for me to make the call. The third act plot twist concerning paternity had me shouting, "Oh, come on!" in frustration. The murderer was just--and how it was revealed! This wasn't a YA murder mystery. It was a fucking soap opera. That's not what I signed up for when I read this. ( )

A heart wrenching portrait of a fierce Black homecoming queen killed on coronation night and the web of lies her death exposes.

In this unflinching look at the ugliness of racism, two unlikely allies pair together to get justice for Nova, the first black homecoming queen in a racially divided Southern school. Before Nova died, the only thing Tinsley and Duchess had in common was an art class. Tinsley's the spoiled white girl who wanted the homecoming crown for herself, and, after posting a video about how she wants Nova dead, finds herself accused of her murder. Duchess is Nova's best friend who finds herself struggling to reconcile the Nova she thought she knew with the girl who kept so many secrets from her. Readers will admire Nova's strength, for as Duchess observes, "Black women been doing that for years. We smile through all the ---- this world puts us through to be strong for everyone else."

When Tinsley and Duchess decide to work together to find Nova's real killer, they end up at the forefront of the racial tensions that divide their community. This book combines dual point of views - Tinsley and Duchess - to bring the reader inside two very different worlds.

Perfectly paced, this book reveals its secrets in layers, drawing the reader closer to the truth of where the true ugliness lies, throwing in some great twists along the way. ( )