Title: The Queen of Kentucky Author: Alecia Whitaker
Published: January 2, 2012
Genre(s): Realistic/Contemporary
Page Count: 375
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would prefer to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and become part of the popular crowd at her small town high school. She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes and somehow manages to secure a tenuous spot at the cool kids table. She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and the boy next door Luke says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo."
Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her. It takes a serious incident out on Luke's farm for Ricki Jo to realize that being a true friend is more important than being popular.
Ricki Jo is fourteen years old and ready to leave her redneck farm girl days behind in favor of a glamorous career as a high school cheerleader. She’ll stop at nothing to gain acceptance and popularity—even going so far as to alienating her old friends and family. But, obviously, that sort of lifestyle has a cost, and as Ricki Jo learns in The Queen of Kentucky, it’s not a price she’s able to pay.
I’m going to be honest and say that reading about Ricki Jo was difficult. She makes so, so many mistakes over the course of the book. She’s snobby, selfish, and shallow. She does things not because she wants to, but because it will boost her reputation in the eyes of those who matter (or those who she thinks matter). She completely ignores her best friend’s problems, which are far more serious than her own, in favor of whining about her girl drama and boy trouble. She’s a hard character to swallow.
I especially had difficulty with Ricki Jo’s low sense of worth. She allowed her new friends and new love interest to treat her like absolute garbage, not seeing that they valued her only as a tool to be used or someone to be momentarily entertaining but never counted as one of the group. Within the first fifty pages, Ricki Jo’s love interest, Wolf, calls her an ugly redneck in a crowded room, and though she admits he treats her “like an animal” she still can’t shake her crush. As the reader, you have the privilege of seeing the bigger picture, and it’s obvious that Ricki Jo’s newfound pals aren’t as great as she thinks she is. It was frustrating that she didn’t see what I saw, but then again, she’s young and optimistic and has never had cause to doubt anyone’s intentions.
Ricki Jo is really the centerpiece of The Queen of Kentucky, and yes, she’s a difficult character to like—but how different is she from any other fourteen-year-old girl? In comparison, Ricki Jo’s problems are small potatoes, but to a high school freshman, things like acceptance and fitting in (and getting your first period) are very important, and I think that’s what Alecia Whitaker has captured with this book. This is a story about a girl who makes mistakes in her quest to feel loved, and yeah, it’s frustrating, but is her story any less valid than anyone else’s? Her problems are real to her, and I have a hard time vilifying her feelings just because they seem so trivial to me as an adult.
Though I remain conflicted (but mostly in favor) of Ricki Jo’s characterization, I did enjoy many other aspects of the book. Ricki Jo’s family was wonderfully present and supportive of her, and the side plot regarding Ricki Jo’s best friend, Luke, was a wonderfully honest, but not too involved, depiction of domestic violence as seen from the outside. The small-town Southern setting rang true as well, which gave The Queen of Kentucky’s more questionable facets a nice, stable background.
That being said, there are some aspects of this book that I had more concrete difficulties with, one of which was Whitaker’s writing. It’s not bad, per se; neither is it great. This author falls into the rookie mistake of giving minute, endless details of every single thing. Paragraphs on paragraphs were dedicated to characters’ clothing and makeup, a shopping expedition at the mall, picking seats on the first day of class, meals, car rides—you name it. Detail is always nice, but The Queen of Kentucky just takes it way too far. A lot of this book’s fairly lengthy 400 pages is superfluous fluff that bogged down the actual story. The pace is slow, almost painfully so, from start to finish. I honestly almost DNFed this in the early stages, as I was having so much trouble with Ricki Jo’s character, and couldn’t believe how long this book was—far longer than both the average YA debut and realistic fiction novel.
There are also a lot of music/movie pop culture references that really date The Queen of Kentucky. At one point, Ricki Jo and her friends claim that “Touch My Body” by Mariah Carey is their go-to make-out jam, and considering that song came out and was popular in 2008, it was already an “old” song when this book was released in 2012. The problem with referencing popular songs or films in your book is that, 6 months down the line, those references will be obsolete. You lose your ability to reach audience because your readers are less focused on the story in favor of being reminded about how outdated your pop culture references are.
I have some issues with The Queen of Kentucky overall, but I still think it’s an authentic portrayal of being a high school freshman struggling to find a place. Ricki Jo is a difficult character to like, but her story is still real and honest. Alecia Whitaker’s debut shows a lot of promise, and though it’s not perfect, I liked it far, far more than I expected to. The Queen of Kentucky has a lot going for it, and I think it’ll really fill the need for YA realistic fiction that caters to younger teens or preteens.
