The second season of Netflix’s Young Royals officially premiered on Nov. 1, and the plot is juicy. When Season 1 ended, fans were left wondering if Prince Wilhelm and Simon would be able to reconcile and explore their sparking romance further. Now that Season 2 has debuted, there’s one piece of the puzzle that’s been on viewers’ minds: Is the Crisis book by Karin Boye from the show real?
Crisis is showcased in Season 2 when Wilhelm, Simon, and Sara are assigned a class project on the book. Young Royals is centered around the queer love that Wilhelm and Simon both share. Both characters have trouble maneuvering their romance, as Wilhelm’s status as crown prince means he’s under intense pressure to follow the predetermined rules he’s been taught — especially after he and Simon were caught up in that sex tape scandal from Season 1. The Crisis book has a storyline that mirrors some aspects of Wilhelm’s and Simon’s relationship in Young Royals, so you may be wondering if the book was simply created for the Netflix series or if it’s an actual real-life novel.
Yes, Crisis is a real book written by Karin Boye.
Crisis by Karin Boye, $18
Though some fans might have thought that Crisis was simply created for Young Royals, that’s not the case. Written by Karin Boye, the Swedish novel (with the Swedish title Kris) actually came out in 1934.
What is the plot of Crisis about?
Crisis follows the story of Malin Forst, a woman who has just gone away to school to become a teacher around one year after the ending of World War I. Learning to navigate just exactly who she is, Forst quite literally goes through a crisis of her own and is unsure about what her future holds. As a religious woman, Forst finds herself fighting against predetermined ideas she’s believed her whole life. As the story is set in the early 20th century, she seeks medical help but doctors have few to no answers for her state of confusion.
Forst is advised to utilize her faith to overcome her series of crises, something that plagues her when she begins developing feelings for another one of her classmates (who happens to be a woman). After Forst realizes that she is queer, she begins to learn more about who she is and what she wants to do for the rest of her life. The story is also noted to be semi-autobiographical, and Boye may have pulled from some of her own experiences to convey Forst’s story of tackling societal rules while wanting to express oneself freely.
How does Crisis connect to Wilhelm and Simon’s Relationship?
The story prevalent in Crisis parallels Wilhelm and Simon’s own in many ways, besides just being Swedish stories. Both plots showcase young individuals going off to school, a time that many are able to learn more about themselves and live their lives freely.
Above all, the two stories showcase characters learning more about their own queerness, caught in the middle of what they might have thought love was supposed to look like versus how it feels for them now. Battling with outside influences when it comes to living ones life freely is a shared experience that many queer people endure, as seen in both Crisis and Young Royals. Throughout Season 2, Wilhelm is dealing with the aftermath of denying that he was in the leaked video with Simon — his arc for the season centers on choosing between coming out and winning back Simon’s trust, or adhering to his duties as crown prince by protecting the royal family’s reputation at the expense of his own freedom.
Though the characters in Crisis and Young Royals are affected by a different force (religion, taking over the throne), they each go through a similar journey of learning more about who they are and how they want to live their lives.
Young Royals is available to stream now on Netflix.