Title: Beauty QueensAuthor: Libba Bray
Publication Date: 5/24/11
From Goodreads:
The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.
What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.
What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.
My thoughts:
When I pick up a book to read, I want to know as little about it as possible. I read the blurb on the back, and I will even check out Goodreads for ratings. While I want to know what other people thought of it, I try not to read reviews that give away too much about the book. I don't want to have an opinion formed before I even start the book. This usually works in my favor, but unfortunately not this time. When I first heard about Beauty Queens and read the synopsis for it, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I am obsessed with YA Dystopian right now and I thought that was what this book is about. So I can't deny that I was a little thrown off when I finally picked it up to read and it was completely different than what I expected.
Beauty Queens is the story of the Miss Teen Dreamers competition and what happens when the plane carrying all of the contestants crashes onto a deserted island. The surviving girls are left to fend for themselves while still trying to maintain their image for the competition.
Even though it wasn't what I expected, Beauty Queens was still a hilarious read. Libba Bray does an excellent job of working a ton of pop culture into the story and promptly making fun of it. It has everything you need: quick wit, action, scandal, drama and even some romance. I enjoyed reading about each of the girls and watching them transform.
After getting over my initial disappointment, I couldn't help but root for these girls and didn't want to put the book down. Even though some things were a little (ok, a lot) far fetched, it was still a lot of fun. I definitely recommend it!
sounds like a decent contemporary! i'll definitely try it out!
ReplyDeleteI've thought of reading Beauty Queens for a while, but since Libba Bray's not at the top of my TBR list (which, by the way, is HUGE), I decided to pass this one by for the time. But hey, now I have a reminder to read this book sometime.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely sounds farfetched, but cute. Are the girls still being filmed while all of this is going on?
ReplyDeleteI love books like these that hide messages behind sarcasm and comedy and then when you realize what the underlying message is, it really is impactful!
ReplyDeleteI've heard that this book has a bit of a feminist bias but that it doesn't hit you over the head with it. It sounds like a cute, fun read but has a deeper message.
ReplyDeleteI read Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy and I actually really liked that trilogy and I was craving more of Libba Bray's writing. When I found that she wrote this book, I had to admit that I freaked. Most people say that this book is kind of like Lord of the Flies by William Golding, which is a compliment for me because I enjoyed the book. This is definitely on my To-Read list.
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