Author: Libba Bray
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Satire
Source: Allen & Unwin Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads rating: 3.57 out of 5.00 (22,000+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Reading Room
Teen beauty queens. A lost island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email.
And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives deep in the heart of every girl, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness.
Oh, the horror, the horror!
Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.
Review by Nara
I had heard a lot of good things about Libba Bray's books but for some reason kept putting them off. Now after having read Beauty Queens all I can say is: seriously. Why the heck did I do that? What made me put them off? Because I seriously have no clue. Beauty Queens was hilarious and engaging and while there was slight wtfery in the second half of the book, wow. I had no idea that a book about teen beauty queens stranded on an island could be so entertaining. (Who am I kidding, it's always entertaining haha)
Beauty Queens started off being really quite funny and satirical, and while it did retain those qualities as the book moved on, at the same time, things took a turn for the seriously crazy. I mean, I guess you could have said it was unrealistic, but it wasn't unrealistic in a way that annoyed me. There are insane dictators, a massive conspiracy against the Miss Teen Dream competition, random ornithologists, pirates....Clearly these are things that wouldn't normally pop up in a book about survival on an "abandoned" island. But man, it was hilarious.
While certainly not really the focus of the book, the romance was probably the thing that brought down my plot rating. While the various relationships were interesting enough to read about, I just couldn't shake the feeling that they were a bit too....convenient. I also feel like there were a lot of really annoying characters (least of all pre-crazies Miss Texas. Every time she was like "give me 25 cents for swearing/taking the Lord's name in vain" I was like ARGHHHHHH!) but I also feel like I can't actually criticise them for being annoying because they were supposed to be so.
Beauty Queens is definitely the sort of book that I could easily see as a movie. Actually, I want a movie. As soon as possible. The writing, the footnotes, the "announcement" chapters- this book was a thing of beauty. #punintended
Oh and also, whatever happened to Miss New Mexico? Is the tray still stuck in her head?
Really liked it
Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3/5
This book sounds like a lot of fun. I will have to see if my library has it.
ReplyDeleteIt's great! I mean, it's a bit over the top, but I feel that was the point :P
DeleteWell, I checked out A Great and Terrible Beauty from the library, and wasn't impressed, but Beauty Queens sounds pretty hilarious. Beauty queens killing each other Battle Royale-style? Count me in! Lol.
ReplyDeleteAnd I want that movie, too!!
was that book by Libba Bray as well?! Had no idea.
Deletehaha they don't actually go around killing each other, but there is killing of other people- don't want to spoil anything, but it was weird. And random.
Ooh, I enjoyed this one too! Yeah, it was utterly insane during the second half, but that is what was so charming about Beauty Queens in the first place :P The only thing that I can say that really annoyed me is that sometimes the novel could be overly preachy. I mean, it's nice to send messages, but I actually felt like Libba Bray was trying to shove what she was trying to get across in my face >_<
ReplyDelete"Is the tray still stuck in her head?" I'm still wondering about that too. I sort of cringed whenever the tray in her head was mentioned, so I was pretty anxious for someone to get it out. Also, wouldn't that damage her brain, this causing her to not be able to survive? THESE QUESTIONS ARE KILLING ME INSIDE!
Great review!
I KNOW RIGHT. The second half was so ridiculously random! I was like, what the heck is happening?! Yeah, it was definitely preachy. But I just kinda took that in the spirit of the book- EVERYTHING was over the top.
DeleteYeah, dude, surely a tray stuck in someone's head would cause some sort of brain damage! It sounds so painful as well :/
As I recall, in the epilogue it says that Ms. NM still had the half tray in her forehead, but learned to rock long bangs.
ReplyDeleteI did read that, but it only said that she learned to rock bangs, so I wasn't quite sure what happened to the tray (I mean, the bangs could have been to hide the scar or sth)
DeleteSurely they'd remove the tray haha
Beauty Queens is an intelligent and fun read that went beyond my expectations (though I don't know why I was surprised, Bray's Going Bovine was one of my favorite books from 2009). Due to some of the content of the book, I would recommend this for readers 16 years and up. But I highly recommend getting this book into the hands of any young woman you want to learn to think outside the box and question what is sold to them on a daily basis. Bray's book is about acceptance - accepting yourself and accepting other. About separating what is sold to us with what we actually need to be happy.
ReplyDeleteI need to read Going Bovine! It sounds rather interesting, and if it's in the same vein as this one, it must be pretty good :)
DeleteWell said. I definitely agree!
LOL, the tray in Miss New Mexico's head! I read this book a couple of years ago, and just enjoyed every minute of it! So over the top, and so much fun. I'm glad you enjoyed it too. I really loved The Diviners too -- have you read it?
ReplyDeleteLisa
I know, it was so ridiculously over the top that it was hilarious!
DeleteI actually have a copy of The Diviners, but I still haven't read it! I really should...I'll bump it up the TBR a bit :)
I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I remember someone going on about how insane (in a good way) this book was, but since then I'd completely forgotten about it until I read this. I was a little hesitant when I first read the little blurb, but I might add this to my TBR. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely insane. And definitely in a good way haha.
DeleteI have to agree I was quite hesitant as well at first, because I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was a great read :D
Oh man, I only heard good things about this book and it is always sitting on the shelf of my favorite bookshop.... I really need to found the money to get it, SOON! lol
ReplyDeleteDeyse @ http://deysesays.wordpress.com/
It's a really funny book. But expect a lot of over-the-top things haha
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