Libba Bray is the New York Times best-selling author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy and Going Bovine. You’ve probably passed by her paperbacks of A Great and Terrible Beauty at bookstores several times. (Hopefully, you were smart enough to give it a try because those books are excellent!) Yet, it wasn’t really her Gemma Doyle books that convinced me she could concoct a great story out of Levithan’s idea. It was her blog posts on LiveJournal. At first, I would only check her blog to see if she included any clues as to what would happen in the next Gemma Doyle book. But later, I started reading them for another reason: she’s really funny. Her thoughts on her daily life, current events or whatever were so fun and entertaining to read. I instantly thought of all her blog posts when David had mentioned that she would be writing Beauty Queens.
It was the day after Beauty Queens’ release that I found myself in the bookstore, ready to buy it. Usually I say “don’t judge a book by its cover” and all that, but secretly we all do a little bit. Anyway, this book cover is pretty brilliant; so if my review doesn’t convince to go out and buy it, maybe the cover will?
Beauty Queens follows a group of beauty pageant survivors of a plane crash. They were on their way to film a special segment for the Miss Teen Dream Pageant when their plane crashed down killing most of them and lodging a tray in poor Miss New Mexico’s forehead. The girls try to figure out how to survive and continue practicing for the pageant. Will the Corporation, an almost monopoly-like conglomerate, save the girls and use them for their own evil agenda?
One of the things that I was worried about when starting the book was how I was going to keep track of all the surviving beauty queens. My mind can only handle small amounts of information at a time. But Bray already sensed that and introduced the characters in a way that you would know who is who. She also brilliantly set up this weird exaggerated version of America. The Corporation practically runs America. They have all these insane and funny products and television shows. Between chapters, she writes out typical Corporation commercials. Throughout the book, footnotes are made to describe anything Corporation-related that the girls mention. Through those we see how all the insidious and discreet messages in our real life media are blatantly put out there by the Corporation. It’s satirical and ridiculous… and sort of alarming because America may be headed in that direction.
The girls all have different reasons for being in the pageant. You’ll be surprised by some of their reasons, and I won’t spoil them because they’re fun surprises that you should discover on your own. In the beginning, it’s a bit of a rough start; it’s hard to relate to the beauty queens. But as I kept reading and finding out new things about each girl, I started caring for these girls. So when they’re working together to build shelter, trap drinkable water or running from a giant snake, I was like OMG PLZ DON’T LET ONE OF THEM DIE! Obviously, some beauty queen dramatics started to rub off…
Girl power is explored and shown in the best way possible. These girls learn that they can both like makeovers and stand up for themselves. I found myself fist-pumping GIRL POWER throughout the last half of the book. (Yes.. fist-pumping. You don’t need to be Italian and from New Jersey to do it.) I ended up loving these girls so much, and I think anyone who reads this book will too. Young adults are impressionable and they HATE when you say that because DUH they have a mind of their own. However, just like The Corporation and our real world, Beauty Queens manages to both discreetly and blatantly tell its readers that Girl Power is the most fantastically awesome thing ever.
Beauty Queens is now available in bookstores. Click here to purchase it in our TYF Store!
Advertisement
Advertisement