BEAUTY QUEEN
By Libba Bray

• Paperback:

  400 pages

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Reprint Edition: June 1, 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439895987
• ISBN-13: 978-0439895989
• Genre: YA, Contemporary, Humor

Survival. Of the fittest. 

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.

Available from Amazon

A TACO REVIEW

Hello my wonderful sugar cubes! This week I bring you the amazing satirical work that is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. I bought this book because someone on the internet had made a list of book recommendations. I don’t even remember what the topic of the list was, all I remember is that I bought it and put it up on my shelf for like ever and now I’m sad that I waited so long to read it because it’s a genius book. Whoa, talk about a run on sentence, my English teacher would be appalled. This book also served towards my Summer Reading Challenge of a book, A book that takes place on a deserted island.

A book about beauty queens? Really, Taco? Yes, really.

Just like the blurb reads, it’s about a group of Beauty Queens that have crash landed on an island and they have to stay alive until they get rescued. Because they will get rescued, right? Nope. This book is perfect for anyone that likes a good conspiracy and even if you don’t, you’ll enjoy this book.

To say I was skeptical about enjoying this book would be a correct assumption. I am not a fan of beauty pageants, I think they’re overrated and boring. To be fair I think that about most non-scripted shows. Except for murder investigation stuff, I have an long standing relationship with Forensic Files and newfound love for the Investigation Discovery channel but I digress.

The first chapter is the airplane crash and most of the girls die. I was worried that I was going to have to keep up with 50+ characters but was glad that it was only about 10. I was glad most of the girls died. Hah. I’m a terrible person.  Throughout the book you get to learn the remaining girls backstories, the reasons why they’re in the pageant to begin with. Some of them truly like all the hustle and bustle of being in a beauty queen, others have ulterior motives and some because their parents forced them to be. Everyone’s motives are as diverse as they are.

You know how sometimes you love something so much that you’re at a loss for words on how to explain why you love The Thing? That is my exact feeling right now. There is so much that I want to tell you about everyone in the book but I don’t know how. I just love this SO much. It’s hilarious. There were so many places where I just burst out laughing, regardless of where I was. It’s thought provoking. This book takes everything I found ridiculous about beauty pageants (the sexist old fashioned gender roles, the torture in the name of beauty, etc) and turns it on its head. It has a love story. Not just boy meets girl, but girl learns to love herself.

I give Beauty Queens Five Tacos out of the Taco Scale of Awesome. I don’t have a favorite character because every single one of the girls was amazing. The bad guy was exactly who I thought it was going to be: power driven maniacs that prey on the wishes of girls trying to better themselves. Did this book change my mind about beauty pageants? Not really, I still won’t watch one. But it solidified my own conspiracies about patriarchy and its eventual downfall.

READ THIS BOOK! Why? Because I said so, and because not only is it really enjoyable and entertaining read, it might make you question and understand some of the ridiculous things women have to go through on a day to day basis.

Until next time. This is Mon, over and out.