Don't judge a book by its (absolutely hideous) cover. This is an interesting satirical novel. Libba Bray is a really great, zany author. In Beauty Queens, the fifty contestants for the Miss Teen Dream Pageant crash on a mysterious island. The majority of them die, and the survivors are stranded with little food. Throughout the novel, Bray reveals that each girl is more than she seems, and also she reveals the idiocies of the whole contest. Also, "Operation Peacock" is based at the island, and the Corporation is cutting a deal with MoMo, the dictator of the Republic of ChaCha.
Bray tackled a lot of issues; perhaps too much. It seems like each of the girls has so many problems. The book is a bit silly, but certainly not as silly as the cover would suggest. There are amusing "ad breaks" and footnotes from the Corporation, the TV company that sponsors the pageant and a whole bunch of other idiotic shows.
My favorite character was definitely Adina, from New Hampshire. She just entered the competition to expose its stupidity. She's pretty, yes, but smart and independent, and I loved that about her. All of the characters were interesting, even Taylor, Miss Texas, who you hate at first. She has her own set of problems.
Problems. That was probably one of my only criticisms. All of the girls' lives were really messed up; not a single one of them had relatively few problems. But Bray probably wanted to show that nothing in the pageant is what it seems.
This was a funny and amusing read, though I found myself hiding the cover.
Read Beauty Queens:
- if you like Libba Bray
- if you like zany fiction
Ah, the glories of making your characters sick in the head.
ReplyDeleteObviously this Problem of giving your characters Problems is not exclusive to me! Ha.