Beauty
Queens – Libba
Bray
Pages:
Publisher: Scholastic
(US)
Release Date: 24th
May 2011
Other Titles by this Author: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing, Going Bovine
Survival of the fittest.
The fifty contestants in the Miss
Teen Dream Beauty 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 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?
Wecome to the heart of
non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the
hilarious, sensational, Printz-Award winningauthor 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.
I’d
been wanting to read Beauty Queens since
I first heard of it, and I knew that I’d love it. I wasn’t prepared for just
how much I did love it, though.
Libba
Bray writes a fantastic message into a book that is already wonderfully funny
and completely engaging. Her main issue presented in Beauty Queens is that of the treatment of girls and women in society.
The way she uses satire and clued-up and sarcastic characters to put these
ideas across is incredibly effective and I even became angry with some of the
situations she highlighted. There was a particular quote on women apologising
for having thoughts that really stuck with me:
“‘Why
do girls always feel like they have to apologise for giving an opinion or
taking up space in the world? Have you ever noticed that?’ Nicole asked. ‘You
go on websites and some girl leaves a post and if it’s longer than three
sentences or she’s expressing her thoughts about some topic, she usually ends
with ‘Sorry for the rant’ or ‘That may be dumb, but that’s what I think’.”
It’s
worrying accurate: I do it all the time. But I shouldn’t feel like I have to,
and that’s what Libba Bray is trying to tell us. Beauty Queens also talks about notions of beauty, race, gender,
disability and a woman’s right to sexuality, the latter one I hadn’t even
considered before. Once again, Bray put it so beautifully that I’m not going to
even attempt to recreate her words and just give you the quote:
“The
Corporation would like to apologize for the proceeding pages. Of course it’s
not alright for girls to behave this way. Sexuality is not meant to be this way
– an honest, consensual expression in which a girl might take an active role
when she feels good and ready and not a second before. No. Sexual desire is
meant to sell soap. And cars. And beer. And religion.”
Bray
hits the nail on the head. I loved how most of the girls came into their own –
by the end of Beauty Queens they
weren’t just thoughtless, pretty machines, they had thoughts and feelings and
incredible talents that they’d never been able to explore before. However, some
of the beauty queens did remain close-minded and unspeakably stupid and my
brain nearly exploded with some of the things that were said by them.
Don't
go thinking that beauty Queens is in
any way a serious, ramming-a-message-down-your-throat kind of book at all. It’s
not. It’s clever, unique and funny. How? Well, there are footnotes for a start.
You don’t often come across them in fiction and I love it when they’re
included. There was also a fact file on each girl spread through the novel so
it was easier to get a grasp on each of the characters and there were scripts
from adverts about the products that The Corporation was selling – genius. Then
there are the mysterious (at first) chapters from a secret location about a
very suspicious project and glimpses of the incredible MoMo ChaCha and General
Good Times. I won’t ruin the surprise of them, but they really are brilliant.
This
is one of those books that should be prescribed reading for teen and pre-teen
girls. In fact, every female. Bray hammers home an important idea that is often
lost in our very Americanised society. I know that I’ll be doing everything I
can to get my little sister to read it in hopes that she’ll take on board some
of the ideas expressed in this truly fantastic novel.
Just
read it, girls. And guys. Everybody: read it.
Sophie
I listened to the audiobook of this. Libba Bray herself read it, and she was amazing! Thanks for a great review!
ReplyDeleteYay, I'm glad you liked it, and I completely agree with you that all girls should read this- very funny and unique.
ReplyDeletex
I didn't really like the look of this at first but your review has convinced me that I should read it! Now I can't wait to find a copy! :)
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to get started on this book, it sounds AMAZING.
ReplyDeleteThis was my 1st Libba Bray book and I loved it. It's satire, so it's a little out there, but I love that kind of stuff. I hear her Gemma Doyle series is really good, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
ReplyDeleteCharmaine Smith (For more on All-Inclusive Fishing Trips Charters Sitka Alaska South East - click here)