Teens & Tiaras • Beauty Queens

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: May 24, 2011
Source/Format: Bought || Hardcover

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?

When I went to the This is Teen event last May, I was able to pick up a copy of Libba Bray's book Beauty Queens and get it signed. I was really looking forward to reading it because everyone who I talked to at the event was telling me it was a wonderful book - and it really was!

Beauty Queens definitely appealed to my sense of humor, which is very rare. I found myself laughing out loud while reading it, especially with the quirky one liners and silly moments tossed in amongst all the serious issues discussed.  Despite Beauty Queens also being an interesting social commentary on beauty and society's obsession and perceptions and misconceptions of it, I thought that it was also light fare that any reader would enjoy.

The characters were definitely a major plus in Beauty Queens.  They were each very different, complete with a set of skills and characteristics that made them extremely unique.  I was trying to decide on a favorite for this review and I just realized I couldn't because I loved them all! All in all, Libba Bray does a fantastic job bringing this witty, amusing, slightly fantastical story into existence and I'm definitely excited to read more of her work.