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Beauty Queens

Beauty Queens 1

by Libba Bray
Paperback
Publication Date: 01/12/2013
5/5 Rating 1 Review

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Teen beauty queens. A lost island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives deep in the heart of every girl, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.

Join Libba Bray in this wicked satire of beauty pageants, reality TV and teen pop culture.

'A wickedly bleak page-turning snarkfest . Effortlessly readable.' The Sunday Age
ISBN:
9781743315125
9781743315125
Category:
General fiction (Children's / Teenage)
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
01-12-2013
Publisher:
A&U Children's
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
400
Dimensions (mm):
198x128x28mm
Weight:
0.44kg
Libba Bray

Libba Bray is the author of the New York Times bestselling Gemma Doyle Trilogy, which comprises the novels A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing.

In 2010 she was awarded the Michael L. Printz award for her satirical road-trip novel Going Bovine, which was also shortlisted for the Australian Centre for Youth Literature's Inky Award.

Libba has written satire crossing Lost with America's Next Top Model in Beauty Queens, a finalist for the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, plus short stories about everything from Cheap Trick concerts to The Rocky Horror Picture Show devotees to meeting Satan worshippers on summer vacation.

Libba lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, son, and two cats, and is part of an all-YA author band called Tiger Beat (for realz). 

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A plane full of Beauty Queens crash land on a desert island – Libba Bray is possibly the only author to hear this idea for a book and cry “Yes!” I am really thankful she did.

Dividing into two teams, The Lost Girls and The Sparkleponies, said beauty queens set about the business of surviving the island until their rescue. This would be difficult enough if all they had to overcome was each other and their team leader Miss Texas – a card carrying member of Femmes With Firearms and the ultimate Miss Teen Dream. Unfortunately for them, this is no Lord of the Flies. There are also giant snakes, quicksand, an evil corporation and the shipwrecked rockstar pirate cast of hit reality TV show, Captains Bodacious 4: More Bodaciouser.

Libba Bray’s very well aware of how ridiculous this is. Her tongue is firmly in cheek, and I wasn’t surprised to hear she’d spent time in marketing and advertising as the book is punctuated by entertaining, satirical advertisements for products ranging from sexist TV shows to “Lady-stache Off” (a feminine hair maintenance product). Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is thinly disguised as Ladybird Hope, former Miss Teen Dream Queen, presidential hopeful and spokeswoman for The Corporation.

Beauty Queens is about pageant contestants, some of whom take sparkle as a way of life and make Daria’s Britney look like an honour student. Despite (or because of) that beginning, this is a very clever book. Though it starts (and continues) poking fun at the contestants they still grow over time, as well as successfully surviving in a situation which might have caused others to start talking to basket balls. Much like any easily stereotyped group, as you look closer they emerge as separate, interesting, flawed people – each with their own reasons for competing.

The contestants aren’t the only ones Libba Bray is mocking either – as the regular advertisements and Corporation footnotes demonstrate, she’s far more critical of the society that both helped create them and continues to underestimate them. Gender ideals, and how narrow and harmful they can be, is a recurring theme without the book ever crossing the line into preachy. Each contestant has spent years shaping herself towards what the judges, and society as a whole, wants her to be – physically, mentally and emotionally. They’ve grown up listening to The Corporation catch phrase “there’s nothing wrong with you that we can’t fix”, and this makes it all the more moving to see the girls gradually lose interest in the competition as their time on the island continues. Of course, whether Ladybird Hope, Agent Jones and rogue mad dictator Mo Mo will let them leave the island is something I couldn’t possibly reveal.

In Beauty Queens Libba Bray touches on sexism, self-esteem, sexuality, consumerism, reality television, societal expectations and a bevy of other issues familiar to her audience. Better still, she’s done so through a frequently hilarious, ridiculous novel full of sequins, Sparkle Ponies, pirates, size 11 heels, boy bands, HipH-opera (why is that not a thing?) and explosives carefully concealed in feminine beauty products. Needless to say, I couldn’t be more impressed.

Audiobook Only Note: Also – Libba Bray narrates the audiobook. The award-winning audiobook. She does voices. Is there anything she can’t do

Contains Spoilers No
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