Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Publish Date: May 2011

Source: Library

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.

Beauty Queens was my first Libba Bray experience and I quite enjoyed it, though I did find it a bit odd at times. The story had my interest from the start, but it didn't take long to really hook me in, page 33, in fact. The story flows well, and I appreciated not having to read a hundred pages of setup before things really got down to business. It did such a fantastic job of catching my attention, I ended up staying up and reading until two in the morning one night.

I loved getting to see from all the different points of view. Normally it's just one or two and occasionally three. I'm not actually sure just how many were in here, but I know it was way more than that, but it still worked fantastically. All the characters and points of view did kind of throw me for a loop at the beginning, but after a while I was able to settle in and really enjoy it. Bray does an absolutely amazing job of making all the POVs flow in a way that I was never bored and never confused.

Overall, I did absolutely love it, but I did find some things a bit...odd. When things started happening with Mary Lou, I was really starting to think she was a werewolf or a vampire or something. I was rather confused and left wondering if I missed something and there was really a supernatural element here. There were a few other just odd little moments that seemed a little too fantastic for the rest of the story, though I can't think of specifics now, of course.

A few other things I loved about Beauty Queens: the annotations and the girl power. The annotations were awesome and made me laugh a little bit. It was just an awesome little extra I definitely wasn't expecting. And girl power. Seriously, this book had me wanting to scream "Girl Power!!! Yay!" at the top of my lungs. That wasn't really an option at midnight, but it still created quite the girl power fire inside of me. Is it bad if you're proud of characters from a book?

Side note: I was a little sad Miss Washington didn't make it. That is all.

Final Thoughts: Although this book had some odd moments, it was absolutely fantastic overall. I'm pretty sure there's something in here for everyone (though I really can't get into that without spoiling). Don't look at the cover and name and think you know what you're getting into, because I can almost guarantee you'll be surprised. If you're into girl power (or even if you're not but you aren't against is) I beg of you, read this book!

Pages: 390

Series: No

Rating: 4.5 stars