Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Title: Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
ISBN: 9780439895972
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Page #: 390
Source: ARC from the publisher

Summary:
"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. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author 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."
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First Lines:

"This book begins with a plane crash. We do not want you to worry about this. According to the U.S. Department of Unnecessary Statistics, your chances of dying in a plane crash are one in half a million. Whereas your chances of losing your bathing suit bottoms to a strong tide are two to one."
Page 1
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Review:

I think three terms can fully describe this book: Snark. Feminism. Footnotes.

Seriously. That just about sums it up for me.
Okay, okay. So it's a story about a plane full of beauty queens that goes down in a jungle that seems unoccupied. They find out later that the government has a secret op going on there. Excitement ensues.

I think my favorite thing about this book is really the whole snarkiness of the whole thing. I was a little worried at the beginning of the book that I was going to end up hating a few of the characters. But you spend each chapter getting to know them each a little more.

The beginning of the book starts with the crash. The author even warns you about it. But seriously, I was not a fan of the beginning. Perhaps I can just imagine the crash happening and what you'd be faced with. And it's almost treated as hum-ho in this book. I understand why - it's a clever, humorous book. No need to weigh it down with serious plane crash stuff. I mean, one girl even has a tray sticking out of her forehead for the duration of the book. Craziness.

I love the footnotes. For each product mentioned, there's a snarky footnote attached. It's just super-clever and I fully give the author props for it. I'm sure lots of people will get a kick out of this book, just on principle. There is a ton of feminist stuff - mostly because of the whole beauty queen shtick. Almost counteracting it.

I know that lots of people will love the book, but I think I'm recommending it for older teens only. There's a bit of the sexual stuff and the whole scary crash stuff in the beginning. Otherwise, I know it will go over really well. Funny, little mystery, very snarky, good book.
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