Reviews

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

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am4man's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Content Warnings

Beauty Queens was completely and totally different from anything I've ever read before. And I loved every minute of it. Bray has a way of coming up with this crazy ideas and making every word believable.

This cliff notes about outrages products and the commercial breaks were my favorite! Some of them had me busting out laughing. My favorite by far was the Maxi-Pad Pets. Pads. In the shapes of animals. Bahahaha.

There was some pretty obvious social commentary in this book. But it was done in a fun and non-preaching way. And it was pretty spot on. This whole book was all about the GIRL POWER. And I ate it up!

Adina was definitely my favorite of the girls. She was the one from the get go who thought beauty pageants were outdated and degrading, which I agreed with. But it was so fun watching these girl's figure out who they really were. Honestly, I just loved this entire book.

I cannot wait for the next book by Bray. I will pick up anything she's written. Anything.

jess_mango's review

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4.0

Entertaining and off-beat in a Christopher Moore-esque way.

gillianre's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

lilyr2023's review

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There were footnotes in the book that were very distracting and I could not get through it.

alicebme's review

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3.0

Well, the way I see it, Bray has sort of two different things she does well: wacky and historical fantasy goth awesomeness. I prefer the latter, but I certainly appreciate the wacky that this book represents. This is likely because it's not weird for weird' s sake. There's a big fat feminist message in there, and it resonates with all the pissed off I personally feel about a woman's role in society. I went to a woman's college in undergrad, and I especially liked this quote from 177. "Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's watching them so they can be who they are." Fo sho.

protoman21's review

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3.0

I have a lot of thoughts on this book, but I'm not sure I can express them all. I wanted something like Lord of the Flies or Hunger Games, but instead the story is a complete parody and I just couldn't take it seriously at all. Ok, maybe it isn't meant to be taken seriously, but with all of the political and social messages Libba Bray injects into the story it's hard to imagine that she doesn't want you to. The characters are so over the top it's hard to really connect with them and the "growth" they experience through the story is predictable at best. I'm also disturbed at some of the mixed messages she sends to young readers. Half the girls fall immediately in love with a guy on the island and then sleep with him within days. Some of them get their hearts broken and some end up happy, but the message is still rush rush rush into love, sex and everything else with no real consequences besides a broken heart (which couldn't be broken too bad since they only knew each other for a day or so). These things took away from the story for me and though there were some amusing moments, overall I was left disappointed.

poppiesinaugust's review

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4.0

The yassification of Phineas Gage.

This book is camp. Also Ms Bray seriously put everything into her reading of the audiobook, I highly recommend it.