Plot Summary:
When a plane load of teenage beauty queens crash land on a deserted (or not so deserted) island, a Lord of the Flies for the twenty first century is born. The fourteen survivors of a plane that crashes on the way to the Miss Teen Dream Pageant assume that their show's sponsors, aptly named "The Corporation", will waste no time in discovering their whereabouts and rescue them. Unfortunately they have landed on an island housing a top secret military compound also sponsored by "The Corporation." "The Corporation" decides that it's better to tell everyone the girls were all killed than risk having people discover the secret activities happening on the island.
In between practicing their pageant routines and fighting off giant snakes, the girls find they must learn to rely on each other and their own ingenuity. The same can-do attitude that made the girls successful on the pageant circuit is also useful when faced with finding ways to survive in the wilderness. Sequined evening gowns quickly become repositories for rain water and a hair straightener can be used to catch fish. Away from a society that only rewards them for being pretty, they discover truths about themselves. This new self awareness helps them to deal with the seductions of some very hot, shipwrecked, reality show pirates and of course, "The Corporation's" evil plot.
This young adult satire is interspersed with commercial breaks, contestant fact sheets, footnotes, radio broadcasts, and spoofs of reality TV and celebrity status that keep the hilarity coming, but it also tackles a lot of real life issues that teen girls face. Will the contestants ever find a way off the island? Can hair removal products really be turned into explosives? What is Miss Rhode Island hiding under her sash and why does she sing exactly like that guy from that old boy band? Are volcanoes on deserted islands, ever just volcanoes? Do grubs really taste like chicken? If a guy pretending to be a pirate tells you he is trouble, shouldn't you believe him? All of these questions and many more will be answered reading Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.
- Milwaukee Public Library
Sweet Reviews:
- "This is Libba Bray, a writer much more interested in subverting that paradigm—girl-on-girl psychological violence as spectator sport—than playing into it…Beauty Queens is a madcap surrealist satire of the world in which her readers have come of age—reality TV, corporate sponsorship, product placement, beauty obsession—but ultimately, it's a story of empowering self-discovery."
- –New York Times Book Review
- "{a} hilarious romp into an examination of femininity and feminism, sex and sexuality…sure to be popular."
- –Booklist
- "Out-there satire…Lord of the Flies with an evening gown competition, anyone?"
- –Publishers Weekly
- "While the foibles of today's media/celebrity/political culture are the clear target of this stinging satire, the teen cast is funny and endearing in its own right…The humor is both dark and madcap, including footnote asides and commercial scripts that keep the laughs coming."
- –Kirkus Reviews
Sour Reviews:
- “THAT is my greatest gripe about the novel: there are the basic bones of a story here somewhere but no connective tissue to link all of the things that the novel tries to be. And when you can’t form a cohesive, coherent body all that’s left is a shapeless story where the message it tries to convey trumps everything else.”
- -Ana (The Book Smugglers)
- "The thing is, there is no elegance or metaphor to Ms. Bray’s novel. There is nothing really clever, insightful, or even funny (beyond the cheap laughs) about Beauty Queens. Instead of a scathingly witty Stewart or Colbert-ish skewering of society, Beauty Queens is obvious, capricious and preachy."
- -Thea (The Book Smugglers)
