Book Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Title: Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
Series: None
Publisher: Scholastic
Released: May 24, 2011
Website: http://libbabray.com/

Book 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.

First off this is only a partial review because I didn't finish this book. I only made it through the first 7 chapters of Beauty Queens.

This book is irreverent, sarcastic and laugh out-loud funny. It was great fun for an hour or two as the narrator of the audio version gives an amazing preformance.

Unfortunately I don't think I can make it through 400 pages (14 hours) of mockery, shallowness and sheer stupidity. By chapter seven the language that up until then had been bleeped out (Beauty Queens don't swear) was no longer being bleeped and it seemed like the subject matter was taking a turn. What had been funny was starting to get old and instead of laughing I was rolling my eyes.

Beauty Queens was a Best of 2011 pick by one of the Best I've Read Blogs so I gave it a try.  There are many people who love this book and I totally understand the mixed reviews. There is no denying that Libba Bray is a great writer. I really enjoyed her Gemma Doyle trilogy but 400 pages of Beauty Queens was just too much for me.

Rating: 2.5 Stars - Take it or Leave it

Content: language, lesbianism, innuendo, crude humor (after reading a few reviews my understanding is there is a lot more content in later chapters)

Source: Library

Also by Libba Bray

Book Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Scorpio Races
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: None
Publisher: Scholastic
Released: October 18, 2011
Website: http://maggiestiefvater.com/

Book Summary:

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Technically classified as young adult fantasy this book seemed real. The water horses in this book are based on mythological creatures but Maggie wrote them in such a way that I wouldn't be surprised to see them coming up out of the sea the next time I visit the ocean.  A testament to what an amazing writer Maggie is.

Due to the fact that I loved Maggie's Mercy Falls werewolf series, the Scorpio Races has been high on my want to read list.  Although completely different than the Mercy Falls series the Scorpio Races did not disappoint.  The Scorpio races is less romance and more about the horses, the island, the people and the races themselves.

I found myself rooting for both Kate and Sean and hoping somehow they could both win the race.  Ultimately I found the ending of the book to be very satisfying.

There is some violence in this series due to the fierce, untamed nature of the water horses (but violence in books doesn't bother me the way sex and language does).

I started Maggie's Books of Faeries series but never got further than the first chapter of Lament. I think I'm going to give that series another try because this book proved to me that Maggie is a phenomenal writer.

Rating: 4.5 Stars - Highly Recommend

Content: some language and violence

Source: Download from Audible.com

Also by Maggie Steifvater:
The Wolves of Mercy Falls



Books of Faerie