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Beauty Queens Libba Bray Books

Download As PDF : Beauty Queens Libba Bray Books

Beauty Queens Libba Bray Books

At first I thought ‘Beauty Queens’ was going to be a steaming pile of bat guano given the over exaggerated aspect of the narrative with immature and shallow characters, but then it got sarcastic, funny and ironic… and then a little weird.

‘Beauty Queens’ is unlike anything else I’ve read before, some parts, and bits of the dialogue were like eating glass because of the low-brow idiocy, and others shine with brilliant satire – though one would not work without the other… it’s campy & sarcastic. It’s also dramatic, enthusiastic, hyperactive, and flamboyant.

Following a collection of teenaged vapid beauty pageant contestants in a reality television show who survive their airplane crashing on a tropical island – some of the girls continue in pageant mode, while others break out of character and form survival skills on an unforgiving island.
Each character is unique and brings a lot to the table as far a diversity and comedy. Libba Bray includes a transsexual and lesbian character in her cast of unlikely marooned teens. Later, the addition of a group of boys – from a pirate television show, which is produced by the same team that mastheads the pageant: The Company.

It was a little difficult to get into at first because it has such a unique narrative style, after which I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek, over the top antics of ‘Beauty Queens.’ This is all about hi-jinx! Don’t expect anything serious from this novel, except for a big case of sparkly ponies, eye-rolling, and snorting.

We have ‘ads’ interspersed in between chapters as well, like a word from our sponsor – The Company (again) that added a fun touch.

At first I thought it was going to feel immature, like it was pitched to a young tween market, but then with some of the references and content, I discovered that it wasn’t taking itself seriously at all. It was like a drag queen had taken over the stage and was entertaining me with vicious quips, reading the audience, and strutting her stuff while downing a VB. It’s obtuse and entertaining
I may have rated it higher if it allowed me to connect with any of the characters, or had some realism in it to help me care. Instead it was like a really long episode of a teen SNL cast. And on a side note – there is a hilarious epilogue that is the icing on the cake.

I loved the funny, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. But I am really looking forward to picking up another title by Libba Bray…


Tags : Amazon.com: Beauty Queens (9780439895972): Libba Bray: Books,Libba Bray,Beauty Queens,Scholastic Press,0439895979,Action & Adventure - General,Girls & Women,Social Themes - General,Beauty contests,Beauty contests;Fiction.,Castaways,Castaways;Fiction.,Contests,Humorous stories,Pirates,Survival,Survival;Fiction.,Adventure stories (Children's Teenage),Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Fiction,JUVENILE FICTION Action & Adventure General,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Adolescence,Juvenile FictionHumorous Stories,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Action & Adventure General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Girls & Women,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes General (see also headings under Family)

Beauty Queens Libba Bray Books Reviews

Libba Bray serves up a terrifying prediction of the future from her 2011 book with Beauty Queens. There is no way this wasn’t written in 2017 and then post dated back to 2011, but apparently it the relevance it has to today is probably better than it was even back then. There have been a lot of reviews celebrating how great this book is and I hate to spoil it, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do too.

Beauty Queens has been compared to Lord of the Flies, only with girls, actually the book compares itself to Lord of the Flies, but it isn’t really what this is about. Maybe the armature is the same, maybe it really is an apt comparison, but when one is bleak and dark, this one is hilarious and only terrifying in that it really does capture how much our species kind of sucks. Yes yes, the book is really about finding beauty in the ugliness (I’m almost certain that is the armature) but still, it’s depressing that a book written six years ago could be so accurate to today. Maybe culture didn’t change that much, but it seems like not only did it, but it changed in exactly the way this book predicts and that is horrifying, way more than Lord of the Flies because at least that book is fiction, but Beauty Queens? Yeah, kind of not.

For those of you not sure yet, this is a very feminist novel. It is one of the most feminist novel’s I’ve ever read and especially so with a modern slant. These days the going trend is that women can and should do what they want to do, you know, like men have been able to forever. So that means being tough! Or.. not, it’s all up to you. There is no measure of success for being a woman or a girl and that’s fine, even if you want to be like a home maker or something. Anyway, if you’re really anti-feminist then maybe you should pass this book up and dig a hole and then jump in it. Seriously, repressing women is the vilest of vile you should be ashamed.

Maybe you don’t want to read this book because it’s too preachy, you know saying girls can do stuff and it’s okay to be beautiful, or not beautiful. . ect. Well, let me tell you a few good things about this here hole. No one will tell you to treat people respectfully or with dignity in the hole. No sir, (or madam, turns out women can be sexist too (a point not lost on this book ) ). Anyway, this hole is perfect, there isn’t any troublesome women wanting to have their own views, thoughts or opinions in there, plus you can pretend it’s nineteen fifty. Or you know, twenty seventeen because we’re still pretty sexist it turns out.

Okay, but what if there are actually things you don’t like in this book? The first act does set a very interesting stage in that the book seems to take place like it were a television show. Not like, they’re filming a show secretly, but like you’re actually watching a show. This isn’t a secret, it’s given away in the opening and then through the entire story with commercial breaks and what have you. This means a lot of the stuff that goes on has the license of a corner tv series or movie and the book really takes advantage of that at times. It didn’t bother me, but if you want serious and down to earth then for reals this might bug you.

There is LGBT material in this story and the book is pretty unapologetic about that. If that bothers you then you’re in luck, the hole didn’t go anywhere. You can still enjoy it with the same hole holiness that you would of if you climbed in for the feminist stuff. Seriously though, if feminist or lgbt themes but you than this really really isn’t the book for you.

Ultimately, I found this book to be one of the best things I’ve read ever. The surrealism wasn’t my favorite, but it was all in line with what the author was doing and therefore fit just fine with the action. The topics are all of interest to me so I didn’t find any part of it preachy, but I guess some people will, so you’ve been warned. There really is a lot of beauty in the ugliness and this book shows it, with an extremely good grasp of writing and story telling and humor, Beauty Queens is truly an essential read.
I found this book on a list of recommended reading about transgender characters. It was touted as an all-female version of "Lord of the Flies," in which a plane full of beauty pageant contestants crashes into the sea and those who live have to survive the wilderness of a jungle island. It kind of was that, but what I didn't realize initially was that it's satire. I'm not usually a fan of comedy so it took me a while to warm up to the book, but by the time I was reaching the last quarter I devoured it.

For all its silliness (one of the girls has a tray table from the plane crash stuck through her head through the entire story), the book does touch on some heavy topics misogyny, transphobia, government conspiracy, war, and racism. The book tackles these issues in a humorous manner without actually making light of the subjects. Even though the story itself is zany nonsense, there's truth in it.

I think my only real complaint is that the cast is so huge I couldn't even begin to try and keep all the characters straight. There were exactly 10 I got a real sense for and I could recall about half their names. I forgot the rest were there until they were mentioned again. It's a lot to take in. Overall the pacing is pretty good but it did feel like the story dragged a little in the beginning. The way it all wrapped up was one of the most satisfying conclusions to a book I've ever read, though. Even though I'm not a fan of humorous fiction generally, I did laugh out loud several times while reading this book and the ending made me happy-cry.
At first I thought ‘Beauty Queens’ was going to be a steaming pile of bat guano given the over exaggerated aspect of the narrative with immature and shallow characters, but then it got sarcastic, funny and ironic… and then a little weird.

‘Beauty Queens’ is unlike anything else I’ve read before, some parts, and bits of the dialogue were like eating glass because of the low-brow idiocy, and others shine with brilliant satire – though one would not work without the other… it’s campy & sarcastic. It’s also dramatic, enthusiastic, hyperactive, and flamboyant.

Following a collection of teenaged vapid beauty pageant contestants in a reality television show who survive their airplane crashing on a tropical island – some of the girls continue in pageant mode, while others break out of character and form survival skills on an unforgiving island.
Each character is unique and brings a lot to the table as far a diversity and comedy. Libba Bray includes a transsexual and lesbian character in her cast of unlikely marooned teens. Later, the addition of a group of boys – from a pirate television show, which is produced by the same team that mastheads the pageant The Company.

It was a little difficult to get into at first because it has such a unique narrative style, after which I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek, over the top antics of ‘Beauty Queens.’ This is all about hi-jinx! Don’t expect anything serious from this novel, except for a big case of sparkly ponies, eye-rolling, and snorting.

We have ‘ads’ interspersed in between chapters as well, like a word from our sponsor – The Company (again) that added a fun touch.

At first I thought it was going to feel immature, like it was pitched to a young tween market, but then with some of the references and content, I discovered that it wasn’t taking itself seriously at all. It was like a drag queen had taken over the stage and was entertaining me with vicious quips, reading the audience, and strutting her stuff while downing a VB. It’s obtuse and entertaining
I may have rated it higher if it allowed me to connect with any of the characters, or had some realism in it to help me care. Instead it was like a really long episode of a teen SNL cast. And on a side note – there is a hilarious epilogue that is the icing on the cake.

I loved the funny, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. But I am really looking forward to picking up another title by Libba Bray…