web counter
 

Cannonball Read IV: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

By sunnywithahigh | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (9)

Crown

Libba Bray wants to make you laugh. Desperately. Her need to have you guffawing your way through ‘Beauty Queens’ is clear in every footnote, every ‘commercial break’, every 2D character who says something like ‘I thought Catapult was a spring break city in Mexico.’. But! She also wants to make you think! Gosh, have you ever actually thought about just how much it sucks to be a girl? You haven’t?! Fabulous. Here’s 390 pages of ‘feminist’ ‘rhetoric’. When you’re done, you’ll surely realise the errors of all your ways, but also the errors of everyone else’s - the media. Your parents. The government. Those hot pirate guys.

I really wanted to like ‘Beauty Queens’, with its interesting sounding concept: Miss Teen Dream is a beauty pageant run by the ubiquitous Corporation. A plane full of Miss Teen Dream beauty pageant contestants crashes on an island. They now need to work out how they’re going to survive and how they’re going to get out - all while remaining in pageant mode. The island itself is a Lost wannabe, with secrets and Others and weird animals galore. The surviving group of beauty queens divide themselves into two teams: the Sparkle Ponies and the Lost Girls. Miss Texas shows her steely side and takes on the role of team captain. Miss New Hampshire is snippy. Miss California is Indian. And Miss New Mexico has a tray lodged in her forehead. That all counts as character development here.

It’s unfortunate that an idea with good potential has had the life squeezed out of it by an author who is simply trying too hard. The footnotes, explanations of cultural references, are cute at first, but quickly become an intrusion - likewise, the ad breaks and ‘classified document’ style chapters. By the time the pirate guys crash on the island (just enough for one boy per girl!) you’re groaning, when one of said pirates films himself having sex with one of the girls you want to throw the book at the wall. These aren’t spoilers, by the way. You’ll see it all coming a mile away. Bray also writes in characters that suddenly disappear for a few chapters, only to reappear later as if they’ve actually been there all along - think of it as Glee in book form, where there are just a bazillion ideas, stereotypical characters and storylines mushed together and called satire.

Now, I’m not sure if my disappointment here is because I’m not the intended audience. It’s entirely possible that the young adults Bray is writing for will or do love this book to bits; but I’m not going to be foisting it on the teenage girls I know saying ‘here! This book is feminist! It will make you feel good to be a girl when everyone else wants to make you feel bad!’ because it’s quite likely that it will still make you feel bad.

Finally, Libba Bray herself seems insufferable. Check out her interview with…herself [in the book entry on amazon.com].

This review is part of Cannonball Read IV. Read all about it.









Each Time You Like, Share, Tweet or Stumble a Pajiba Post, An Angel Does the Paul Rudd Dance

← Our Favorite Movie Moments | Didn't Come with Any Satisfaction Guaranteed: Why Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sucks →









Comments

Oh no! This makes me sad. I loved her Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing), so I was hoping this one would be good. ::sigh::

Posted by: Donut Plains at January 19, 2012 9:03 AM

Donut Plains, I feel your pain; I also enjoyed the Doyle trilogy. She didn't talk down to her readers like it sounds like she did in Beauty Queens.

Posted by: Quorren at January 19, 2012 11:56 AM

Yes, and yes. I had the exact same reaction to the book. Shame, because I feel like there's a really, really fun book in there somewhere.

Posted by: Kowala1000 at January 19, 2012 11:58 AM

I felt the same way too; I loved the premise, but hated the execution.

Posted by: Melina at January 19, 2012 12:18 PM


Even as a fan, Beauty Queens is a bit too much. Bray's previous book, Going Bovine, is *much* funnier.

Posted by: sam at January 19, 2012 12:23 PM

I, too, was a fan of the Gemma Doyle trilogy, although I thought it ended with a whimper instead of a bang. But I thought Going Bovine was too self-conciously quirky. I think I'll stay away from Beauty Queens, although the premise does sound interesting. But, come on, sparkle ponies?!?

Posted by: danielle at January 19, 2012 5:13 PM

I picked up this book because I thought the premise sounded really fun and didn't get past the first chapter.

Posted by: John at January 19, 2012 5:48 PM

This sounds awful. Thanks for the warning, sunny.

Posted by: Jelinas at January 19, 2012 9:48 PM

I bought this (hardcover!) when it came out because it sounded like a great premise, and I was so disappointed. For all of the reasons mentioned in the review. It's been a few months so specific references are eluding me, but I do remember wishing I was reading with a highlighter so that I could note the most offensively ridiculous or just plain terribly-written passages.

And oh my god, that Amazon video is TERRIBLE. Had I watched that before I went to the bookstore, maybe I would have checked out Hunger Games instead.

Posted by: Nicole at January 20, 2012 12:51 AM