A review by carrionlibrarian
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
4.0
In a caricature of our own society, Author, Libba Bray explores themes of self-image, feminism, race, disability, gender identity, sexuality, and orientation with frankness and sensitivity.
Also she’s funny as hell. With exchanges like,
Adina appealed to the sky. "We asked for rescue and you sent us incompetent rockstar pirates with a broken ship and perfect abs?"
"Thank you, God," Petra said.
it’s hard not to at least chuckle at Beauty Queens.
Bray won an Audie award for Best Narration by the Author and listening to this audiobook it’s easy to understand why. Each character has his or her accent perfectly executed and Bray brings real enthusiasm to her telling of their story. Bray does an excellent task of developing each of the main characters despite having such a large ensemble cast. Out of all the girls only three of them are really treated as interchangeable extras.
Some of the themes might be a little too overt for older or more sophisticated readers. The character of Adina especially comes off as a stereotypical young feminist going so far as to constantly name drop things like “the patriarchy” and “the man”. However, the message that when we stop seeing other girls as competition or traditionally feminine women as the enemy and start seeing them as allies and individuals we all benefit is much more subtle and well handled. Not to mention a message that`s too important to justify panning a book because it`s also funny and fluffy.
All in all, if you’re looking for Lord of the Flies with beauty queens you might be disappointed, but if you’re interested in dark comedy, evil corporations, secret agents , girl power, insane dictators, “Bodacious” pirates, conspiracies, giant snakes, and thinly veiled parodies of past political figures this book will be right up you alley.
Also she’s funny as hell. With exchanges like,
Adina appealed to the sky. "We asked for rescue and you sent us incompetent rockstar pirates with a broken ship and perfect abs?"
"Thank you, God," Petra said.
it’s hard not to at least chuckle at Beauty Queens.
Bray won an Audie award for Best Narration by the Author and listening to this audiobook it’s easy to understand why. Each character has his or her accent perfectly executed and Bray brings real enthusiasm to her telling of their story. Bray does an excellent task of developing each of the main characters despite having such a large ensemble cast. Out of all the girls only three of them are really treated as interchangeable extras.
Some of the themes might be a little too overt for older or more sophisticated readers. The character of Adina especially comes off as a stereotypical young feminist going so far as to constantly name drop things like “the patriarchy” and “the man”. However, the message that when we stop seeing other girls as competition or traditionally feminine women as the enemy and start seeing them as allies and individuals we all benefit is much more subtle and well handled. Not to mention a message that`s too important to justify panning a book because it`s also funny and fluffy.
All in all, if you’re looking for Lord of the Flies with beauty queens you might be disappointed, but if you’re interested in dark comedy, evil corporations, secret agents , girl power, insane dictators, “Bodacious” pirates, conspiracies, giant snakes, and thinly veiled parodies of past political figures this book will be right up you alley.