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A review by roseybot
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
3.0
I'm hovering between a 3 and a 4. I'm more on the side of the three though. I really did want to like this book -- satire, feminism, etc. -- but me and Libba Bray have had some issues in the past (see how I still haven't finished the last of the Gemma Doyle books... it's staring at me, asking me why I moved on), and this book just exacerbated them.
I felt cheated of the story when, and the romances were all... it was just very contrived in the end. And .
I kind of felt like she was trying to throw every kind of person into this story. Some were interesting and good and it was great to see representation, but it also felt very divorced from reality. Maybe I don't know enough about beauty pageants, but it all felt contrived.
If the satire had been better it might have carried the contrivances, but it wasn't quite enough, and Bray did a lot of "Oh hey, look, I'm pointing a bright light at this message and flashing it on and off, pay attention here", which bothered me.
Overall, I think it was good. It was funny in parts. Nicole's story made me cry, cause I had a lot of feelings about it. I just think it tried to do too much without paying attention to the details that could have made it great.
I felt cheated of the story when
Spoiler
the pirates appearedSpoiler
what she did to Taylor upset me, which is silly cause I didn't like her all that much, except for a book that proclaimed so many feminist views, it was weirdly ableistI kind of felt like she was trying to throw every kind of person into this story. Some were interesting and good and it was great to see representation, but it also felt very divorced from reality. Maybe I don't know enough about beauty pageants, but it all felt contrived.
If the satire had been better it might have carried the contrivances, but it wasn't quite enough, and Bray did a lot of "Oh hey, look, I'm pointing a bright light at this message and flashing it on and off, pay attention here", which bothered me.
Overall, I think it was good. It was funny in parts. Nicole's story made me cry, cause I had a lot of feelings about it. I just think it tried to do too much without paying attention to the details that could have made it great.