Sample Post - Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

         Beauty Queens begins with an airplane full of teenage beauty pageant contestants crash landing on a seemingly deserted island. After they assess their losses, they must find a way to survive until they are rescued. Taylor, the lead beauty queen, is more concerned about keeping up their pageant skills than finding food and shelter. The book profiles several of the contestants and focuses on each one periodically as we learn more about who each girl is, which ones have secrets, and why they entered the pageant in the first place. By the time the cast of a popular reality show featuring good-looking pirates arrives on the island, so many crazy things are going on that it is hard to keep up. Will they make it off the island alive? And will their manicures stay intact? Find out and read Beauty Queens.
          Beauty Queens is hilarious in some parts, as it makes fun of pop culture and society's obsession with beauty and consumerism.  Through each of the girls' stories, Bray attempts to make some sort of comment on what is wrong with society today. The book is smart at times and makes several points worth thinking about, but focuses a lot on stereotypes and parts of the plot feel like she is really beating us over the head with her opinions about young girls and appearance. In my opinion, it might have been better to focus on fewer characters and develop them further, rather than trying to create a separate story line for each one that the reader must try to keep track of and follow.
          This is the first book by Libba Bray that I have read, although I am aware of other titles she has written that are popular with teen readers. One question I might have is: Is it typical of her writing to criticize something in society using humor, or was this just unique to Beauty Queens? Comment on my blog and let me know if you've read any of her other books!
          This book made me laugh in several places, but other parts I found drawn out too long and that the story could've been much shorter and less complicated with so many different characters as the focus. If you like Bray as an author, then I would recommend this title to you for comparative purposes. Or, if you appreciate sometimes ridiculous humor then you might also like this book. Otherwise, you might want to give this overly-long novel a pass.