Beauty queens

Libba Bray

Book - 2011

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Scholastic Press 2011.
Language
English
Main Author
Libba Bray (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
396 p. ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780439895989
9780439895972
Contents unavailable.
Review by New York Times Review

Pageant contestants crash on an island, and defy expectations. IF bookstore browsers unfamiliar with the best-selling Y.A. author Libba Bray assume that her fifth novel, ''Beauty Queens," is an updated, female version of "Lord of the Flies," they can be forgiven. Considering the premise - a plane full of pageant contestants crashes on a small tropical island - and the cover image of a bikini-clad girl's midriff draped with a bandoleer of lipstick cases instead of cartridges, it could seem like another excuse to pit girls against one another, a log on the mean-girl fire. Gorgeous teenage girls used to tanning, teeth whitening and tearing apart the competition fend for themselves while awaiting rescue! Who will go down first? But this is Libba Bray, a writer much more interested in subverting that paradigm - girl-on-girl psychological violence as spectator sport - than playing into it. Bray's novels all tackle the big identity questions that characterize the teenage years. Her heroines struggle against the weight of societal and family expectations (as in that stellar feminist Victorian Gothic series, the Gemma Doyle trilogy), while her male protagonists cultivate personae for which no expectations can be assumed (the shrugging stoner heroes of "Going Bovine," which won the Printz Award in 2010). "Beauty Queens" is a madcap surrealist satire of the world in which her readers have come of age - reality TV, corporate sponsorship, product placement, beauty obsession - but ultimately, it's a story of empowering self-discovery. The beauty queens of the title wouldn't have made it to the Miss Teen Dream pageant without knowing how to please. These girls want to win, which means tight abs, silky hair and a winning smile. Among them is the alpha female, Miss Texas, Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins, a homecoming queen who's also a "proud, card-carrying member of FAF - Femmes and Firearms"; Mary Lou Novak, Miss Nebraska, who wears a purity ring to keep her wild-girl sexuality in check; and Shanti Singh, who can make papadum "as my mother and grandmother taught me," but who might be overplaying her cultural heritage a bit much, because, as her hired handler suggests, "everybody loves a happy assimilation story." After emerging from the wreckage, the girls spend their first days on the island under the watchful eye of Taylor, who forces them to continue practicing interview questions and dance routines through sheer intimidation and platitudes like "In fhe pageant of life, a girl picks up fallen sequins and turns them into a brand-new dress of awesome." But the girls quickly realize they have bigger problems: building shelter, finding food and fighting off the island's giant snakes. Before long, they've set up a surprisingly resourceful camp, including an arsenal of beauty products (Trebuchets with shape-wear launching pads! Makeup splat guns!). Larger threats lurk nearby: the island is ground zero for a host of nefarious activities by the Corporation, an American megacorp that owns everything from a broadcast program to a stockpile of weapons. Oh, and the island is also the meeting ground for a secret arms deal between MoMo B. ChaCha, an Elvis-obsessed dictator against whom the United States has levied human rights sanctions, and Ladybird Hope, a Corporation bigwig, presidential hopeful and patron saint of Miss Teen Dream herself. As the contestants unravel what's really happening on the island, their post-crash worries about choreography practice and their search for edible grubs seem like the good old days. The Corporation, ChaCha and Ladybird Hope serve as play pieces for Bray's hilarious cultural takedowns, but the book's real concerns are the girls' self-discovery and sisterhood. What happens when the rules are removed, and there's no pageant to win? Is it enough for them to be themselves, imperfections and all? Slowly, the molds of who they thought they were -and who they've been told they must be to succeed - break down. "Maybe girls need an island to find themselves," Mary Lou says. "Maybe they need a place where no one's watching them so they can be who they really are." It does feel like overkill at times, as each character gets her own conversion in which she takes a stand against living her life for her mother, the male gaze and our culture's unrelenting, unrealistic expectations of girls. Then again, given how real those societal messages are, and how deeply girls can internalize them, can Bray's intended audience ever be cautioned enough? Whitney Joiner is collaborating on "The Drama Years," a guide for parents of middle-school girls.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 15, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review

When a plane carrying contestants for the Miss Teen Dream pageant crashes on a remote island, the survivors face greater challenges than just finding food, shelter, and missing cosmetics. Unbeknownst to the girls, the island is not deserted: its volcano houses a secret U.S.-government enclave involved in illegal weapons trading, and the cast grows further after some studly reality-TV pirates arrive on the scene. Outlandish? Yes. And there are characters that veer toward stereotype: take-charge Miss Texas, incognito-journalist Miss New Hampshire, and transgender Miss Rhode Island (who has a surprise under her sash), among others. But rather than letting the plot reel out of control, Bray, author of the Printz Award-winning Going Bovine (2009), spins this hilarious romp into an examination of femininity and feminism, sex and sexuality. And while they await rescue, the girls discover moving truths about themselves. The text is interspersed with commercial breaks, contestant fact sheets, footnotes, radio broadcasts, and spoofs of reality TV and celebrity status, all of which add to the appeal of this sure-to-be popular title.--Dobrez, Cind. Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Bray follows her Printz Award-winner, Going Bovine, with an only slightly less absurd premise in this out-there satire about a planeload of teen beauty queens who crash onto a (not so) deserted island. Lord of the Flies with an evening gown competition, anyone? Led by the indefatigable Miss Texas, Taylor Rene Krystal Hawkins, the 14 surviving contestants must rely on competitive moxie. Despite the large cast, Bray makes the Misses distinctive, though each is more a stand-in for a particular brand of diversity than a fully dimensional teenager (one's black, one's deaf, one's gay, one is a boy in the process of becoming a girl). Poor Miss New Mexico stands out because she has a serving tray embedded in her forehead. ("Bangs are the new black!") Halfway through the ordeal, a boat full of shirtless, reality TV pirates runs aground, allowing for some smoking hot scenes. Fun footnotes, contestant profiles, and scripted commercial breaks are interspersed. There's a lot of message, but every time the story veers toward sermonizing, Bray corrects with another crack about our media-saturated, appearance-obsessed, consumer-driven society. Ages 13-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Libba Bray takes vicious aim at American corporate culture, politics, our perceptions of physical attractiveness, and much more in this scathingly humorous tale (Scholastic, 2011) of a beauty pageant gone wrong. Fifty "Miss Teen Dream" beauty pageant contestants and all of their "people" are headed for a fun in the sun promotional photo shoot. Those plans literally go up in smoke when their plane crash-lands on a desert island and only a handful of the girls survive. This is by far Bray's best written work. She pulls no punches as she takes on everything from tea party politics to reality TV. She trumps her incredible storytelling skills with her narration. Each contestant has a distinctive personality, and Bray she masters a variety of accents from a Texan twang to a California Valley girl. Her male voices, including a crazy dictator, are flawlessly convincing. Bray even improvises by having a breathy Marilyn Monroe-like teen queen introduce each disc number with one of her hilarious observations. "The Corporation," the sponsor of the pageant, provides commercial breaks throughout the story that is far more effective in audio format. The best of the best!-Shari Fesko, Southfield Public Library, MI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review

The premise of Bray's uproariously funny and sharply observant novel is this: on their way to the Miss Teen Dream competition, a planeload of beauty pageant contestants crashes on what appears to be a deserted island. While the surviving Teen Dreamers valiantly cope with the basics (finding food, water, and shelter; practicing their pageant skills), they become pawns in a massive global conspiracy involving a rogue former Miss Teen Dream winner; a megalomaniacal dictator; and a Big Brother-ish pageant sponsor, The Corporation. The scope of the plot is mind-boggling, the list of characters is dauntingly long, and many of the plot turns require much suspension of disbelief, but Bray's tour-de-force audio performance sparkles with the reflected light of a million sequined gowns. Her distinct and lovingly caricatured voices for the many over-the-top characters, chirpy footnotes, and sanitized Corporation messages and commercial breaks enhance the experience of the book. Bray's quieter message about the power unleashed when teenage girls think society isn't watching carries more weight when Bray herself gives those girls voices. Also, when Tina Fey decides she's tired of parodying Sarah Palin, someone should give Libba Bray a call. kitty flynn (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

This inventive satire mocks celebrity culture while celebrating the resilience of teen girls.Printz Awardwinning author Bray (Going Bovine, 2009) plunges into cultural criticism with her latest teen novel. The plane carrying the 50 Miss Teen Dream Pageant contestants crashes on a remote desert island, and the survivors must channel the skills that made them successful on runways to keep themselves alive until they can be rescued. ("From Ladybird Hope'sI'm Perfect and You Can Be Too, Chapter Three: 'A lady's quick thinking can save a bad situation.' She was talking about putting nail polish on a runner in your hose, but I think the same rule applies here.") Unfortunately, their sponsor decides there is better press in avenging their deaths than in mounting a rescue and sets that scenario in motion. An encounter with the stars of a pirate-themed reality-TV show highlights their vulnerability. By now, though, genuine survival skills have been honed, and the teens foil the dastardly plot. While the foibles of today's media/celebrity/political culture are the clear target of this stinging satire, the teen cast is funny and endearing in its own right. As the story unfolds, each girl's back story and actions under duress reveal a unique character.The humor is both dark and madcap, including footnote asides and commercial scripts that keep the laughs coming.(Fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

From Beauty Queens Adina slapped at a mosquito on her arm. "Miss Ohio, what are your life goals?" Chin held high, Miss Ohio beamed at an imagined crowd. "I want to be a motivational speaker." "What are you going to motivate people to do?" She cut her eyes at Adina. "You know. Motivational... stuff." "Well, are you going to motivate people to bring peace to war-torn nations or are you going to motivate people to join a cult and drink the Kool-Aid?" "The first one." Adina sighed. "Nice. You might want to take the gum out of your mouth next time." The sun was hot. It burned holes in the fog cover and wilted the girls' spirits. Periodically, they scanned the horizon for a sign of a ship or plane but there was nothing but those same darkening clouds in the distance. Only Talyor seemed unbothered by the heat, the bugs, the fear. "Again!" she called from her perch on the rocks as the girls marched forward one by one addressing an imaginary audience. Excerpted from Beauty Queens by Libba Bray All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.