Book Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Release Date: May 24, 2011

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 400

Source: My local library.

Summary:
From bestselling, Print Award-winning author Libba Bray comes the story of a plane of beauty pageant contestants that crashes on a desert island.

Teen beauty queens. A "Lost"-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count. (From libbabray.com)
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Reading Beauty Queens is like watching a classic screwball comedy such as Bringing Up Baby*, but smarter: author Libba Bray keeps the satiric laughs and plot twists coming so quickly that reading this novel is almost exhausting.**

After the contestants for the Miss Teen Dream pageant crash on an island en route to the pageant venue, the survivors form two teams--the Sparkle Ponies and the Lost Girls--to salvage materials from the wreckage of the plane, and search for more survivors in the jungle. Unfortunately, the list of survivors is few, and food and water are in dangerously short supply. One beauty queen reflects on the girls' predicament:

 "Ohmigosh. No food at all . . . . I am going to be so superskinny by pageant time!"

The beauty queens soon have more to worry about than food. In the universe of Bray's novel, a giant company called The Corporation seems to hold a monopoly on TV shows and all sorts of products. The Corporation also has political ambition and takes part in shady deals with leaders from other countries, like the one that's scheduled to take place between The Corporation and MoMo B. ChaCha, the dictator of the Republic of ChaCha (whose most trusted advisor is a stuffed lemur named General Good Times), on the same island as the one the beauty queens crashed on.

The resulting hijinks, violence, and explosions are wacky fun. Also, there are sequins.

Bray executes her outlandish plot with plenty of satire and wit, and the laughs don't stop when the Deep Thoughts begin. In Beauty Queens, Bray goes after materialism, gender roles, racism, society's attitude toward the handicapped, environmentalism, the fashion and beauty industries, and more. Bray invites readers to question the world around them: just because certain social ideas exist doesn't mean they're right.

Bray's main aim, however, seems to be to subvert the social expectations placed on girls and women. Bray clearly states within the novel that Beauty Queens is a sort-of retelling of Lord of the Flies, but with girls and a more positive view of humanity. While thinking about life on the island, Miss Nebraska muses:

"Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one's watching them so they can be who they really are."***

Much of the novel focuses on identity. Each beauty queen has a specific struggle, although some characters bleed into the background while others are forceful and memorable.

I had mixed feelings about Beauty Queens until I finished it. The serious and funny parts don't always mesh very well, and much of the novel feels all-over-the-place. But now that I'm done reading it, I'm still thinking about it. And laughing. (General Good Times, anyone?) Beauty Queens is an enjoyable, intellectual novel, and I highly recommend it.

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*Bringing Up Baby trailer

**I'm not sure how Bray lives in her own head without laughing 24/7. Or maybe it's more of a cackle.

***This quote instantly reminded me of Barbara Kruger's 1981 work Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face), which uses the format of a magazine cover to suggest how aggressive the way society scrutinizes women can be.

Image from SGA Art History

Book Review: Captivate by Carrie Jones

Release Date: January 5, 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children's Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 288

Source: My local library.

Summary:
Zara and her friends knew they hadn't solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king's needs grow deeper every day he's stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It's made him vulnerable. And now there's a new king in town.

A turf war is imminent, since the new pixie king, Astley, is moving in quickly. Nick nearly killed him in the woods on day one, but Zara came to his rescue. Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he's one of the good guys. Nick isn't buying it, though Zara isn't as sure -- despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But it's a lot more than her relationship with Nick that is at stake. It's her life -- and his. (From Amazon.com)
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Captivate is the sequel to Need which debuted in December 2008. I tried to read Need but couldn't connect with the story and put it down halfway through. I did, however, read far enough to get to know the characters and become curious about where their stories would go. For this reason--and because the cover of Captivate is SPECTACULAR--I decided to break a personal rule and read a series book out of order. I have no regrets.

Captivate is an absorbing novel; I was drawn in by Zara's (the main charater's) humorous first-person narration and stayed for the deliciously thickening plot, which involves romance, action, and a handsome, mysterious new pixie king named Astley who is convinced that Zara is meant to be his queen. Zara expresses her annoyance:

Pixies and their ridiculous queen obsession. I'm so tired of it.

Zara may not initially agree, but Astley is one of the most likeable and entertaining characters I've ever met. Author Carrie Jones gives him a unique, believable speaking voice and every scene he appeared in was my new favorite of the novel.

Jones writes beautifully, peppering Zara's descriptions with interesting, funny, and often gorgeous similes. Between the expressive prose and Astley large sections of the book are un-puttdownable. I was addicted to Captivate.

While I enjoyed Zara and her voice, though, I never connected with her: I didn't cry when she cried, feel frightened when she did, or even smile when she was happy. I liked her, but I didn't care about her, and since I knew the other characters (Astley included) through Zara, I didn't care about them either.

As the plot builds Zara deals with the potential for destruction that we're all born with, and the lack of reader-character connection is awkward. From what I read of Need, I feel confident saying that Captivate is more serious than its predecessor. Zara is confronted with awful events and makes some difficult decisions, growing up significantly in the process.

Unfortunately, not connecting with Zara didn't stop me from being annoyed and slightly nauseated when she and her main love interest, Nick, called each other "baby" on every other page. It came across as a little too cheesy and unbelievable. Moreover, I came close to ditching Captivate about eighty pages from the end when the plot begins to drag painfully. I was bored, and it was a battle to the end of the book, which--thankfully--wrapped up this installment of Zara's story perfectly.

Captivate is an enjoyable but at times tedious read. I recommended it for readers of faery stories, anyone who enjoys their stories with touches of mythology, and for anyone looking for something different--this series is nothing if not unique. Jones deftly inserts enough backstory for readers new to the series to enjoy Captivate but be curious about Need, and I intend to give the book a second chance.

The visually pleasing book trailer: