A plane full of teen beauty queens crash lands on a deserted tropical island in the middle of nowhere. Sound familiar? If you have read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it should. Just as Golding created a social experiment on paper, so did Libba Bray. So. Here is the question. If a group of boys would turn into savages, what would happen to a bunch of beauty queens? Yeah, I went into this convinced that I knew the outcome...
“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.”
― Libba Bray, Beauty Queens
Libba Bray has put together the most absurd scenario to create some of the best (non-political) satire I have read. If you do not like an absurd and crazy plot, then perhaps this one is not for you. If you have a feminist bone in your body, you might be really interested in this. It really raises some interesting questions. I am still puzzling over many statements and occurrences here, and trying to formulate an opinion.
Initially, being a shameful traitor to my own gender, I thought this was going to be a complete spoof on beauty queens, because I wouldn't even qualify as a beauty queen in an alternative universe and have never put any value in females who would qualify (yes, pathetic, I know. I am working on this.). In the beginning I got what I expected - and then, without me even realising it had happened, everything changed. I discovered their individual characters, realised that they weren't morons, and watched them, well, to say would be spoiling, now wouldn't it?
"There was something about the island that made the girls forget who they had been. All those rules and shalt nots. They were no longer waiting for some arbitrary grade. They were no longer performing. Waiting. Hoping.
They were becoming.
They were.”
They were becoming.
They were.”
― Libba Bray, Beauty Queens
While the plot is humorous, the awesome part of this books is everything that it is saying. From the one and only black contestant saying that she is an individual and not a race, to the girls realising their own power. There are some fantastic themes in here.
Contrary to what I expected, this book made me proud to be a female.
I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads. While I absolutely enjoyed this, the rather absurd plot did detract a little, although I believe the plot was the method to transport some really interesting ideas.
This is the 55th book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.
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