Beauty Queens in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jun 24, 2016 Chessa rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, comedy, audiobook, popsugar16

4.5 stars! I loved this, really. Fun, sassy, feminist, and hysterical! -1/2 a star because I think it could have been about 30% shorter and still been as great - the middle dragged a bit. But on the whole, love. I've been telling people IRL that it reminds me of one of my favorite movies ever, Drop Dead Gorgeous, dropped on the Lost set. The author reads the audiobook, and she is spectacular! So many voices, accents, and personas performed so well. A big, amazing cast of characters that you grow ...more

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Dec 07, 2017 Krissy rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: pgs-400-499, audiobook, buddy-read, lgbtq, mother-daughter-buddy-read

This was a buddy read with my daughter. We listened to the audiobook while on a road trip. The only thing I liked about this book is the cover. The rest was awful. Especially the footnotes. And the commercials. And the stats pages. Because it was the audiobook we couldn't just skip any them. So annoying. This is the second book I've read by this author and I hated both. So maybe it's time to give up on her :(

Me: 1 star
My Daughter: 1 star ...more

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Feb 22, 2012 jess added it

Shelves: audiobook-d, fiction, yaf, 2014, ladyish, secret-book-club

I read this with my secret book club. I thought it was so fun and funny. The plot was brisk and unexpected. The characters were a little shallow, but they interested me. I would put it in the hands of a skeptical teen girl like Taryn Hipp's niece.

This book might have one of the first or only trans girl characters I've read in a YAF book. Fodder for a side conversation. ...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Brandi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: teen, random-reads-column, favorites, audiobooks, librandian-blog, 2011, humor, alternating-perspectives, lgbtq, 2021

Everyone needs to read this book! I'm not kidding. This was so hilarious I found myself laughing out loud more often than quietly reading. I wasn't sure if Libba Bray could compete with her last book, Going Bovine, but she did it!

Fifty teenage girls board a plane destined for an island paradise to experience what hopes to be the greatest of their lives. One of them is going to be crowned Miss Teen Dream, the most prestigious title amongst teen beauty pageants. There’s more than just competition Everyone needs to read this book! I'm not kidding. This was so hilarious I found myself laughing out loud more often than quietly reading. I wasn't sure if Libba Bray could compete with her last book, Going Bovine, but she did it!

Fifty teenage girls board a plane destined for an island paradise to experience what hopes to be the greatest of their lives. One of them is going to be crowned Miss Teen Dream, the most prestigious title amongst teen beauty pageants. There’s more than just competition getting in the way of the crown. The whole pesky plane crash onto a deserted island situation is destined to be the pimple on the survivors’ faces. Certainly the pageant will continue once they are rescued, so each girl fixes a phony smile to her face and sizes up the competition. The surviving contestants, each still wearing their states’ sashes for easy identification and pageant practice, scour the debris for food, clothes and, most importantly, hair products.

Approximately ¼ of the plane’s inhabitants survived the crash and all of them beauty queens. Each girl represents more than just their home state. Miss Texas is a pageant diva, constantly reminding everyone to stay positive and practice for the pageant. What better time to practice those pesky interview questions? Miss New Hampshire is not so pageant-happy as the rest of the party. She entered the pageant in hopes of uncovering some dirt on the whole ordeal as fodder for an article for her newspaper. After the plane crash, New Hampshire has the Pulitzer Prize in her sights. Miss Michigan is a troubled teen who joined the pageant through a program that helps at-risk girls. Although, Michigan soon wonders if staying in juvie would have been better than dealing with all the pageant princesses clawing for the crown.

The Teen Dreamers must face a variety of perils including giant snakes, evil corporations, womanizing-pirates with a TV contract, eating bugs, and a dwindling supply of make-up. Bray’s novel is a hilarious, satirical masterpiece condemning an assortment of advertising techniques, stereotypes, and Reality TV. Look for direct references, names changed to protect the innocent, throughout the novel, particularly the boy band, Boyz Will B Boyz. Beauty Queens is a combination the intense survival found in Lord of the Flies and the island humor perfected by Gilligan’s Island. I know it’s said a lot, but Beauty Queens is a laugh out loud novel that you won’t be able to keep to yourself. You will want to pass it on to your friends to spread the joy the book encompasses. ...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Debbie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance, realistic-fiction

This review refers to the audiobook, read by the author. The footnotes that may have annoyed me had I read this instead of listened to it, came to wonderful, hilarious life.

Of the 50 young women and their chaperones who crash land on a deserted tropical island, only 12 teens survive. Imagine Lord of the Flies, but with more mascara and push-up bras.

I wasn't too sure about this concept at first, as I generally prefer Libba Bray when she's doing historical fiction. However, once I got drawn in, I ...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction

A plane full of Miss Teen Dream contestants crash into a deserted island on their way to the final pageant. Only a dozen or so survive and are quickly organized by Miss Texas. The girls are resourceful and after discovering that their rescue has been called off, begin building huts, gathering food and creating water storage solutions. Of course the island isn't deserted and is also the home of some secret agents who live in a volcano who may or may not be out to do in the surviving beauty queens ...more

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Feb 22, 2016 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library, audio-books, popsugar-2016-reading-challenge, read-in-2016, 5-star-reads

If you have never read a Libba Bray book, do yourself a favor and pick one up. This audio book was very fun and entertaining. If you have access to it, listen to it.

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