Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Genre: YA, Humor
Length: 14 hours and 37 minutes
Narrator: Libba Bray
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | Audiobook | B&N | Book Depo
Description:
The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.
What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.
My Rating:
My Review:
Beauty Queens is a satirical take on everything from pageantry to Reality TV. On the way to a beauty pageant, the plane carrying the pageant girls crash and the girls are forced to learn to survive on a dangerous island. The seemingly artificial and shallow pageant girls turn out to have bigger problems and bigger dreams. I've seen this cover around last year but it never caught my interest until Alysia from My Little Pocketbooks reviewed the audiobook. The story begins with a plane crash and there is never a dull (or serious) moment thereafter. Over the top humor isn't the only thing this little gem has to over though; it is full of adventure and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat every step of the way. There's even a few lessons along the way.On the story...
I was really surprised to find that I enjoyed this audio very much. I'm not one of those people who have a strong opinion one way or the other about pageants so I didn't think it would interest me much. But I found that this book touches on EVERYTHING and there is something for everyone. With that being said, I did find myself wishing that the critique was just a tad bit narrower. There were many characters and different POVs to follow but there is never a fear of confusing the characters because they are so unique.
On the narrator...
This is definitely the audio of all audios. I was so surprised that Ms. Bray had so many distinct voices in her and they were all so well done. I'm pretty sure Ms. Bray made this book for me. I actually laughed out loud when I recognized the voice of Lady Bird Hope, the queen of the pageant, to be a great imitation of Sarah Palin. I would probably recommend listening over reading this one.
Overall...
This was a fabulous audio that surprised me from beginning to end.
P.S. This book has footnotes. You know how I feel about footnotes. Grr....
