Book Review: Beauty Queens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t think I can come up with a better summary of what this crazy book is about than the Amazon.com description:
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.
I chose this book because Jen Lancaster wrote on her blog that it was Arrested Development-level good and I loved Arrested Development. After reading it, I wholeheartedly agree with her assessment. This book was full of hilarious and scathing satire regarding consumerism and the value placed on beauty in our society. At the same time, there were some touching and sweet parts – kind of like dramatic relief.
I was really impressed with the amount of research that the author did for this book. This added a real authenticity to the book that made the satire so much more thought-provoking than it would have been otherwise. I was especially impressed with the research she did to make sure that the beauty queens of color’s experiences were grounded in reality and not stereotypes.
This book is marketed as young adult for ages 13-18 and has great moral lessons for this age group. However, it’s a very smart book that adults will love too. The author’s sense of humor reminded me a lot of the Christopher Moore books I’ve read. I think fans of his would particularly enjoy this book although I highly recommend it for everyone.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)
