Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

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.


I decided to check this book out because of the cover. It interested me since I could already get a sense of what this book was going to be about: beauty queens surviving. It sounded interesting so I bought it. I really enjoyed this book, it was very amusing and cute. The humor in this is very different from what I would normally enjoy. I think it's a very sarcastic type of humor with a bit of mockery. There were a lot of shocking moments and twists. Some people would say it was overdone and that made it  frustrating and annoying. Personally, I think it was purposely done that way to add more to the humor. While I enjoyed this book, there were times when it was slow or the characters annoyed me. It was a very light read and while it wasn't amazing it still kept me interested. 


Rating: 4/5
Released: June 2011
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover; 400 pages

YA Historical Fiction Challenge

I was looking for challenges that I could join and happened to come across this one hosted by YA Bliss. I used to love historical fiction last year but for some reason I haven't been reading a lot from this genre recently.


Level 1: 5 YA HF books in 2011


Here is my list:
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

 I was always interested in this book but never actually read it for some reason but I finally got around to reading it. Tally, the main character is about to turn sixteen and can't wait to get herself pretty. Her best friend Peris already got his operation done and now lives in Prettyville while Tally is left feeling lonely in Uglyville. She decides to see Peris and sneaks to Prettyville. While there she also meets another Ugly named Shay. The two become friends and coincidentally have the same birthday. Tally is joyed since one of them doesn't have to leave behind the other. A few days before their birthday Shay talks with Tally about running away to the Smoke. Tally refuses to go with her since she wanted to become pretty. The specials notice and gives Tally the option to stay ugly her whole life or betray her friend and bring her back. Of course Tally decides to go to the Smoke and the story picks up from there. 

The story itself was very predictable. I kept reading and waited for a big twist or surprise but sadly there was none. The characters were okay. I didn't love them but I didn't hate them either. They were just....there. At some parts they were really stupid and annoying to the point were I wanted to punch them. There is a bit of romance but I didn't really like it much either. It was very flat and didn't grow in my opinion. It does have a good message and theme. Overall I did like it enough to continue reading the series but I am in no rush to pick up the second book. I give this book a 3 out of 5.