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?" -Goodreads

THE STORY:

I have heard some very mixed things about this book, and so I was a little weary going into it, however I do have to say that I enjoyed it. I love Libba Bray's funny and witty storytelling, and how all of the main girls (and there were many of them) all had different personalities and struggles that they were going through. The only criticism I have towards the plot and the story in general is that the beginning was a little slow, and rather repetitive. I feel as if the story didn't truly start until almost two hundred pages in. That being said, the things that happen within those first two hundred pages were still funny and kept me interested enough to want to keep reading.

THE CHARACTERS:

This is normally where I would discuss my feelings about the main characters of a book, however this book has far too many main characters for me to do that properly, so I am just going to talk about them as a whole. As I already mentioned, I was very happy to see that all of the girls had different personalities and struggles to go with them. I also enjoyed the variety of girls that we were presented with. We had a military trained, religious girl from texas, a feminist, a nerdy lesbian, a transgender, a girl who was hearing impaired, someone who was planning to be a doctor, and even a complete and utter ditz. These aren't even all of the girls that are in here! I found them all to be entertaining in their own way, and loved watching them become more comfortable with themselves during their time on the island. 

I also found myself to really enjoy the pirates when they came into play. I thought that they were funny and witty, and that they added something fun to the story. 

MY THOUGHTS:

Over all, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought that I would, and even found myself laughing out loud sometimes. While I don't think I will be reading it again any time soon, I definitely enjoyed my time reading it now. Again, Libba Bray has impressed me, and I look forward to reading more of her books.

STAR RATING: ★★★★