Beauty Queens by Libba Bray 3.5/ 5 stars

Hey, guys!  I just finished listening to the audiobook of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.  I was reading it for my school's book club, and I did not enjoy it.  It started off pretty good, but it tried to get too deep and the plot went into a downward spiral.
The Cover:

The Cover:
It's a decent cover.  It shows a beauty queen with two sashes, one of the title and the other of lipstick like machine gun bullets.  Solid B cover.

Official Description:

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.Written by 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 Review:

This book started off strong, but quickly spiraled downhill.  I loved the hilarity of the book.  Thirteen beauty queens must survive on an island while half are more invested in practicing walking down the runway than finding food and shelter.  However, halfway through the book, the author decided that it was more important to make a political point than to have an entertaining plot.

On the "political" aspect of this book, I think it went overboard.  The diversity (in gender, sexuality, etc.) of the characters was forced.  Literally all groups were covered and pushed.  The relationships between the characters did not seem natural and were forced in order to prove a point about lesbian relationships.  Don't get me wrong, I love diversity in books.  It was refreshing in a way to have this cast of characters, but I thought it cheapened the book and was awkward and forced.  

In the same vein, the characters were irritating.  This might have been because of there forced "political" aspects or their general one-dimensionality, but either way there were flat characters who were not very interesting.  

I loved the humor of the book, though.  It was an entertaining and light read for the most part.  

I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to you guys.  I wasn't a fan, though I could understand if you did like it.  It tried too hard to teach a lesson and lost track of the story.

Happy Reading!

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