Beauty Queens

I'm so impressed by Libba Bray's versatile writing skills. Beauty Queens is the second book I've read by her, The Diviners, being the first and each book has it's own voice and style. Sometimes, you get the sense that some authors are "one trick ponies" churning out pretty much the same book with a tweak here and there and that is definitely not the case with this writer. I almost returned Beauty Queens to the library without reading because the reviews were pretty mixed but I was pleasantly surprised. This is a wonderful mix of satirical humor, adventure and just a hint of romance. The book opens up with 50 Miss Teen Dream Contestants crash landing on a desert island. The girls must move past their differences to survive on the island. Loved this book it was hilarious and kept me laughing. I also was impressed by the strength and character growth shown by the young women in the story. Another great release from Libba Bray ( )

When a planeload of teen beauty contestants crashes into a seemingly deserted island, the survivors use their awesome skills, plus any beauty products that they could find, to keep themselves alive until help comes. Even when more trouble comes instead of the expected rescue, they prove to be beautiful matches to all challenges that come their way.
Hilarious and sassy satire. ( )

This was my first go with an audiobook. I've been very apprehensive towards audiobooks for a while, mostly because I would get flashbacks from high school when teachers would just pop in an audiobook, and we would have to follow along with the book. It was boring, but at least I didn't have to go through all the stress of getting called on to read out loud. Also, I felt like it wasn't really reading.

But! I'm so glad I choose Beauty Queens as my first audiobook, because I loved it. I'm usually by myself at my other part time job, so I figured listening to an audiobook would help pass the time. It definitely helped, and I'm sad that I just now got into audiobooks, because now I won't be by myself at work and can't listen to them anymore.

I loved Libba Bray's narration. I loved all her accents for all the different characters, it really helped keep all the characters straight, since there were quite a few of them. I also loved all the little fun stuff thrown in there, like how the footnotes were handled and the commercial breaks. None of the audiobooks from high school were this fun, that's for sure.

About the story, I was kind of unsure of this book. I LOVED Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty series, but this book seemed a little out there and completely different, which it is, but I really liked it! I was laughing out loud at some parts, and I loved all the girl power going on. Libba Bray was definitely trying to get a message across with this book, and I think she did an awesome job with it.

I definitely recommend this audiobook to people who want to try out audiobooks for the first time. It's a lot of fun, with a great story. Now I want to buy a physical copy for my shelf. ( )

No review exactly necessary: I couldn't finish the book. I couldn't finish Chapter One even. I can understand the humor behind the story but those girls were the type that I wanted to smack in the face because of their stupidity and the sentences flying out of their mouths. Fan of Libba Bray: yes. Fan of her latest novel: no.

This book was recommended to me and several of my friends loved it, so I read all the way through, but it never got better than just okay for me. The adventure was interesting and some parts were funny, but I just couldn't get into it. ( )