Libba Bray

Abstractly, I always know how much I enjoy Libba Bray, but whenever one of her books pops up on my TBR, I remember with bright insistence. Since I started this blog, Libba Bray has become one of my absolute favorite authors. Rebel Angels is yet another wonderful book. It’s the second in the Gemma Doyle series and it’s been years since I read the first… but it all came back so quickly. I loved it. I listening to it slowly, often shutting it off and switching to music or my aPHR study show more materials rather than finish it. This sort of habit is terrible for my reading goals, but I don’t care. Rebel Angels was fun, twisty, imaginative, sad, and sweet. I loved it. And how often do we say that about the middle book in a trilogy?

In fact, I think I enjoyed Rebel Angels more than the first book.

The Realms come to life in this book as we venture far beyond the garden and into the depths of Bray’s world. Each trip into the realms is noticeably wilder and more dangerous. We watch the garden alone transform into a haunted version of something from Alice in Wonderland. We meet new characters inside this world, but we also meet old friends. Or are they?

The setting also pivots in the real world as Gemma, Felicity, and Anne head home to London for the Christmas holiday. We meet more people in society, we watch Gemma’s father struggle. We see Anne take the spotlight for a little while, which was absolutely wonderful. More than anything, I think my favorite character arc in Rebel Angels was Felicity’s. Coming into this story, I was a bit salty about Felicity. I was sure, so sure of her behavior only to learn more about her as we meet her family and venture into her home. It’s one of the things I love about Libba Bray – although she isn’t a POV character, Bray takes time with the supporting characters to give them depth and purpose. Now, ending the second book and heading into the third, I’m as invested in all the supporting characters as I am in Gemma.

Bray’s writing does so well diving into darkness. Nineteenth century England has its own underbelly of unfortunate behaviors, expectations, and the like. Bray picks away at this world like a scab and is not shy at all when it comes to Bedlam. I read her writing as a commentary of history with a raw bite that lets us be ashamed and embarrassed for most of London society as well as the reflections we see in ourselves (yikes). There’s also a moment where Gemma says something incredibly racist and the character she’s talking to reacts extremely appropriately and it’s called out in that way, although Gemma (and Felicity, when told) fails to see the problem. And isn’t that quite typical of our world? That interaction stood out to me. I appreciated its inclusion and I hope it makes others think.

If you read A Great and Terrible Beauty and were on the fence about continuing, this is your sign to carry on. I really enjoyed this book with its twists and turns (at a plot and a personal level). I know I’ll be reading the last book in the trilogy! This is one I’d read again. Anything by Libba Bray is something I’d read again! show less

One of my favourite young adult writers is Libba Bray, and not only because she has the same initials as me, or because as my husband pointed out, if you squint your eyes her name resembles “library”. She is not afraid to experiment with different genres- indeed her first trilogy was a wonderful 19th century Victorian boarding school magical mystery tour. Her next endeavour, Going Bovine, an insane romp through the dying mind of a hapless teenage boy afflicted with mad cow disease, won show more her the Michael Printz award. I reviewed it in this post.

And now Beauty Queens (Actually I am a little late on the uptake. I think she has an actual new one out very soon, and once again on a totally different subject). So here is a quote from the acknowledgement section of the book, just to give you an idea of what it is about:

A huge thanks to my editor and uber-mensch [there is a funny footnote here which I am not going to quote here. You will just have to buy the book and read it yourself], David Levithan, who years ago, said, ” A plane full of beauty queens crashes on a deserted island. And…Go!”

Yep. That is essentially the plot of this wonderful tome I think all girls should read.

Why?

Because of shite like this:

Female Olympians fight back against shamers and haters

And like this:

The 12 Sexiest Olympic Women

WTF?I have to say, when I read that first article, it felt personal. No, not because I equate myself in anyway with the pinnacle of physical fitness these women have attained, but because it has taken me a very long time to realise that I don’t want to be thin so much as strong and healthy.

I know. Duh.

But I don’t want that just for myself. I want my daughters to feel the joy of having their bodies function well. Have the feeling of strength as you run, or muscles as you lift things. I want them to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from pushing yourself physically, of doing something you couldn’t do before. I want them to eat right so they can have the energy to get through their day without being exhausted, to use exercise and diet (as in what you eat daily not as in some weird eat-only-grapefruit-until-your-pee-turns-to-acid insanity) as a catapult to launch them into the socratic “examined life.”

Basically, I want them to feel like Wonder Woman, without having to wear the stupid costume.

But really, if we live in a society that can still objectify the body of our world’s top athletes and judge them as wanting, I want out. Really. I give back my ticket. I am saying a hail and hearty fuck you to all thoughts of trying to fit in body-wise.

That is mostly what I want my daughters to do too.

As Twisted Sister said, “We’re not going to take it anymore.”

Okay. I guess a lot of people have said that, but none with such panache.

And that is why Libba Bray’s book is so wonderful. It does exactly that. Part Miss Congeniality, part James Bond thriller, part Mel Brooks satire, and yes, part Lord of the Flies, Bray takes an outlandish plot and manages to plunk down some very fleshed out (no pun intended) characters.

Now don’t think this book is simply a polemic against the beauty industry and the insane standards women must try to live up to (though there is that, but done in such a hilarious way you won’t mind). There a nuances as well. The individual contestants all have different issues to deal with besides trying to figure out who you are when the world insists on seeing you only one way.

Questions like why is our sexuality something to hide instead of embrace (slut vs. stud anyone?) come up. Transgendered issues. Gay issues. And the age old question of how do you survive your parents expectations of you, as well as navigate the rocky shoals of your hormones while retaining your good sense. All of that plus more awaits you. So pick it up now.

That’s all I have to say. show less

I've been a fan of Libba Bray since her Gemma Doyle trilogy, so I was thrilled for the opportunity to read "Beauty Queens." The premise sounds a bit cheesy-- a downed plane full of Miss Teen Dreams on a deserted island-- but there is more to this smart little novel than meets the eye.

First, Libba Bray has a lot to say about conventional gender roles and the objectification of women, and she deftly uses the pageant world to make her point. She manages to say it with sharp, witty satire that show more doesn't fail to elicit chuckles. There are actually quite a few issues that are tackled in the story, including racism, commercialism, political corruption, and the intolerance faced by LGBT youth. I'm a firm believer in the power of fiction to provide a clear view of pressing issues, and I think that's part of why I like this particular author so much. I don't have teenagers, but if I did, I'd want them to read books like these to broaden their horizons and help them learn to challenge the status quo.

What I liked best about the novel was seeing the gradual change in the girls as their pageant-lifestyle was taken away from them. These girls went from obsessing about lip gloss to trying to survive in the wild, and discovered themselves along the way. During one touching scene, the girls make a rule that there is to be no apologizing on the island, after deciding that girls apologize too much for their opinions and feelings. It was impossible not to root for these unlikely heroines.

Aside from the deeper messages it conveys, the novel has a fast-moving plotline that kept me hanging on. Sometimes campy, sometimes with a few too many convenient coincidences, but always funny, suspenseful and quirkily touching, this novel surprised me with its unexpected depth. I was looking for a fun summer read, and ended up with a beach book with brains. It has romance, suspense, heroism (or, more accurately, heroine-ism), wit, and some great messages for teens (and adults) about accepting who you are and finding your own voice. show less

When a plane full of The Corporations teenage beauty queen contestants crash on a deserted island, the surviving girls must bond together to survive and keep up their pageant training. But even as the girls struggle to understand one another and themselves, the island holds secrets that The Corporation might be willing to kill to keep them hidden…

BEAUTY QUEENS cements Libba Bray as the spokesperson of the level of intelligence that can be accomplished in YA literature. Regardless if humor show more and satire are not your thing, you should read BEAUTY QUEENS, for it comments on just about everything that is troubling about our society.

BEAUTY QUEENS features an ensemble cast, so we end up learning about a dozen or so girls and rooting for even those whom we thought were initially annoying or dumb. Bray works with a lot of hot topics in her book: feminism, beauty pageants, advertising, LGBT, and female sexuality, just to name a few. She skillfully weaves all these dozens of issues into the personalities and worries of the girls, so that while many of them have hilariously over-the-top dumb lines, we know that there is more meant than what is being said.

Some books have trouble even fully exploring just one topic, let alone several dozen. Frankly, I don’t know how Libba does it, how she managed to keep track of all the characters and all the issues they deal with. Which is why BEAUTY QUEENS is clearly the work of a genius. While at times the ridiculousness of the girls’ predicament and what they encounter on the island (e.g., hallucinatory plants and an evil dictator whose talk reminded me of the Foosa leader from the movie Madagascar) made me shake my head in disbelief, I think everything works for the good of the main message: Libba Bray invites us to question what society tells us and what we typically blindly believe. Her over-the-top story forces us to confront our own passive acceptance of the way things are and encourages us to think for ourselves.

It’s hard to talk about the quality of characterization or pacing or world-building or any of those typical things one of my typical reviews would talk about. That’s because Libba has got those writing essentials in spades, and then she kind of throws them all aside and takes a giant risk. It’s succeeded: BEAUTY QUEENS has escaped the usual limitations of literature, particularly YA fiction, and broken new ground. With this as the new standard of intelligence to match, YA should never be the same again. show less