Beauty Queen

This is another book I read in high school that even furthered my disgust and over the top resistance to heroin. I think books like this should be available for teens, it's a little smack in the face reality of the "hey kids don't do drugs" slogan.

Written like a diary by a 19 year old girl, Samantha, she learns very quickly that things don't come easy in the real world. She wanted to be loved and she found it in heroin. It's a sad story but it's reality.

Those students who have enjoyed reading the book "Go Ask Alice" will probably find "Beauty Queen" engaging and heartbreaking as well.
The story of a 19-year old girl, Sam, is told by the author Linda Glovack, in a form of a diary of the main character of the book. Linda Glovack admitted to using heroin when writing a book. She basically was trying to understand what the addiction felt like, so that she can describe the feeling of ecstasy as well as complete dependence when using drugs as best as she could. Luckily, Linda lived to tell the story, but Sam, the main character of her book, wasn’t that lucky.
Right from the beginning of book the reader finds Sam very likable: she is innocent and naïve, although her life is a big mess. show more She’s been dumped by her boyfriend and can’t stand living with her alcoholic mother and her freaky boyfriend, so she decides to leave the house and rent an apartment with her friend. To help her pay the rent, she ends up quitting her job at the fast food restaurant and starts working in a topless nightclub where she has to take her clothes off for the clients on stage. Because Sam is so nervous and insecure, she begins to use heroin to help her relax. That is how she gets on this rollercoaster ride of drug abuse. Her daily usage increases dramatically from the day she first started using and by the end of the story the drug pretty much owns her, and she can’t even finish her diary entry without shooting up.
“The Beauty Queen” is truly a sad story of a young girl’s life lost to the drug addiction. The most frustrating and heartbreaking part of it is that Sam, like most drug addicts, lives in denial and doesn’t want to admit that the drugs are taking over her life and that they will eventually destroy her.
I think that this book is an excellent example of a book for reluctant readers, ages 15 and up, for its language is simple, yet the topic is captivating for the teen audience. This book can appeal to both girl and boy audiences, because it offers the readers a glimpse to the life of a drug addiction, and helps them realize that it can happen to anybody and making a decision about using drugs can be deadly. show less

What an amazingly sad story. I was mad at the majority of the characters throughout the whole book for various reasons but it was very well written.

THIS BOOK WAS A GREAT BOOK. IT HAD ALOT TO DO WITH HER STUCK ON HEROIN. SHE WOLUD DO IT MORE THEN TEN TIMES A DAY. HER LIFE BECAME TO GET WORSE AND WORSE AT TIME. SHE STARTED WIT A DEPPRESION BECAUSE SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH A BOY THAT HAD TO BREAK HER HEART AND THEN BETWEEN THAT THERE WAS ALOT OF FAMILY PRBLEMS. HER ONLY WAY TO SOLVE THOSE WERE BUY DOING THOSE DRUGS SHE HAD BEEN DOIN. HER LIFE JUST BECAME MISERABBLE. BUT LATER ON SHE HAD TO ET EXTRA HELP TO GET THAT ADDICTION AWAY TO GET HER LIFE BACK STRAIGHT. THATS HOW SHE ENDED GETTING HER LIFE REFRESH. STARTING A NEW LIFE.

Sneeuwkoningin gaat over een 19-jarig meisje dat verslaafd is aan heroïne. Doordat Linda Glovach uit eigen ervaring schrijft is het een zeer aangrijpend en realistisch verhaal. Linda schreef Sneeuwkoningin met als doel aan jongeren te laten zien wat drugs met je kunnen doen en hoe ze je leven verwoesten. Het gaat ook over de moeilijkheden van een tiener met alcoholische ouders.