Beauty Queens

From bestselling, Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray, a desert island classic.Survival. Of the fittest.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? Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than 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.
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Community Reviews
This book is so much fun! Как отметили в других ревью, когда берешь книгу, в которой «девочки-подростки оказались на необитаемом острове», немедленно начинаешь ожидать пересказа «Повелителя мух», тем более что девочки – участницы конкурса красоты. Но Либба Брэй делает ровно обратное – она пишет до неприличия феминистскую книгу про сестринство и girl power. Девочки не просто выживают – они строят хижины, учатся ловить рыбу, собирать дождевую воду, и – куда без этого – вырастают над стереотипами и показывают средний палец философии конкурсов красоты.
Стереотипы, кстати, не только гендерные. Либба потыкала палочкой расизм, гомофобию, трансфобию, фэтшейминг, слатшейминг. Героиня-индианка напрягается, когда видит среди выживших чернокожую девочку: «Вот моя конкурентка, в финал никогда не пропустят двух цветных». Еще одна героиня, впервые за много дней попробовав кусок жареной рыбы, говорит: «Это так вкусно, что я даже не буду его выташнивать». Героине-трансгендеру другие участницы поначалу заявляют, что она не может участвовать в конкурсе, потому что не «настоящая девочка».
Но это не печальная социалка, если что. Это сатира с элементами абсурда. Реальность выкручена на максимум, поэтому мисс Мичиган способна голыми руками завалить огромную змею, а мисс Техас – в одиночку взорвать пол-острова. И это правда очень, очень весело – и очень вдохновляюще, и про настоящую дружбу и преданность, потому что Teen Dreamers своих не бросают ни в джунглях, ни над бассейном с пираньями.
Портит «Королев красоты» только немного затянутый финал, и это у Либбы Брэй уже было в конце трилогии A Great and Terrible Beauty – прямо хочется порезать все эти сцены в два, а то и в три раза. (Надеюсь, она не наступит на эти грабли в финалке The Diviners, а то я ведь не переживу). В остальном же – прекрасное чтение для девочек и недевочек всех возрастов.
Насохраняла цитат, не не могу выбрать, какие запостить! Поэтому запощу все:
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Nicole hated that she could never quite feel like she was just herself, just Nicole, but that she was somehow representing an entire race. That’s how they saw her, as a “they” and not a “she.”
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Being beauty queen is like being marine, only harder. Marines do not fight in four-inch heels.”
==========
“Come down this instant and we work on interview portion. You can tell story of how much you wish to be mother someday. People like to hear about your future plans for ovaries.”
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“It is important for girls to be likeable.” “But why?” Shanti asked. If Mrs. Mirabov had an answer, she wasn’t sharing.
==========
In school, they would tell you that life wouldn’t come to you; you had to go out and make it your own. But when it came to love, the message for girls seemed to be this: Don’t. Don’t go after what you want. Wait. Wait to be chosen, as if only in the eye of another could one truly find value. The message was confusing and infuriating. It was a shell game with no actual pea under the rapidly moving cups.
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When the virus stole most of Sosie’s hearing, it also stole her right to complain. She figured out early that nobody liked an angry disabled person. It messed with their sympathy, with the story in their head about people overcoming adversity to be shining lights in the world.
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“You sure you want to be a girl? It’s a lot of work.”
==========
“Why do girls always feel like they have to apologize for giving an opinion or taking up space in the world? Have you ever noticed that?” Nicole asked. “You go on websites and some girl leaves a post and if it’s longer than three sentences or she’s expressing her thoughts about some topic, she usually ends with, ‘Sorry for the rant’ or ‘That may be dumb, but that’s what I think.’”
==========
Brittani smiled. “Right. I forgot. Sor — I mean, can we do makeovers at Girl Con?” “Do we have to?” Adina said with a sigh. “How is that empowering?” “Things don’t have to be empowering all the time. It can just be fun.
==========
Stinging slaps of names bit at her skin in the school hallways: Whore. Slut. Nympho. Easy. Trashy. Trampy. Not the girl you bring home to Mother. But Mary Lou didn’t really want to go home to someone’s mother. She already had one of those and, frankly, one was more than enough.
==========
“Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one’s watching them so they can be who they really are.”
==========
Стереотипы, кстати, не только гендерные. Либба потыкала палочкой расизм, гомофобию, трансфобию, фэтшейминг, слатшейминг. Героиня-индианка напрягается, когда видит среди выживших чернокожую девочку: «Вот моя конкурентка, в финал никогда не пропустят двух цветных». Еще одна героиня, впервые за много дней попробовав кусок жареной рыбы, говорит: «Это так вкусно, что я даже не буду его выташнивать». Героине-трансгендеру другие участницы поначалу заявляют, что она не может участвовать в конкурсе, потому что не «настоящая девочка».
Но это не печальная социалка, если что. Это сатира с элементами абсурда. Реальность выкручена на максимум, поэтому мисс Мичиган способна голыми руками завалить огромную змею, а мисс Техас – в одиночку взорвать пол-острова. И это правда очень, очень весело – и очень вдохновляюще, и про настоящую дружбу и преданность, потому что Teen Dreamers своих не бросают ни в джунглях, ни над бассейном с пираньями.
Портит «Королев красоты» только немного затянутый финал, и это у Либбы Брэй уже было в конце трилогии A Great and Terrible Beauty – прямо хочется порезать все эти сцены в два, а то и в три раза. (Надеюсь, она не наступит на эти грабли в финалке The Diviners, а то я ведь не переживу). В остальном же – прекрасное чтение для девочек и недевочек всех возрастов.
Насохраняла цитат, не не могу выбрать, какие запостить! Поэтому запощу все:
==========
Nicole hated that she could never quite feel like she was just herself, just Nicole, but that she was somehow representing an entire race. That’s how they saw her, as a “they” and not a “she.”
==========
Being beauty queen is like being marine, only harder. Marines do not fight in four-inch heels.”
==========
“Come down this instant and we work on interview portion. You can tell story of how much you wish to be mother someday. People like to hear about your future plans for ovaries.”
==========
“It is important for girls to be likeable.” “But why?” Shanti asked. If Mrs. Mirabov had an answer, she wasn’t sharing.
==========
In school, they would tell you that life wouldn’t come to you; you had to go out and make it your own. But when it came to love, the message for girls seemed to be this: Don’t. Don’t go after what you want. Wait. Wait to be chosen, as if only in the eye of another could one truly find value. The message was confusing and infuriating. It was a shell game with no actual pea under the rapidly moving cups.
==========
When the virus stole most of Sosie’s hearing, it also stole her right to complain. She figured out early that nobody liked an angry disabled person. It messed with their sympathy, with the story in their head about people overcoming adversity to be shining lights in the world.
==========
“You sure you want to be a girl? It’s a lot of work.”
==========
“Why do girls always feel like they have to apologize for giving an opinion or taking up space in the world? Have you ever noticed that?” Nicole asked. “You go on websites and some girl leaves a post and if it’s longer than three sentences or she’s expressing her thoughts about some topic, she usually ends with, ‘Sorry for the rant’ or ‘That may be dumb, but that’s what I think.’”
==========
Brittani smiled. “Right. I forgot. Sor — I mean, can we do makeovers at Girl Con?” “Do we have to?” Adina said with a sigh. “How is that empowering?” “Things don’t have to be empowering all the time. It can just be fun.
==========
Stinging slaps of names bit at her skin in the school hallways: Whore. Slut. Nympho. Easy. Trashy. Trampy. Not the girl you bring home to Mother. But Mary Lou didn’t really want to go home to someone’s mother. She already had one of those and, frankly, one was more than enough.
==========
“Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one’s watching them so they can be who they really are.”
==========
I am so overwhelmed with love and appreciation for this novel- just when I thought I'd never read anything crazier than Going Bovine, Libba writes this enormous gem. This is the novel with which you will literally have a fantastic laugh, cry at all the meaningful goo, and gasp at during the most unexpectedly suspenseful plot, ever. Even through all the completely hilarious, sardonic fluff, it is immanent how much work and heart Libba puts in to every one of her books; from research to developing the most identifiable characters. I genuinely love her use of satire to bring about the most honest, feministic-ally supportive book I have ever read.
Don't even second-guess yourself, just read this novel. I can't even express in words how much of a treat it was to experience. :)
Don't even second-guess yourself, just read this novel. I can't even express in words how much of a treat it was to experience. :)
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