BOOK REVIEW: Libba Bray's 'Beauty Queens'

In Beauty Queens, Bray, known for her young adult novels, tells a story of fifty Miss Teen Dream Pageant contestants whose plane crashed on a desert island, leaving the survivors "with little food, little water and practically no eyeliner."

 

Away from tanning salons, plastic surgeons, makeup stores and fashion boutiques, the girls are presented with the challenge of hunting for food, collecting rainwater, making a shelter and defending themselves against threats lurking in the background.

 

Caught between queen bee tendencies and the will to make it out of the island alive, the women are forced to work together using survival tools such hairspray bottles, earrings and evening gowns. The book takes competition to a whole new level, with the girls still practicing their dance routines and preparing for the question-and-answer portion despite threat from giant snakes, a dictator and an evil megacorporation, among others.

 

Beauty Queens explores in a humorous and sarcastic tone the curious psyche of young women inside the glamorized world of beauty pageants and how it has influenced their generation’s lust for attention, fame and beauty, may it be on a national stage or a remote island. Among the contestants who survived the crash is Miss New Hampshire, determined to probe into the culture of objectification propagated by the very competition she joined. Miss Nebraska owns a chastity ring to temper her wild side; Miss Rhode Island is a transgender and Miss California is an Indian-American second-generation immigrant caught between loyalty to her ethnicity and the desire to assimilate. For Filipino readers, Beauty Queens bears a striking resemblance to Joey Gosiengfiao’s classic camp movie, Temptation Island. Both works border on the bizarre, making fun out of seemingly desperate situations through the characters’ devastatingly hilarious meltdowns.

 

Through confrontations fueled by the girls’ passionate desire to outdo each other, Bray presents a witty satire of the pageant culture and America’s obsession with it, while cleverly presenting stories of self-discovery through creatively executed character development.

 

Through outrageous humor that serves as an effective hook, Bray presents a sociological critique of what it means to be a woman in contemporary society, speaking along the lines of Sex and the City and Girls. The story forces the characters to reveal themselves outside the boundaries of beauty pageants, bringing into the fore the classic question of what it means to be beautiful. Bray attempts to present an image of the woman devoid of societal pressure to look aesthetically superior, especially in the context of the United States where women in television have been reduced to commodities and mere objects of entertainment.

 

Using an unconventional format consistent with the mood of the story, Beauty Queens includes commercial breaks and fun facts about the contestants, appearing as if the story was told using an audiovisual medium.  The attack is helpful in breaking the narrative tone of the novel, allowing readers to develop their interest about the characters and other elements pertinent to the story. The apparent television-within-a-book format shows the author’s ability to use fresh elements sensitive to the young readers’ interest. Bray is adept in using easily relatable humor, using pop culture references, reality television and the commercialization of beauty in portraying an over-the-top story that promises to give its readers quite a lesson and a laugh.