Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

5 reviews

lindsayerin's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Misogyny

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Ableism, Lesbophobia, and Eating disorder

Minor: Abandonment

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was both a fun and painful story. It is well written and hilarious, however it is also very dark at the same time and in part made darker by how relevant it is in today's culture.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Classism, Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Outing, Xenophobia, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Transphobia

Minor: Body shaming, Vomit, Fatphobia, Racism, Gaslighting, Genocide, Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Child death, Grief, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, War, Abandonment, Classism, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Blood, Death, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

There is a plane crash and only 13 of 50 girls survive.

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

TW: discussions of eating disorder, transphobia, deadnaming, and misgendering

Beauty Queens didn’t fully grab my attention until about 200 pages in. Some of the sub plots felt so unnecessary and the pacing was off. It dragged a majority of the time and the footnotes slowed me down as they became more of a distraction that pulled me out of the story. 

It was a little all over the place and there were a lot of characters to keep track of. I think a few of them could’ve been removed as we don’t see them on a deep level anyways and are treated as simply background characters. I did enjoy the character development for the more center stage characters and their relationships with each other!

Since this book is satire, the jokes/poking at society could be funny at times but other times I cringed or rolled my eyes. I particularly had a hard time with all the body shaming/fatphobia and eating disorder discussions since I myself am in recovery for an ED. I think people who struggle with any of the below TW/CW should take caution if picking up this book.

Another aspect I was disappointed by was the transphobia and deadnaming. It was problematic and not the inclusive rep that the author might think she had done. The transphobia was addressed as being problematic at times by the characters but not very strongly reprimanded. The deadnaming and misgendering was never called out/addressed and occurred far too many times. Plus Petra being trans and who she used to be was used as a “shocking” plot device rather than forming a fuller character who could’ve been amazing. Even Petra herself acts as if she’s “not really a girl” because of her lack of bottom surgery when that’s not what determines someone’s gender. 

I didn’t hate it, it’s a strange read with important discussions on self esteem, misogyny, and racism hidden in between the unique plot line. I was really excited for this one but it just fell flat and I was really disappointed in the supposed LGBTQ+ rep. Maybe satire just isn’t my thing because it was a strange mix of emotions as I read this. I did like the ending though and it was a quick read once I got further into the book-if it had continued being slow and scattered I would’ve DNFd for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Eating disorder, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Islamophobia, Sexual content, Ableism, Medical trauma, Vomit, and Death

Minor: Cancer

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This is a dark comedy about a group of teen pageant contestants stranded on an island after a plane crash. Unfortunately, it's just not very funny. The author loves driving already weak jokes into the ground (the trust fund guy with The Corporation says "you misunderestimated me" five or six times, the Borat style jokes with the dictator character go on way too long, the tray in that one girl’s forehead comes up again and again) and the girl power stuff comes off preachy and heavy-handed. Every girl is an embarrassing stereotype and the way the mistreatment of the trans character is brushed off really rubbed me the wrong way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Outing, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Colonisation, Confinement, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Xenophobia, Vomit, Death, and Islamophobia

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is so smart and so funny and I enjoyed it so much! I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Transphobia, and Sexism

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Eating disorder