A review by kt2e56
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.5

WOOF. Okay this started out as a really promising satire. I liked the plot. I initially liked the footnotes and flourishes such as the commercial breaks but the author clearly had no idea what she was doing and had no editor to reign her in so the book became overstuffed with all kinds of unnecessary nonsense that wound up taking away from the story at hand. The characters are all completely one dimensional stereotypes and even though literally the point of the book is to break and subvert those stereotypes that never happens. The dialogue is awful and the equivalent of a bunch of ten-year-olds just shrieking at full volume after binging on candy all day. There’s spelling mistakes galore. Plots that lead to nowhere. Plots that are unnecessary. The book is allegedly feminist and we’re supposed to root for the girls to find independence and save themselves but there’s a deus-ex-pirate ship of hot dudes that each girl is shoe-horned into a romantic relationship with. The ending is so rushed. There is literally no point at all for the dictator character to exist. Honestly this whole book felt like the author couldn’t decide what book she wanted to write so she threw spaghetti on the wall and just ran with it. I think the worst crime here though is that the book starts out fairly funny in the first couple of chapters but very quickly loses steam and there is nothing worse to me than a satire that’s just not funny. All of the jokes wind up falling flat.