When
the plane carrying the contestants for the “Miss Teen Dream” beauty pageant
crashes over a supposedly deserted island, the surviving teens have to find a
way to survive. They are split between a
desire to survive and a desire to continue pageant preparations, because after
all, The Corporation urges girls to be perfect in every way.
There
is an incredible amount of diversity, and since most of the girls get a turn
being the main character, each of them gets a chance to talk about their
specific plight. Shanti clings to her
Indian heritage because she thinks it’s her only chance of winning a
competition that white girls always win.
Tiara has been treated like an airhead for so long that she doesn’t know
her own worth. Ever since Taylor’s
mother abandoned her, she has spent all of her energy trying to be perfect. Jennifer is gay, but Sosie isn’t sure if she
is or not. Petra has a huge secret and
doesn’t know if the other girls will accept her when they find out. And Adina only joined the pageant to tear it
down from the inside.
The
book is written like a reality TV show, peppered with commercial breaks,
sponsored by The Corporation. The girls’
pageant entry forms appear throughout the book as well, followed by a chapter
or two about that contestant. By the end
the reader knows most of the girls pretty well and there is no real main
character.
The
girls’ situation echoes that of the boys in William Golding’s Lord of the
Flies, and they allude to it in the book.
Books like Beauty Queens, Lord of the Flies, and others, as well as TV
shows like Lost and the Walking Dead, offer us a glimpse at human nature when
society as we know it no longer exists.
Various characters struggle for leadership, and the others struggle with
whom to follow, and over the course of things this can change.
As I
reached the end of the book, there were several aspects of it that made me
think that it really toed the line between realistic fiction and fantasy. There were not a lot of fantastic elements,
but a handful. Still, they dealt with
many issues that so many teen girls face that it serves the purpose that
realistic fiction should serve. Not only
did they have to survive on the island, but it turns out they’re not alone…
I think
Libba Bray’s writing is funny, thought-provoking in a tongue in cheek way,
insightful, and entertaining. This one
was very different than the other books of hers that I’ve read, but has earned
its own place on my bookshelf under its own merit.
