What happens when a plane carrying 50 teenage beauty queens crashes onto a tropical island and no adults survive? That’s the basic premise behind Beauty Queens, the latest offering from Libba Bray, the Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. Think Lord of the Flies meets America’s Next Top Model and you’ll have just a small idea of the wonderful comedic absurdity of this novel, which includes the appropriate commercial breaks using products featured in the story as well as fact sheets about each contestant (with comments from the sponsors). When the girls crash, they think their biggest ordeal will be keeping themselves prepared for the upcoming pageant and reworking the dance numbers with so many contestants having “dropped out” of the competition; but when no help comes they soon discover that the island they’ve landed on may be more threatening than they ever could have imagined.

Beauty Queens isn’t just a book you read, it’s a book you experience. For that reason I highly recommend the audiobook version, read by the author herself. Libba Bray is a genuinely talented narrator and the story really comes to life through accents, jokes unique to the audio, as well as musical jingles for the commercials. Much is missed by simply reading a print edition, and it is a lot more difficult to get involved in the story. When you listen to the audio, you immediately find yourself sucked into Bray’s hilarious universe.

Although Beauty Queens is a very funny book, it is also an intelligent and satiric discussion on many important issues facing teen girls such as sexuality, gender, racism, beauty standards, inner-confidence, and living up to parental and societal expectations. Even the commercials take on these topics, and yet Bray does it in such a funny way that the message doesn’t feel forceful. Take for example, “DiscomfortWear,™ shapewear designed to eliminate rills, ripples, and muffin tops. In some cases known to eliminate circulation and breathing. If you’re not uncomfortable, it’s not DiscomfortWear.™” This is one of many jokes regarding the lengths a woman will go to look good, a point brought home by the contestants’ paranoia about their appearances, even in a completely illogical context like being stranded on a deserted island.
There were, however, a few points where I felt Bray pushed the humour slightly too far, verging into the campy instead of the comedic, such as the one contestant with a meal tray stuck in her forehead and the many ensuing jokes. Mostly though, I was in awe of how Beauty Queens would have me alternating between laughing out loud, and nodding in sincere agreement, and sometimes both at the same time.

Bray takes what initially seem like stereotypical cut-outs of beauty queens and gives them real and unexpected depth. Many of the girls have secrets, things they are hiding or trying to prove, and alone on a deserted island they are forced to come face to face with many of their fears and insecurities. Beauty Queens is a smart yet relatable satire, a culture critique with complex and hilarious characters. Bray will leave you laughing and contemplating the whole way.