Beauty Queens

Aww, you guys get a Christmas update. I must be feeling extra generous, or maybe I'm just bored. Maybe a bit of both. This week's book was... interesting, to put it one way. I'm not really sure what possessed me to read it, as the cover doesn't seem like something I would normally pick up. Still, it proved to be funny, thought-provoking, and suspenseful at times. Also, before I get into this review: you should know that there are some mature themes in the book, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under high school age. That said, on to the review of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.
Beauty Queens is pretty much set in modern or near future times, with one difference: a corporation known as, well, The Corporation, is in high influence. The majority of the population is essentially brainwashed into watching Corporation shows (Things like What Would You Do to Be Famous? and My Drama So Tops Your Drama!) and buying heaps of beauty products as if their only purpose is to get guys to notice them. In the middle of this are the beauty pageants. 
Currently, the contestants of the Miss Teen Dream pageant are on a plane to a photo shoot in the Caribbean. Things start to unravel when the plane crashes on a deserted island. All the girls have are the wreckage of the plane, seat cushions, jars of Lady 'Stache Off (see what I mean about the Corporation?), and any makeup they can salvage. After a girl named Taylor (Miss Texas) is voted to become leader, she proposes that the remaining contestants (there are ten or fifteen of them) continue to practice for the pageant instead of trying to be rescued. Thankfully, some of the girls actually have some sense, like Adina (Miss New Hampshire) who got into the pageant as a joke. She does her own thing, and soon gets to know other girls who are also more clearheaded. As the girls continue to wait for rescue and work out shelter and food, you get to see a little more of each girl's personality. You start to realize that there isn't a single person there who's actually a brainless beauty queen, and that many of the pretty faces hide secrets- good and bad.
So, this book definitely makes fun of anti-feminism taken to the extreme, and as it progresses the characters get more and more defined. I really loved it. Sometimes it gets kinda weird, but I would say a good weird. Though, I guess I shouldn't be talking about weird myself; as you've probably gathered, I'm not the most normal person in the world. *Random evil laughter*. That is all. Kay, if you were absolutely smitten with the review (which I kinda doubt, cuz I'm just a random high schooler who does reviews as a side activity and therefore isn't all that brilliant at them) then you can go down to Mt. Edgecumbe or Kettleson today (Kettleson closes at five today, though, so hurry). Even if you weren't particularly impressed with my schizophrenic reviewing skills, you really should give this a chance. I bet you that if you read twenty pages into it, you'll be hooked. Trust me. And with that, I leave you with the mental image of a fat guy riding on a sleigh into the night, shouting "Merry Christmas!"