Carly Reads: Alumni Edition with Libba Bray

Hi Readers,

Welcome to the second installment of Carly Reads: Alumni Edition. In case you missed edition one, check out my original post. It gives a little bit of background information about this new Carly Reads feature, and it includes a review of Robin Brande’s newest book, “Into the Parallel.”

This week, we're talking about Libba. Libba Bray, of course, and her newest novel, "Beauty Queens."

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner. 
What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.

The brilliant Libba Bray's newest novel "Beauty Queens" celebrates diversity and girl power while tackling how hard it is to grow up as a girl in America, no matter your background. Tongue-in-cheek and darkly humorous, "Beauty Queens" is chock-full of situational comedy and one-liners that had me laughing out loud. I love a good satire, and “Beauty Queens” is one of the best examples of great satire that I can think of. It tackles everything from reality TV to dictators, and it’s the most fun journey I took through a book all summer.

Get yourself a copy of “Beauty Queens” ASAP, you won’t regret it!