When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.
At first I thought I wasn't really in the mood for this book, which starts off with a bunch of vapid pageant girls crash landing on an island and doing a remarkably terrible job of fending for themselves. But then, cut off from the rest of society, they start to reflect on the bullshit expectations that are heaped on women and become more comfortable being who they really want to be. The overall tone is cheesy and over the top, but I was completely charmed. And while a lesser author may have skipped over the chance for an intersectional look at bullshit expectations women face, Libba Bray includes two girls of color, a deaf girl, a lesbian girl, a bisexual girl, and a trans girl. By the end of the book I was a bit verklempt with the little peeks into the future about how they all continued being awesome. Recommended for anyone who is a woman or knows a woman.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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22 March, 2016:
Finished reading
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22 March, 2016:
Reviewed