We're going to need more than a few tubes of lipstick...

Beauty Queens: Libba Bray

It's been a hot minute since I first read this book. I read Beauty Queens when it first came out in 2009,  but haven't really given much thought since then until I found a copy at my local bookstore for dirt cheap. Obviously, I bought it, took it home and immediately fell right back into the story I remembered.  On their way to the Miss Team Dream Pagent, a plane full of teen beauty queens crashes on a deserted island. The surviving queens must figure out how to survive until they are rescued. Miss New Hampshire, a budding journalist buts heads with Miss Texas, who was the ringer to win, over leading the girls; Miss California and Miss Colorado form a rivalry turned friendship after realizing they are the only girl of color left alive after the crash; Miss Arkansas,  a proclaimed " Wild Girl" who just wants to be a pirate queen and fall in love; And poor Miss New Mexico with a tray table stuck in her head. Filled with Pirates, a corrupt Corporation and secret arms deals, Beauty Queens is a hilarious read that will make anyone feel better about themselves.

I always thought this book was funny when it would think about it and now reading it again years later, it still holds up. The idea to the Corporation seemingly running the country through a CW type programming network and beauty/health items doesn't seem super absurd until you realize they are behind the plane crash, the arms deal, a plan to start a war, and take over the country. With carefully planned "commercial breaks" and footnotes to explain Corporation products, such as Lady 'Stache-Off, a hair removal cream, really ties into how much anyone can willingly bend to a company if they ask. The footnotes themselves try to omit point of the story and in the contestants' applications to make them seem more conservative or mold them to what they want them to seem like. Who does that remind you of?

Pros:
Absolutely hilarious

Cons:
Somewhat juvenile at times
 

Dear Evan Hansen, Today's Going To Be A Good Day and Here's Why...

Dear Evan Hansen: Val Emmich

There are so many quotes I want to put in this review but I know I can't make them all work. When it was announced that Val Emmich was doing a novelization of the hit Broadway musical, I was so excited as this was the closest I was ever going to get to seeing the show as the tour has already been here and gone in Chicago. After being tasked by his therapist to write letters to himself, anxiety-ridden Evan Hansen writes one that is taken by outcast Connor Murphy. When Connor commits suicide with Evan's letter still in his pocket, his family assumes that they were friends. Unable to tell them otherwise, Evan pretends that they were and makes fake emails from him to Connor and back for his parents and sister. When things get out of hand, Evan starts to unwind and admits to everything.

This Novelization was so spot-on, I couldn't ask for more. With the addition of actual quotes and lines from the show being placed in it still felt like its own telling but still showed how close tot he source material it was.  With an incredible message of  "No one deserves to be forgotten", Dear Evan Hansen is the book to pick up if you ever feel alone.

Pros:
No One deserves to be forgotten

Cons:
KINKY!

 

Not The Love Story You Were Expecting

The Love Interest: Cale Dietrich

Well that was, different. I went into this book with some pretty decent expectations, really thinking I was gonna get a typical love triangle trope but, wow was I thrown for a pretty obvious loop. Raised in the LIC (Love Interest Center), Caden is chosen to be a Nice, a spy of the boy next door type, to win over young scientist Juliet. He is up against a Bad named Dyl who he is competing against, whoever Juliet picks in the end lives, the other dies. When Caden begins to develop feelings for Dyl, he puts a wrench into the entire operation, to the point where both of them plus Juliet, New friend Trev and former Love Interest Natalie on the run to bring down the entire company.

I assumed going into the story that it was a typical love triangle with two boys liking the same girl and she'd have a hell of a time picking one over the other, but as soon as Caden and Dyl were en route to start wooing Juliet, it was pretty obvious where the story was going. Not that that's a bad thing but pretty obvious and I could tell where the story was going from there. It was a pretty easy read and had a pretty violent climax but overall,  I don't think I'd read it again.

Pros:
a new twist on love triangle trope

Cons:
pretty obvious twists