Taking A Look At Libba Bray

Libba Bray is originally from Texas but her home is in Brooklyn, New York with her husband , son and two cats. Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy ( A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing): she also won the Michael L. Printz Award-winning for her book Going Bovine, Beauty Queens. Libba Bray was a L.A. Times Book Prize finalist; for her book series, The Diviners. In Beauty Queens, one of Bray main characters is named Miss Taylor and this young lady was from Texas as well, she kind of portrayed her in the story as where she is from. Three weeks before her graduation of high school, she had gotten into a serious car accident, which she had lost her left eye and had demolished her face. According to Libba Bray writing saved her life from loneliness and depression after the accident. In Beauty Queens, Bray set the scene on a deserted island that the girls had crashed on to by a plane and are feeling trapped and alone with no help.

Bray reader level is at a young adult level. All of her books are mostly about survival, a lot of endurance and is passionate about what she writes about. Bray books main
characters are teenage girls who have had something traumatic happened to them in the beginning of the story. Libba Bray stories seem to surrounds over her car accident and by her being at a young age, she would of never expect that to happen to her, but as she mature she started to put her life back together. The main pageant contestants of Beauty Queens soon to started to feel very lonely and helpless. Towards the end of Beauty Queens, these characters starts to feel like they matter, and starts to gain back their confidence, the as Bray experience.

This book starts off when a plane crashes on a deserted island full of Pageant contestants. As they struggle to survive on this island they come encounter with minor conflicts. For instance they had a hard time realizing that they are actually trapped on an island without no contact to the real world, but struggle to survive without survival skills. Also it confronts the truth behind our daily lives it deals with issues of race, sexism, and stereotypes, while managing to retain a gentle , sarcastic tone. As when Miss Nicole is the only minority in the pageant to compete she was outed by the others, especially Miss Tiara being closed- minded ‘’ I didn’t think they had black in people in Colorado, how does it feel?”(page 14).
Also these girls shows that society has a high standard of appearance and stereotyping is very critical on this island, especially Miss Taylor who justified at the beginning that ‘’ Texas is the state where dreams are bigger and better, nothing against y’alls states”(page 2).
Towards the end Libba Bray has the girls come together as a team to escape the Corporation which they are the ones ,who planned the crash just for their hit tv show. The girls finally overcame their judgemental and selfish ways to escape on a boat full of pirates, so that they will be free of their old ways. “ We’ve made it this for, haven’t we? Don’t count a pageant girl out, Miss Mississippi.”(page 327) Libba Bray shows that in this society that everyone cares for each other, but in the real world that not an
option.

Yes, this book is recommended for every young adult, mainly girls. For Libba Bray to make a satire book out of the world major problems is outstanding. The only problem is that the plane crashes onto a deserted island and pretty much everyone dies. The surviving contestants will have to, well, survive on a delightful island using their own wits, and pageant-approved talents. The contestants range from the different personalities, Miss Texas Taylor to Miss Nebraska Adina, who had a plan before it came crashing down along with the plane. In Beauty Queens, It stated true issues like the harsh reality of being black or minority in America. This book was darkly humorous as well and was well put together.