Beauty Queens

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray is about what could happen if a plane of 50 teen beauty contestants crashes on a tropical island. Also, the best book cover ever!

The annual Miss Teen Dream Pageant is flying all 50 contestants to a tropical beach to practice the dance routines, film back stories, and work on their tans. But the plane goes down on the way - and the survivors are trapped on a desert island with little food, little drinkable water, and little hope for survival.

When times get tough, some beauty queens stick to the script their managers helped them create, some find their true selves, and some flip out.

Touching on the use of advertising and media to control our sense of self, Bray winds our truths into an outrageous story of self-discovery and girl power. Bray is obviously mad and brilliant! Read it!

(Also, loved the shout out to friends in the character names - Jennifer Hubert Swan of Reading Rants and author David Levithan were two I spotted.)

Bray, Libba. (2011). Beauty Queens. New York: Scholastic.

Going Bovine

Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a road trip novel with a twist.

Cameron Smith is a teen who is sliding through high school trying not to be noticed. He is totally unpopular and has only a few friends - opposed to his twin sister who hangs with the most popular kids.

But soon, Cameron will be a bit more interesting. At first he is not sure what is going on - he is having hallucinations and his muscles are not always doing what he tells them to. Once his parents notice that there is something wrong and he is not just being a teen, they take him to the doctor.

Cameron is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob, or Mad Cow, disease. Knowing he has only a short time to live, he takes the advice of a angel (who may be a figment of his imagination) and goes on a quest to find the one man who may be able to cure him.

On his journey, accompanied by a classmate, he will encounter a cult, a famous jazz musician, quantum physicists, spring break in Florida, and a Viking god trapped in the body of a yard gnome.

Libba Bray is obviously mad herself, and her personality comes through in this novel which is the story of a young man learning how to really live for the first time in his life. It is both laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly heart wrenching.

Bray, Libba. (2009). Going Bovine. New York: Delacorte Press.

The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle #3)

The Sweet Far Thing is the conclusion to Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy.

Gemma must decided what to do with the power of the realms. How will she convince tribes who have been enemies for centuries to work together to share the power? If she can find the Tree of All Souls she might find out...

And in her everyday word of England, she must continue to learn the socially acceptable behavior of a young woman. She will become a lady and have her season this summer.

And what of her true love? Kartik and Gemma can never be together in the society of the time. He is Indian and she is soon to be a lady.

Will Gemma be able to save the realms, her friends, herself, and her family? It seems a lot to ask of a seventeen year old.

Bray, Libba. (2007). The Sweet Far Thing. New York: Delacorte Press.

Rebel Angels (Gemma Doyle #2)

Libba Bray's second book in the Gemma Doyle series is Rebel Angels. It begins a couple of months after the end of A Great and Terrible Beauty.

Gemma, Ann, and Felicity are going back to London for the winter holidays. They must find a way to get together in London so they can enter the realms and continue to look for a way to bind the magic.

On top of finding time and the privacy to travel to the realms, the friends must attend to London society. There will be many dinners, parties, and balls to attend.

Bray captures the feel of Victorian England and the social roles of the time. The combination of a rather rigid social period combined with the magic of the other realms creates a wondrous story.

Bray, Libba. (2005). Rebel Angels. New York: Delacorte Press.

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1)

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in a series about Gemma Doyle by Libba Bray.

Gemma has been raised in India. She doesn't even remember England. But when her mother dies she is sent back to England to live with her grandmother - who sends her immediately to finishing school.

At first Gemma does not fit in at Spence. Her only friend is Ann, her roommate, who is there on scholarship. But once her visions start to give her a power that her classmates find interesting, she finds she has three friends: Felicity, the most popular girl at the school; and Pippa, who is her shadow.

The four form a secret club and start venturing into another realm. But they are not the only beings capable of traveling between realms...

It is up to Gemma to reopen the door between the realms - that has been closed for twenty years - but not until she is strong enough to stop the evil forces at work.

The next book are: Rebel Angels, then The Sweet Far Thing.

Bray, Libba. (2003). A Great and Terrible Beauty. New York: Delacourte Press.