By Libba Bray
Genre YA Contemporary/Adventure/Comedy
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Synopsis
When a plane full of beauty pageant contestants crashes on an island there's only 13 survivors. Will they survive long enough to be rescued? And can they keep up their looks and dance routines until then? The longer the girls are on the island the more they discover who they really are and just how strong they are.
First Sentence
"Are you alright?"
I've had this book on my list for 6 years. The number of years it's been released, I think. I enjoyed the Gemma Doyle books enough to give the author my attention and this one sounded just plain hilarious.
I listened to this one on audio and it was my first audio book read by the author. That was a treat! When the author does all the different voices you know they're done exactly as she imagined the characters sounding. Her voice for Tiara cracked me up!
Filled with "a word from the sponsor" moments and commercial breaks this one was written to be an audio book.
While I was expecting a total comedy I was surprised to find a very feminist "girl power" twist on this one. I had mixed feelings about this. While I enjoyed the message, I sometimes found it a bit heavy handed and taking itself too seriously. But it actually gave depth to the story too so I don't know. I think I ended up liking that it chose to take that road. And of course it was still funny too. I laughed a lot.
There was a lot of eye rolling, yeah right, moments but I think any annoyance I had for those moments was ME taking things too seriously.
My biggest problem with this one was the length. (this seems to be an ongoing annoyance of mine as of late) I'm fine with long stories but needlessly long stories are another story. This one just kept going on and on! And on!!!
Should you read it
If you can buckle in for the LONG ride I'd recommend it for a laugh and a look at some cool messages about the awesomeness of girls.
It is a bit long, but I loved this one. It was ridiculous and fun and I wish I had listened to the audio!
ReplyDeleteThe audio was awesome!
DeleteI heard some interesting things about this book. I've heard it's a bit like Lord of the Flies which makes me want to read it (LOTF was one of my favorite books I had to read for school back in the day). Maybe I'll choose this one to be my first audiobook! It's so great that you thought the narration was amazing; that's what I'm most worried about with audiobooks but I think you've convinced me :) Lovely review, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
I actually really disliked Lord of the Flies but, yes, there are comparisons. I hope you enjoy it.
DeleteI tried to read this one once but got impatient and DNF it. Maybe I should have listened to the audio version instead. :)
ReplyDeleteThe audio was good. I'm not surprised you gave up. I almost did too. It was so long.
DeleteI didn't love this one, but it did have some hilarious moments. It also teaches some valuable lessons. I didn't agree with some of its messages and frankly, it got a little bawdy for me, so overall I ended up feeling pretty ambivalent about this one. I do love the cover and the premise, though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it had a lot of faults amidst the laughs.
DeleteHmm... sounds like an OK read. Will read it if the mood strikes.
ReplyDeleteGood idea.
DeleteI've heard this one is like Lord of the Flies but with girls. That's what Libba said on Twitter, actually. What do you think of that idea?
ReplyDelete