Empty Cage

So, I read the uncorrected proof of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, and thought I’d give you a quick review before slogging through more philosophy. It’ll also hopefully increase my general appeal rather than — to disgruntled U of O students.

Let’s get the ugly truth out of the way first here. I am unnaturally in love with everything that Libba Bray has written, I find her Gemma Doyle trilogy completely wrongly marketed, and thereby misunderstood, her Going Bovine impossible to really put into words, and that short story in Geektastic while poorly placed in my opinion also, pretty much how all fiction should be.

So, enough fangirling over the author, let’s try and talk about the book nice and objective-like shall we.

The first thing I’m going to say about Beauty Queens deterred me, but is bound to attract just as many readers as it scares away. And that is that I honestly didn’t find the book visceral enough. The concept put me in mind of Lord of the Flies, and so I was envisioning this awesome beauty queen showdown with everyone. Everyone. Ending up with their head on a pike. As I said, to Creepy McMe this was a flaw, the normal reader may find that in the book’s favour. But, don’t go into Beauty Queens expecting blood. (Oh boy, that sentence feels dirty, this is going to be one of those reviews).

Of course, in my never-humble opinion the greatest strength of all of Libba’s work is extremely interesting characters in extremely bizarre situations. And yes, it would be fair to say for the second time my favourite character in the book came out as the gay one. Leave my sub-concious alone. Beauty Queens does not let down in its cast of interesting characters are abound, though, easily the blandest character is the protagonist herself. I don’t think this is a pitfall I have ever seen Libba fall into before, but truly Adina (I see what you did there) gets extraordinarily eclipsed by everyone else in a way the Gemma Doyle never did.

I liked the ‘setting’ though. Not in the sense of desert island, but in the invention of a cultural context complete with advertisement scripts and product placement. It added some of that wicked surreality that has me selling more books for Libba than her agent at the bookstore where I work.

The story itself had some hits and misses. Again, I found the protagonist crumpling under the pressure of holding up the whole story, especially when she’s such a bland character. The book’s major claim to fame will be straight up facing issues. It reads like a check list of YA issues in fact, and unfortunately if I run through the check list I risk spoiling a major plot point which I had guessed about 50 pages prior to it happening. But then, I’m a genius.

After all, this rambling and do I, or do I not, recommend Beauty Queens? That, my friend is a wholehearted ‘probably’. The charm of her other tales are here, and while Adina’s not my favourite, the other characters make up for it. And the atmosphere is awesome, I felt like there was a missing punch in the face. The good kind. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t put it down, but I felt kinda like there was a build a lack of climax and then a let down with such glowing happily ever afters I was in danger of being ill.

I still love you Libba, promise?

Now for the review of my second book for the S75, Geektastic. While I admit that I have been going quite slowly I hope to pick things up from here on out.

The book Geektastic is a compilation of stories about — you guessed it — Geeks. And if nothing else the book captures the pure essence of what a geek really is. Almost all of the stories ring embarassingly true stopping just shy of the insecurity point. I think I might have cringed at the LARP part just a little bit because that was ‘too nerdy’ even for me. If nothing else Geektastic is a great reassurance that you aren’t alone in your fanaticism. And that other people do love the crazy things you do.

I think my biggest problem with the book was most of the stories followed pretty much the same formula the nerd had his/her day, got the guy/girl and all lived happily ever after. It’s like going to what promises to be a great potluck party, and having everyone only bring coleslaw. I mean the party’s still there, you are just forced to wonder why no one called ahead to make sure not everyone was bringing the same thing. I mean, I guess if you’re writing for the Geek niche having a geek fail and then get hit by a bus would probably not help your readership.

Another thing that caught my eye was Libba Bray’s story. (Don’t get me wrong on this I am a huge fangirl of her Gemma Doyle trilogy and am waiting on the edge of my seat for anything else she ever writes). It was spectacular of course, and came as close as any of them came to being really meaty and gritty but… put beside all the other stories well, it stood out as being geared towards a much older audience. It was pretty surreal, the other stories about high school bullying and Libba’s involving underage sex. All of which was fine with me but it doesn’t fit. Either the other stories needed to step it up a notch, or Libba needed to tone it down.

There are also some notable nerdities missing, no gamers except MMORPGs and no anime and manga which I found particularly odd in a book about nerds.

If nothing else you have to read this book if you’re a nerd because they ‘nail it’. The feelings you’ve had, the situations you’ve been in, generally speaking you’ll find at least one story you’ll relate to. Inversely, if nerdy things are not your thing I’d probably say give it a pass.

Up next 69!