If I could have coffee with any writer living or dead, high on my list of picks would be Libba Bray. Even if she didn't write witty, irreverant, and often intensely personal blogs and tweets (which she does), I would find her diverse range of characters and unorthodox plots irresistable . As we sat down for lattes, I'd ask her things like: "Libba, you describe A Great and Terrible Beauty as 'a gothic creepfest of a Victorian story with a heroine who could kick butt and take names all in a crinoline and corset' ...did you always want to write a Buffy the bustle wearer-type novel?" Or maybe, "Libba, how exactly does one decide to write a surrealist contemporary novel about a boy's Don Quixote-esque adventure as he descends into the insanity caused by mad cow disease?"
But after reading her latest novel Beauty Queens, I would start our conversation with a giant thank you for writing such a moving and honest book about young women--how they are perceived and what they perceive, how they are treated and how they treat each other.
But after reading her latest novel Beauty Queens, I would start our conversation with a giant thank you for writing such a moving and honest book about young women--how they are perceived and what they perceive, how they are treated and how they treat each other.
The book begins with a plane crash (not unlike the popular TV show Lost, one of many pop culture icons parodied in the novel). The survivors are contestants in the Miss Teen Dream USA competition, but through chapters told from alternating characters' perspectives, we discover each young woman has more to offer than her beauty queen package. Unlike their Lord of the Flies and Lost counterparts, these young women manage to work together in suprising ways to survive and even thrive in hostile conditions. But as they begin to discover their own power, they are tested by temptations they discover on the island, temptations that reflect the challenges all young women face in trying to become strong, self-confident, empowered females.
By turns quirky, philosophical, fantastical, and touching, Beauty Queens is definitely the best book I read this summer. I foresee more awards coming Libba Bray's direction. Guess that means we'll have more to talk about when we finally sit down for coffee.
For a fun look at the making of the novel (and a glimpse of the author's personality), read this interview Libba Bray conducted with herself: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2011/04/ya-wednesday-a-conversation-between-libba-bray-and-libba-bray.html.
