Beauty Queens

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.


What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?*


Libba Bray. You have officially shot up as one of my favorite authors. With A Great and Terrible Beauty, I saw so much promise, and now that I've read Beauty Queens, your status has been cemented. All hail feminist authors. We need more of you in the world. We also need to infect the water of every other author with your greatness.

The Scorpio Races

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.


At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.


Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.


The Scorpio Races is yet another victim of bad hype. The blurb and the hype itself market it as a fast-paced, action-packed thriller, when in fact, The Scorpio Races is all about relationships, the island and its sea, and tradition. I'm quite sure that I wouldn't have liked it half as much as I did had I not read incensed reviews blaming the marketing for their skewed expectations. This is a book you come into knowing you're not in for a wild ride, but a long and cozy one. I enjoyed it far more than I expected as well, and because this would otherwise turn into me gushing about its awesomeness, I'll start for the reason why I took off a star.