Book 13: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

 Beauty Queens is about a group of teen beauty pageant contestants stranded on a desert island after a plane crash. Over the course of their stay on the island, they discover an evil corporation's secret volcano lair, a marooned ship of pirates, and lots of secrets about each other. This is sort of like Libba Bray's feminist, satirical take on an all-girl Lord of the Flies. Her commentary on consumerism and reality TV I found quite funny, but while I agree with the heart of her message on girl power and sisterhood, it just felt a little too preachy to work for me. It's a weird position to be in as a reader, to be in essence agreeing with the book yet still feeling put off by its tone, which seemed a bit patronizing. I did enjoy learning more about each character and seeing them interact with each other. A lot of the  humor fell flat for me as well, but I could see it working for other people. 3/5