Libba Bray serves up a terrifying prediction of the future from her 2011 book with Beauty Queens. There is no way this wasn’t written in 2017 and then post dated back to 2011, but apparently it the relevance it has to today is probably better than it was even back then. There have been a lot of reviews celebrating how great this book is and I hate to spoil it, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do too.Beauty Queens has been compared to Lord of the Flies, only with girls, actually the book compares itself to Lord of the Flies, but it isn’t really what this is about. Maybe the armature is the same, maybe it really is an apt comparison, but when one is bleak and dark, this one is hilarious and only terrifying in that it really does capture how much our species kind of sucks. Yes yes, the book is really about finding beauty in the ugliness (I’m almost certain that is the armature) but still, it’s depressing that a book written six years ago could be so accurate to today. Maybe culture didn’t change that much, but it seems like not only did it, but it changed in exactly the way this book predicts and that is horrifying, way more than Lord of the Flies because at least that book is fiction, but Beauty Queens? Yeah, kind of not.For those of you not sure yet, this is a very feminist novel. It is one of the most feminist novel’s I’ve ever read and especially so with a modern slant. These days the going trend is that women can and should do what they want to do, you know, like men have been able to forever. So that means being tough! Or.. not, it’s all up to you. There is no measure of success for being a woman or a girl and that’s fine, even if you want to be like a home maker or something. Anyway, if you’re really anti-feminist then maybe you should pass this book up and dig a hole and then jump in it. Seriously, repressing women is the vilest of vile you should be ashamed.Maybe you don’t want to read this book because it’s too preachy, you know saying girls can do stuff and it’s okay to be beautiful, or not beautiful. . ect. Well, let me tell you a few good things about this here hole. No one will tell you to treat people respectfully or with dignity in the hole. No sir, (or madam, turns out women can be sexist too (a point not lost on this book ) ). Anyway, this hole is perfect, there isn’t any troublesome women wanting to have their own views, thoughts or opinions in there, plus you can pretend it’s nineteen fifty. Or you know, twenty seventeen because we’re still pretty sexist it turns out.Okay, but what if there are actually things you don’t like in this book? The first act does set a very interesting stage in that the book seems to take place like it were a television show. Not like, they’re filming a show secretly, but like you’re actually watching a show. This isn’t a secret, it’s given away in the opening and then through the entire story with commercial breaks and what have you. This means a lot of the stuff that goes on has the license of a corner tv series or movie and the book really takes advantage of that at times. It didn’t bother me, but if you want serious and down to earth then for reals this might bug you.There is LGBT material in this story and the book is pretty unapologetic about that. If that bothers you then you’re in luck, the hole didn’t go anywhere. You can still enjoy it with the same hole holiness that you would of if you climbed in for the feminist stuff. Seriously though, if feminist or lgbt themes but you than this really really isn’t the book for you.Ultimately, I found this book to be one of the best things I’ve read ever. The surrealism wasn’t my favorite, but it was all in line with what the author was doing and therefore fit just fine with the action. The topics are all of interest to me so I didn’t find any part of it preachy, but I guess some people will, so you’ve been warned. There really is a lot of beauty in the ugliness and this book shows it, with an extremely good grasp of writing and story telling and humor, Beauty Queens is truly an essential read.