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Crowned (2008)

by Julie Linker(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

141696052X (ISBN13: 9781416960522)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

Simon Pulse

review 1: Being a Toddlers and Tiaras fan, I picked up Crowned as a light read focusing on the pageant world. Unlike the hit TLC show, the book didn't focus on adorable little girls and their pushy stage moms, but on catty teenagers.I simply couldn't get into the book. The main character, Presley, is annoying. I felt like I was reading a book narrated by the girl from Clueless. Her pop-culture references became superfluous and she could never simply focus on one aspect without getting distracted (which she described as her ADD...I saw it more as awful writing). I think the author tried to make her relatable to female readers but, between the sarcastic comments and entire sentences crossed out in bold lines on almost every other page, she came across as dumb and selfish. There were ... moresome funny parts in the writing that made me giggle, but overall I just grew annoyed by the book. While it's a fast read, there are plenty of other light reads out there with more likeable characters.
review 2: (Critical review intended for conservative-type readers)Phenomenal book, truly. The writing was fantastic! Julie Linker has a gift for brining to life fictional characters. The plot is clear, the story is clear, the people are tangible and understandable. Crowned gives insight into the high school world, form the perspective of Presley, a sixteen year old young lady, and Miss. Teen Pageant Queen.For me, the tale shed a great deal of light onto the pageant system: how it works, what kind of people associate with this circle, what the pageant directors and coordinators are like, etc., and so forth. The dog-eat-dog mentality in the young woman of our modern culture is absolutely astonishing, and crystal clearly portrayed in this fictional novel. I can completely relate to some of the situations written by Linker, here, although my mom found them rather shocking. The tale begins two-weeks out from a major pageant competition, a hobby of Presley's (the main character). Throughout the book your read about her struggles, challenges and emotional crisis that are thrown her way, previous, during and after the pageant. Competitive girls, or (as Linker titles them) "Vultures," encircle Presley often, causing havoc in her life, giving her pause to nearly every female relationship that comes her way, due to trust/ or not to trust issues. Emotional and mental tug-of-war rages in Presley as she thinks through whether she "should take revenge on this girl for doing ___ to me? What should it be? Should I make her suffer?" And the process of differentiating between confronting or standing up to someone, and simply being mean to someone begins to take place.Our young heroine is also faced with the issue of eating. Eating regularly is important to her, and the reader sees (much later in the book) that she quite enjoys food, but the prospect of standing in front of 500 people in a two-piece bathing suit keeps her diet in check (which consists of low-calorie rice cakes, another food which escapes me, and at one point a stale 3 Musketeers bar. However, there is one point where Presley and two of her pageant-minded girls friends talk about a young woman who struggles with an eating disorder because, "someone said the only reason she didn't win was because of the swim suit competition... and if she could just loose fifteen pounds." This "careless comment" resulted in the young girl becoming absolutely obsessed with how she looked, as apposed to her weight, resulting in a fifty-pound loss, and "skeleton looking" persona. Intimacy with boy-friends is discussed throughout the book. Presley's boy-friend is stolen by Megan (Presley's sworn pageant enemy). Presley does not understand why her boy-friend dumped her for "Megabitch," as she is so politely referred to numerous times throughout the book, and Justine (Presley’s BFF) enlightens her with the statement, "I think their having hot, kinky sex...." Our dear, and now obviously rather prudish, young character, cannot get the word out of her mouth, is absolutely disguised, and chides Justine for talking with her about thinking such a "disgusting" thing. There are mentions of strip-dancing, nudity, boys hitting on girls in a vulgar and crude way and drunkenness as a social activity, the underage high school students being the consumers of all the alcohol (although Presley is not portrayed as being any sort of drinker, and comments on Justine being "crazy when she's drunk," but having drunk alcohol only a few times, as she's highly sensitive)All over, it was a fantastic book, and I would highly recommend it to those who are interested in pursuing pageant, or wanting to get a better glimpse of the sad state our young women are in, socially.(I am curious, if you think this book is an accurate portrayal of the pageant world, please state so in a comment below. I am highly intrigued by the whole pageant world, and would like to what it is truly like. Thanks!) less

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