Crowned

Author: Julie Linker


Copyright: 2008


Number of Pages: 296


Rating: 8 out of 10

Why I Picked This Up: I was in the library and this was one of the new books. The cover looked interesting, (Yes I judge books by their covers, but only in the literal sense) and it was purple, my favorite color, so I had to pick it up!





Presley is a born pageant queen. It's her life. Dancing gives her a rush and being a beauty queen is truly what she is passionate about. However, there are a few problems. Her parents are rockers who Presley can barely relate to. Also, her family has a lot less money than the other contestants. But despite all of this, it does not stop her or bruise her ego. She seems unstoppable until one day, when Presley catches her boyfriend, Gabe, making out with her arch-enemy: Megan. Although Presley is upset that Megan stole her boyfriend, she isn't surprised. Presley and Megan have been competing against each other in many other pageants and Miss Teen State had been coming up soon. Presley knew she had to take revenge. But what happens when their competitive nature turns into all-out war?
Crowned takes catfights and backstabbing to a whole new level. The hilarious antics of the girls finding ways to torment each other (Secret hair dying, scandalous online pictures and more) are very original and funny. However, what makes this book so laugh-out-loud-funny is Presley's humorous narration. She is one of the funniest protagonists that I have read about in a long time. This book was definitely an enjoyable read but was not very emotionally deep. Another con was that the main character, Presley, was a little bit of an airhead. This will not be a concern for many readers though, and the humour helped overshadow this fact. Overall Crowned was a fun and quick read that I would recommend for teenage girls who are looking for a little something to tickle their funny bone (oh, and some dangerous revenge ideas).



Quote from book:
"Yeah, while my grandfather spent the sixties selling 'love beads' out of a beat-up version of the Mystery Machine, Justine's grandfather was busy going to Harvard medical school and inventing some sort of super-important surgical thingy that 'revolutionized twenty-first-century medicine' and made a bajillion trillion dollars. Can you say 'Life is so not fair?'"