History Literature / BeautyQueens

->''“Maybe girls need an island to find themselves. Maybe they need a place where no one’s watching them so they can be who they really are.”''

!!Tropes present:

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler: Taylor]] becomes this after [[MushroomSamba eating too many berries]]. [[spoiler:Or that's what the girls think. Agent Jones drugged her and made it look like she did it to herself.]] [=MoMo B. ChaCha=] is his own brand of ax crazy as well, sentencing people to death at the slightest provocation.

* {{Brainless Beaut|y}}ies: Miss Alabama and Miss Mississippi. However, in Tiara's case it is discussed- she knows she's not very smart and so relies on being pretty, even though it makes her feel terrible about herself and she's always terrified that "there would be a test that didn't involve getting an A in pretty" and that she will let people down. That being said, she does have some good ideas, like how to collect water [[spoiler: and graduated college with a GPA of 3.75 in the epilogue]].

* BoyBand: Boyz Will Be Boyz. JT Woodland [[spoiler: aka Petra]] is the cute one.
%% * BreakTheHaughty: Happens to [[spoiler: Adina and Taylor. They recover]].

%% * ChekhovsGun: Confessions of a Pirate Casanova, the defense systems the girls make (Taylor wasn't lying about not needing to make one herself) and more. [[spoiler: Subverted with Harris' bomb.]]

%% * ConsultingMisterPuppet: General Good Times for [=ChaCha=] and [[spoiler: Miss Miss for Taylor]].

* CutHimselfShaving: When asked what happened to the winner and the first runner up for Miss Michigan, Jennifer cracks her knuckles and says they fell. Subverted in that the original contestants actually couldn't compete for innocent reasons.

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: Agent Harris tells the girls The Corporation's plot to kill them, then says, 'Wait. I just said that out loud, didn't I? Damn."

%% * HandsomeLech: [[spoiler: Duff]] [[TheCasanova the Pirate Casanova]] who blogs about his sexual exploits.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Taylor starts out as irritating and crosses the line with her callous transphobic comments after [[spoiler:Petra's reveal]]. However, when the radio is repaired and she realizes she's been wrong and her life is falling apart, she becomes more sympathetic, complete with FreudianExcuse. ...For all of one chapter until she's incapacitated. [[spoiler:She's not dead, but she's been drugged out of her mind to keep her from revealing the Corporation's plan, and the others leave her be.]] Subverted later [[spoiler:when you see that she's still fighting to regain her lucidity and she ends up saving the girls.]]

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: Taylor, the one most committed to the beauty pageant is the only one who does not participate.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ladybird Hope is clearly based on Sarah Palin and Agent Harris is George Bush. WordOfGod says that Sinjin is based on Creator/DavidLevithan.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. [[spoiler:Miss Ohio, Miss Arkansas, Miss New Mexico and Miss Montana are all named Caitlyn. and their middle name is Asheley, although Ohio has two "e"s in hers.]]

* ParodyCommercial: Fake advertisements for, among other things, plastic surgery ("Breast in Show. Because, 'You're perfect, just the way you are,' is what your guidance counselor says. And she's an alcoholic), TV shows (Captains Bodacious IV: Badder and More Bodaciouser) and Maxi Pad Pets ("Brought to you by The Corporation: In your homes and in your pants.).

* QuicksandSucks: It gets Nicole and Shanti. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Nicole: "That's just a desert island trope".

* RuleOfSymbolism: Just about everything is symbolic. Seriously.
* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: The root of Mary Lou's issues. She has a high sex drive and enjoys taking the lead, but her mother, first boyfriend, and school all [[SlutShaming slut shamed]] her for it until she took a purity pledge, causing her to believe that her sexual desires were dirty and monstrous. Her relationship with Tane, who not only allows but actually likes her being dominant, helps her get over it.
* SharkPool: Mary Lou and Tane are slowly lowered into a [[PiranhaProblem Piranha pit]]. Lampshaded: "You really have seen too many [[CaptainErsatz Loch]] [[Franchise/JamesBond Lomond]] movies."
* StabTheScorpion: [[spoiler: Taylor levels a gun at Adina, and shoots a {{Mook|s}} behind her.]]

* TransTribulations: [[spoiler: Petra is transgender. She takes feminizing hormones and would have gotten the full surgery but she couldn't afford it. She entered the Miss Teen Dream Contest to raise awareness for transgender rights.]]
* TokenMinority: Deconstructed with Nicole and Shanti, who are well aware that The Corporation's beauty contest is only interested in ''one'' girl of color and are competing with each other for the title, and have derailed themselves to whoever fits the TokenMinority role the best.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The beauty queens come up with a detailed plan for the Miss Teen Dream Pageant. But it fails, and they have to improvise.

* WholePlotReference: Much like ''Lord of the Flies'' was a giant middle finger to ''Coral Island'', this book flips off ''Lord of the Flies'' in return.

%% * AcmeProducts: The Corporation.

%% * BlackDudeDiesFirst: Lampshaded by Nicole and Shanti as they begin to drown in quicksand. Also subverted.

%% * FootnoteFever

%% * InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Sosie plays this up for the cameras, but in truth she's sick of it.

%% * TokenMinority: Deconstructed with Nicole and Shanti.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The beauty queens come up with a detailed plan for the Miss Teen Dream Pageant. but it fails, and they have to improvise.

* ButNotTooBlack: Averted and discussed. Nicole is very dark-skinned and her backstory discusses colourism in detail.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Tiara Destiny Swan, until you realize her parents meant it to be a MeaningfulName.

* {{Transgender}}: [[spoiler: Petra is transgender. She takes feminizing hormones and would have gotten the full surgery but she couldn't afford it. She entered the Miss Teen Dream Contest to raise awareness for transgender rights.]]

* BlackBestFriend: Nicole grew up with this as the only TV representation of anyone remotely like her. It gives her enough identity issues that she has a nightmare during the girls' MushroomSamba moment.

* {{Adorkable}}: Sinjin, who has a habit of making long romantic soliloquies, and spent his first day with Petra trading Dickens references.

* BiTheWay: Sosie, which is a source of some angst for her and leads to her [[spoiler:breaking up with Jennifer]] because she's unsure if her feelings are real. [[spoiler:The epilogue mentions that she's "currently dating a boy", which suggests that she's come to terms with her sexuality.]]

* Adorkable: Sinjin, who has a habit of making long romantic soliloquies, and spent his first day with Petra trading Dickens references.

* ActionGirl: By the end, all of the women. Taylor and Adina especially.
* AcmeProducts: The Corporation.
* AlphaBitch: Taylor
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Frequent.

* BeautyContest: Duh.
* BigDamnHeroes: The end. Everyone.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Lampshaded by Nicole and Shanti as they begin to drown in quicksand. Also subverted.
* BlandNameProduct: Babez dolls. And more.

* BreakTheHaughty: Happens to [[spoiler: Adina and Taylor. They recover]].
* ButchLesbian: Jennifer

* ChekhovsGun: Confessions of a Pirate Casanova, the defense systems the girls make (Taylor wasn't lying about not needing to make one herself) and more. [[spoiler: Subverted with Harris' bomb.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Tiara, Brittani, and to a lesser extent, Mary Lou.
* ComingOfAgeStory

* ConsultingMisterPuppet: General Good Times for [=ChaCha=] and [[spoiler: Miss Miss for Taylor]].

* DanceBattler: Sosie, a gymnast, fights like this.

* DeadpanSnarker: Many characters, particularly Petra, Adina and Jennifer.
* DesertIsland: Where the girls crash, becoming a throughly discussed and lampshaded trope.

* EnsembleCast

* EvilInc: The Corporation.
* FictionalDocument: The Miss Teen Dream Fun Facts Pages and the commercial scripts.

* FootnoteFever
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The "Fun Facts" pages.
* FreudianExcuse: Taylor's mother abandoned her on a JourneyToFindOneself.
* HandsomeLech: [[spoiler: Duff]] [[TheCasanova the Pirate Casanova]] who blogs about his sexual exploits

* HiddenDepths: Most of the cast.

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Sosie plays this up for the cameras, but in truth she's sick of it.

* JunglePrincess: [[spoiler:By the end, Taylor has abandoned civilization and essentially become this.]]

* TheMenInBlack: The agents of the Corporation.
* MushroomSamba: Weird, hallucinogenic fruit samba.

* OperationBlank: Operation Peacock

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The entire Corporation, especially the BigBad.
* ProductPlacement: In-universe, there's a whole TV show based on it.

* RescueRomance: Jennifer rescues Sosie from a giant snake.

* SassyBlackWoman / BlackBestFriend: Nicole doesn't want to be one.

* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Petra's help banner.

* TokenMinority: Deconstructed with Nicole and Shanti.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The beauty queens come up with a detailed plan for the Miss Teen Dream Pageant but it fails and they have to improvise.
* ValleyGirl: Shanti's true personality.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The ending combines this with a DancePartyEnding.

* {{Transsexual}}: [[spoiler: Petra is transgender. She takes feminizing hormones and would have gotten the full surgery but she couldn't afford it. She entered the Miss Teen Dream Contest to raise awareness for transgender rights.]]