Customer Reviews

Beauty Queen

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Written as a young girl's diary, the book immediately immerses you as Samantha's best friend, the one she will tell everything to. I found myself liking Sam right away, I imaged her as having an innocence, or gullibility to her that was sweet but not annoying; and right away we see that her feelings run deep beneath the surface of her pretty face.

Sam starts her diary immediately following her break up with her boyfriend, who she cared deeply for and who abruptly informed her that he was seeing a woman 15 years his senior. He broke her heart, and so at her psychiatrist's suggestion, she begins to write down her feelings for us. In light of being her only confidant, right away we discover that her mother is a well-off alcoholic, a former model falling into her decline, with a handsome boyfriend who would like nothing more than to get to know Sam a little better while her mother is passed out. Right away we glimpse Kevin Reed's intentions as Sam returns home to find him in her bedroom watching porn flicks and asking her to join him.

Sam knows she needs a change in her life, but her low self esteem tells her she is not smart enough for college, that no one could possibly love her, and that she will never be able to even take acting classes to become the actress she dreams of being. She and her best friend Nicole do find a nice place and move in, taking Sam's diabetic cat with her. Then Sam decides to take a job in a topless club, leaving behind her low paying fast food job. She is very nervous at first, and a fellow dancer turns her onto the "relaxing" effects of heroin, telling her that her modesty and uneasiness will dissolve, making the job more tolerable. Which it does.

And so begins Sam's decline. Still heart-broken over her ex-boyfriend, she meets a man named Angelo who has ties to the mafia but treats her with respect and affection. She also meets Blaine, a handsome and reckless cop who frequents the strip club. I found these two relationships of particular interest in reading Ms. Glovach's story, because Sam is at heart an innocent girl, she readily trusts the cop and not the mafia thug; and the good/bad roles here are reversed, only magnifying Sam's naiveté when judging character. Her desire to be loved is heart wrenching, and manifests in all the love that she pours out to others who become close to her. In the case of her ailing cat, the love is justified. But in the case of Blaine, this love is used against her in a thoughtless and heartless manner by a man who is seeking only his own gratification for his own sick uses.

Finding a release from her pain, boredom, dejection, and feelings of inadequacy with the heroin, her usage increases at an alarming rate while we listen in helpless silence to her denial of addiction. Eventually, she is unable to even finish a diary entry without shooting up, and yet still she offhandedly dismisses her habit as recreation rather than real addiction.

This sad tale of a beautiful girl becomes all the more depressing when you realize that it has truly poured from the heart of Anygirl in Anywhere. Our daughters, our sisters, our nieces, our friends; they all manifest feelings of inadequacy somewhere in their life, and this story could be theirs. On a quick note, the author, Linda Glovach, tells of purchasing and using heroin in order to "get the feel of the book", and found herself addicted and almost dead in a hospital. Her amazingly articulate vocalization of her experience should be noted. Of her own experience with heroin addiction, she said, "In truth, you make a deal with the Devil. He takes away your pain, but he owns you. You live for the next fix."

Poetic and real. Don't be fooled into believing that this is a book only for teens, do yourself a favor, especially if you have a daughter, and pick this up. It's a quick, poignant, unforgettable read. Enjoy!

A review by Allison
This book is about a naive 19-year-old girl named Sam. Sam has several problems in her life. It begins when Sam's boyfriend breaks up with her and she gets depressed about it. Sam has problems with her alcoholic mother and her mother's boyfriend. She finds an apartment to move into so she can get away from her mother. She also gets a new job as a topless dancer. Working at her new job, Sam is introduced to the drug heroin. It is her "magic potion" while she is dancing. The author gives vivid descriptions of Sam of how she feels when she shoots up. "As soon as he left, I danced another set, then went into the bathroom to shoot up again. And I did too much! My heart was racing like mad, almost jumping out of my chest, and I had to lie down on the floor to get myself back together. I felt like I was going to die. My ears closed up and my head felt all fuzzy. Then it slowed down and it was like I was fading away, leaving my body. Then I started to come to." (Page 101.)

Linda Glovach, the author, does a great job writing this book. She makes it seem so real with each and every journal entry. She pulls you into Sam's world and makes you feel empathy for her. (...)

"Beauty Queen" is not particularly impressive, even by the standards of a teen anti-drug novel. The protaganist, Sam, is archtypal - a teenaged girl with low self-esteem, from a broken home with an alchoholic mother. Her therapist advises her to move out, and she winds up stripping and being introduced to drugs.

While I know that sometimes things do happen this way, the entire plot came across as incredibly contrived. The way she gets into heroin in the first place; the mobster with a big heart looking out for her; the loser, drug-dealing cop lover. She even has a diabetic cat, and is therefore already familiar with needles. Without revealing too much, one can see where everything is going and the part everyone plays in it almost from the start. It is less a self-destructive roller coaster ride than a plunge straight to hell from the very minute she moves out of her Mom's house: Sam literally cannot go even a journal entry without shooting some smack from the very day she starts using.

If you are looking for anti-drug "smack fiction," then go with "Smack." The novel is much more sophisticated in terms of its character development and its plot, and furthermore one can learn a lot about 1980s British punk while reading it.

i havent read a book since i was in school. i read this book and i felt like i was sam. i went thru everything that she had went thru. this book gave me so much inspiration on not to do heroin anymore, it's just so hard when the high is so great. i loved this book and recommend EVERYONE to read it!

When 19-year-old Samantha Strasbourg is dumped by her boyfriend Teddy she thinks life is completely over. The daughter of an alcoholic mother and a hock player father who abandoned both of them, Sam struggles to accept the depression that has taken over her life. In a search to gain independence from her mother and her mothers' predatory boyfriend Sam moves into her own apartment and starts the journey to become an actress.
Along the way Sam continues to see a therapist and although she would like to salvage some sort of relationship with her mother she realizes that this may never happen. Her mother continues to abuse drugs and alcohol and allows her abusive boyfriend to squander her money. Sam and her best friend Nicole decide to start working at a topless club (The Web)to make more money and while they are bother underage Sam dances and Nicole trains to become a bartender.

On Sam's first night of dancing, she realizes she is too nervous to take her top off. Behind stage, Sam sees a fellow dancer using heroin. Sam does join her and immediately becomes addicted to the feeling created by the heroin. Sam writes in her journal that she can only take off her top is she has shot up heroin. She writes that she loves the way the drug makes her feel and dance.

Sam meets a man, Angelo, who is a regular at The Web. Sam and Angelo become very close. He is extremely wealthy (could it be because he is a wiseguy??) and buys Sam whatever she wants. Sam resists telling Angelo about the heroin. Later on in the book, Sam starts a sexual relationship with a cop named Blaine. Although Sam thinks that Blaine is fabulous, Nicole, Angelo, and everyone else at The Web disagree. Sam disregards everyone's warnings and continues to see Blaine. Her heartbreak when things don't work out leaders her deeper into the world of heroin use. This book really pulled me in, and it is a thrilling reading experience I must recommend. Other recent books I loved include: Ghostworld, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez.

When 19-year-old Samantha Strasbourg is dumped by her boyfriend Teddy she thinks life is completely over. The daughter of an alcoholic mother and a hock player father who abandoned both of them, Sam struggles to accept the depression that has taken over her life. In a search to gain independence from her mother and her mothers' predatory boyfriend Sam moves into her own apartment and starts the journey to become an actress.

Along the way Sam continues to see a therapist and although she would like to salvage some sort of relationship with her mother she realizes that this may never happen. Her mother continues to abuse drugs and alcohol and allows her abusive boyfriend to squander her money. Sam and her best friend Nicole decide to start working at a topless club (The Web)to make more money and while they are bother underage Sam dances and Nicole trains to become a bartender.

On Sam's first night of dancing, she realizes she is too nervous to take her top off. Behind stage, Sam sees a fellow dancer using heroin. Sam does join her and immediately becomes addicted to the feeling created by the heroin. Sam writes in her journal that she can only take off her top is she has shot up heroin. She writes that she loves the way the drug makes her feel and dance.

Sam meets a man, Angelo, who is a regular at The Web. Sam and Angelo become very close. He is extremely wealthy (could it be because he is a wiseguy??) and buys Sam whatever she wants. Sam resists telling Angelo about the heroin. Later on in the book, Sam starts a sexual relationship with a cop named Blaine. Although Sam thinks that Blaine is fabulous, Nicole, Angelo, and everyone else at The Web disagree. Sam disregards everyone's warnings and continues to see Blaine. Her heartbreak when things don't work out leaders her deeper into the world of heroin use. This book really pulled me in, and it is a thrilling reading experience I must recommend. Other recent books I loved include: Ghostworld, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

I really wanted to like this book--I really did especially after having read the diary, "Go Ask Alice" which had been a powerful book when I was a teenager. Glovich's character, Samantha, however, comes across even more insipid that the "anonymous" author of "Go Ask Alice."

Samantha comes from a broken home; her divorced mother is an alcoholic who lives with a greasy ex-con who is always making sexual advances to Samantha. To escape from this nightmarish world of abuse and neglect, she becomes a stripper who quickly spirals downward into the seedy world of heroin addiction. What makes her entries so pathetic is that she continually refers to her drug as her "magic potion" and continuously gives herself injections in almost every entry. She does so much heroin that I was genuinely surprised that she didn't die about halfway through the book. I found myself feeling nothing for her or her predicament. Her insipid ramblings got so bad that I wanted to stop reading more than once, but I continued to read it in the hopes that it would get better, but I was wrong.

The back cover features a quick note from Glovich which details her own struggle with heroin addiction as she wrote this book in order to experience the Hell that her young character experiences. It's too bad that Glovich didn't chronicle her own experience rather than try to attempt writing this YA novel. If _I_ were a young adult reading this book, I'd probably laugh all the way through it--_that's_ how poorly written it is. It's unfortunate that this book is so poorly written because its premise sounded so good.

As a Children's Librarian I try to read as many Young Adult and Juvenile fiction as I can. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for _my_ library due to its poor quality.

Wow. I was really surprised by this book. I expected a story that stressed all the horrible things about drugs. Through the narrator Sam, the author tells a moving story about a 19 year old girl who seems so normal, despite the fact that she is a topless dancer and is addicted to heroin. I didn't really realize the full impact of the novel until the last few pages, when I was moved to tears; then the message comes through loud and clear. It's not my normal type of novel at all, but it was a good book for its subject material, and I recommend it to anyone.

I really liked this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to read fiction about drugs...well, even if you don't, I still recommend it. I couldn't put this book down. Sam, the 19 year-old girl who is writing, falls into heroin and deceit. She makes friends, but they only drag her deeper into the life that is destroying her. She falls in love with a guy who was a cop, and is wanted for arrest. Her new friend, Angelo, tries to keep her from him and keep her in a life that she should be living, and guides her and keeps their friendship alive. I loved this book and I think that anyone who reads it will, too.

I am 17 years old and I was on herione. After reading the reviews, I couldn't believe that people didn't like this. Although I have been clean for two years, I remember what my life was like. This book was scary and hard to read for me because I have been there. I think it would be good for any one else because it's so realistic. It takes you to rock bottom but before you're caught, you put the book down. I think teens today should definatly read this book. It might give them a scare and they will never start drugs, once they realize how unglamourous the world truly is. It is not a happy story and if you expect to find one, I guess I can't say you'll like it, but if you want the "real deal" about living the life of a druggie, I reccomend it.