Rating: 
Summary: Great for HS students and beyond!
Review: I am a HS reading/English Teacher. Some my students in my reading LAB have never read an indepentdent reading book. This book will keep (mostly girls) interested and they will finish the book. I do however recommend that it be given out indiscriminately, due to the subject matter. It is good for more mature students.
Rating: 
Summary: A 90's version of Go Ask Alice that is not just for teens
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: This book is very scary in ways you don't really see until the end. It's strange how people are truly like the one's in Beauty Queen. This book deserves 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: beauty queen?
Review: this book was about a 19 year old girl named sam who struggles with the issues of money, alcholics, and drugs.when she moves out of her alcholic mothers house into her own apartment she knows that she will have to get a new job soon, one that pays more than $5 an hour. so when she accidently goes to a so when she meets a stripper and this women says it pays great she take her up on the advice.
this book had good issues discussed in it but i felt like i never really got to know sam the way i get to know other characters of other books. she wasnt someone i could feel for and i felt as though she were not real. the book ends to abrubtly i didnt feel it got to the point that it should have. due to those facts i only rated it a 3.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: This book is an easy read. You can relate to the Narrator Sam. And this book is not always predictable. Sam's heart and personality was not in this book. Just her drug addiction and that made her seem one dimensional. You know what's gonna happen at the end, but you don't want it to end.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty Queen
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply Engaging-Beauty Queen
Review: I was pulled in by this book the minute I opened it and read the first diary entry.
You get to know Sam so well, and you begin to understand how she feels and understand how she justifies what she does.
I would recommend this story to any teenage girl, not only because of the moral behind the story, but because it is just such a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: When I first picked book up, I was drawn to the cover, And as I read the back,I knew it was of as going to be one of those books that you don't want to put down.The diary style entry really kept my attention throughout the of course of the book.Sam, the main character in the book is an aspiring actress and ends up working at The Web, a local topless bar, Making $600 to $700 each night, When her magic fuji becomes a regular habit,She has no problems paying for it.All in all this book was very imformative and exciting.. with a surprize lurking around every corner..I was very impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Great book that may change the way you think about drugs
Review: This book features the diary of Sam, a young woman looking for an acting job. She starts a cleaning bussiness. the woman's whoose house their cleaning is a stripper, she tells them they can make a lot of money, so she does it. Along the way, she meets good and bad people. Some change her life forever. This book is so good I read it in one night!! READ IT!
Rating: 
Summary: Phony baloney
Review: Linda Glovach was a "co-forger" of Go Ask Alice, a "teen diary" which was neither written by a teen nor was it any kind of diary a teen would write. The moralizing in the story is obvious, screaming "watch out, this can happen to you!" But it does no service to anyone when the stories are so obviously fake.
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