Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

The nine main beauty queens

The scope of this book is huge. It's not just the story of how one beauty queen survives and changes on the island: it's the story of nine beauty queens surviving and changing on the island. That's a whole lot of character development. For Mary Lou, Petra, Sosie, Jennifer, Nicole, Tiara, Adina, Shanti, and Taylor (whew), we're told about how they grew up before coming to the island, and what brought them to the world of the pageant. During their time on the island, each of them changes. And showing how they change individually, as well as how a group of seemingly similar beauty queens transform as a group, is Libba Bray's stab at showing how society can change, too.