A former pageant winner with a family of three, only one who meets her expectations of femininity. An eight-year old girl who just wants a Snickers and the ability to see her friends on weekends. Two boys who don't know they're being neglected. A harried hospice nurse with a teenage mistress. A teenage girl all alone in the world whose grandfather dies on her eighteenth birthday. A devoted mother and grandmother whose talks to Jesus may or may not be all in her mind. All these and myriad pageant moms and girls meet in a novel which shows the consequences of the world of child beauty pageants and the obsessions which lead a family to be stuck in the life.

PRETTY UGLY is not an exposé of the pageant world; rather, it is a critique on what we already know. The world has a love-hate affair with child beauty pageants, and with good reason. Miranda and her daughter Bailey show us exactly what goes on behind the scenes. A nine-year old is stuck on a regimented diet because her seventy-five pounds is judged by her mother to be too heavy. She sneaks candy bars under her trophies and eats them when her mother thinks she's on the elliptical. Miranda is no slacker herself. Though she is pregnant, she refuses to rise above one hundred forty-seven pounds. Her own preoccupation with her looks is the tip of the iceberg for Bailey and for the unborn daughter, already named Brixton.

The details of the family life are truly horrifying for the uninitiated. Even though she has two boys, she does not deal with them at all. They have racked up horrible debt in order to keep Bailey in pageants. The husband's affair nearly costs him his family just as his fourth child is being born. I am not surprised to find these things in the pages of a book. What I am surprised at is my ability to simultaneously sympathize with every main character. Miranda is not evil, nor is she a blind woman, she just has preoccupations. Joan, the grandmother who makes coffee for Jesus, is crazy but well-meaning. The girlfriend, Courtney, is a spoiled brat who is just now coming into adulthood while having no clue what to do with it. I genuinely liked almost every character. While it's arguable that Miranda and Courtney are the protagonists, there is no clear antagonist. Everyone acts in their own best interests, or acts for others, as dictated by their tastes and means.

The dealings with the pageant moms and camera crews are humorous enough to make a book on their own strengths. Bailey's sabotage of her diet and exercise routines is so grown-up you forget that she's nine until someone says so. This is a really fun book, which I have no problem believing is true to life. It was a quick read and I think it's enjoyable for about anyone. Love child pageants or hate them or somewhere in between, PRETTY UGLY is a novel about people touched by the life whether for good or ill.