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. (...)

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.

This book was so amazing...I had to do a boring book report for school this year and didn't want to read a book(im not a big reader)but the teacher made us go to the library since we also had to do an oral report on any book. I was looking to find a short story novel that was interesting but when I saw the hard cover of "Beauty Queen" and the picture on it I was curious to know what it was about...I took it out and started to read.It described how a young tennage girl struggles with her life being a heroin addict due to depression.Her mother was an alcohlic and her mother's boyfriend always tried to make sexual passes at her.She got a job as a topless dancer.There is where she started doing heroin since she was too scared to go on stage she felt as if the heroin gave her courage and strenth to dance. She ends up meeting a police officer and fall's in love.The police officer was also a drug addict and didn't know how to take care of girls.Sopposely his wife was led to her death since he was so unfaithful.This book was writting in diary entries and was soooo good...I would love to actually read this over and over...