I Finally Read Pia Wurtzbach’s "Queen of the Universe" And Here's What I Think | A Review (Contains Spoilers)
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Just a few months ago, former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach released her debut novel entitled Queen of the Universe. I was curious about it during its release, but it didn't come to Kindle until around October (I think). I got preoccupied with a handful more books so I didn't have the chance to read it until recently.
For full disclosure, I am not a fan of nor do I dislike Pia. Based on what I know, she's never done anything morally problematic in the past so I will not have any problems separating the art from the artist in this case. I also don't care much for beauty pageants but I did come into this book with an open/curious mind.
The Story
This is a story of the rise to fame of a dreamer named Cleo. She started off as a model, had a rough patch with acting and then she entered the world of beauty pageantry where she found her calling.
Cleo struggled to keep her integrity in an industry so unkind and so ruthlessly competitive. As she gets deeper and deeper into the competition, she found herself not only in hot waters but also with the biggest question of how much all of it was worth it.
The Big Grammar Issue
Before anything else, I am not a grammar police. I don't really mind errors that much anymore. As long as you get the message loud and clear, I'm good with it. Quite frankly at times I find myself reading too fast that I don't notice grammatical errors at all. I have read tons of books but this was the first time that the errors really got to me.
It was really bothersome that I had to look into who published the book and I was so surprised that it was Tuttle Publishing. I am so sorry, I know I have no qualifications to question this and my grammar is far from perfect - but was this even edited at all? How did this get published?
How that error went straight to publishing will forever be a wonder to me. That's only one of the many, but I just decided to put only one up in this post because I don't want this post to be a negative dump.
It was a very rough read since the grammatical errors just came almost one after the other. This was supposedly a very short and light book but how it's written really slowed me down.
The References to Filipino Traditions and Culture
The book has Filipino culture references. The story starts off with a new year celebration and with that, we have the traditional food that Filipino households have as well as the very lovely relatives who never make a comment on their younger folks bodies, jobs and love lives (sarcasm intended). It's really nice to see the book integrating that into the story especially that it's published internationally. That part was so overly stuffed with Filipino references that I even I felt was too much.
However, I do like the part where the struggle of public transportation here in the Philippines especially in the metropolitan area. That was well written.
There are also references to very common Tagalog phrases and expressions. For example, the phrase "Ber months" was used without context (thankfully it's logical) even if the phrase is not even so common outside of the Philippines.
Not all of the Tagalog expressions have translations and if the reader does not understand the language, it would not make any sense since the context provided around it is also not enough.
I think it would have been better if there was a focus on a few of them at a time or if they were spread more throughout the book. I don't know if I'm thinking right. No one comes to me for these things.
Odd brand names
Before I go into the general writing style, I'll just highlight one more thing that I didn't like. There are very odd choices of brand names in the book. I am not familiar with how the law about this in the Philippines - if it's illegal to use brand names for fictional work or if the actual brands are sensitive to how their names are being used as references.
In the book, we have brand names like Lady Pearl of the Philippines and Larila Shang Hotel. For crying out loud, it even have UsTube. I honestly found those odd brand names hilarious. Will the actual pageant and the hotel chain get angry if they find themselves in a fictional story? Or is free publicity just being avoided here? If that's the case, then the author should have just strayed miles away from the famous brand names and created new names...
...like what was done with the celebrity and pop culture references. None of the famous actors and directors in the book are actual famous people. The story was supposedly set in a realistic world but none of the references felt real. Those references didn't do anything to connect it to reality which was pretty useless to be honest.
The first half of the book
I usually give debut novels more wiggle room because they're at times not the author's best stride. Even F. Scott Fitzgerald's earliest work can be tough to get through compared to his more famous and later works. Having said that, I wanted to give this book a very fair shot and I was very patient with it.
The first 50% of the book was very difficult for me. The writing style just felt so rough and I found myself pausing to refresh more often than I'd like. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I do understand having a very difficult connection with the behind the scenes of the acting or pageant world since I don't work for or passionate about both of those industries, still the author failed to bring me into it. The writing is more of "tell me" rather than "show me". There are also times when it tried to be poetic but just fell short.
I didn't realise that I accidentally zoomed in too much and didn't include the context in the highlight below, but Cleo was attempting to give a metaphor of her boyfriend's dark eyes and the night before Christmas that keeps her on her toes. I don't think this made any sense. Was this supposed to be romantic? How is the darkness of the eyes the same as the night before Christmas? I guess I'll never know.
Also, even if the POV switches, there are no distinctions to the way of thinking, speaking, etc.
I have read many Wattpad stories and pocketbooks in college and most of them flowed a lot more smoothly than this book.
The silver lining
I was so determined to give this a chance that I pushed myself past the 50% mark and thankfully, it went a lot better by then. There are still some roughness, but the story had more to give on the second half. I especially like the storyline that discovered the past of Cleo's mother. That actually had a lot of substance.
If you're a fan of beauty pageants, I think you'll find the chapters that focus on to be very interesting. I don't know how much of it is true, but it's still a very captivating world regardless. It felt like reading a reality tv show and there were interesting mean (and also nice) characters added into the mix.
I think the second half kind of salvaged this book. The ending was very left field, but was not too bad. Could be worse, I guess.
In conclusion...
I really do wish I have more good things to say, but I also wanted to be honest. I do hate not liking books because it means that I lost time with it so I try to appreciate what I read. It was just not easy with this. This book could have gone in a different and better direction if it was just better edited and better executed. It had potential, but it just constantly fell short. Just when things were seemingly getting good, a good bump in the road hits and end up with a sigh.
I think if you're a big fan of Pia and/or of beauty queens and pageants, you might still give it a chance.
Non-affiliate links for Queen of the Universe:
Amazon Canada Kindle - $16.49
Indigo Canada - $22.95
Fully Booked Philippines - Php 795 (Paperback)
National Book Store Philippines - Php 895 (Paperback)
