I am so torn about the rating of The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. Part of me was won over by the interesting world Clayton created where people are born alike, with red eyes and grey skin, and hair the texture of straw. What is considered “beauty” – a variety of skin tones, hair colors and types, and body shapes – does not come naturally unless they are a Belle. The Belles have the ability through their arcana (think natural magic ability) to change people’s appearances, but not their own. All varieties are considered various degrees of beautiful, but of course like all things it has become a commodity that costs Orleans version of money, and it is revealed late in the book that households are beginning to spend more on beauty than on food. The Belles of each generation are raised together and trained to use their arcana, but also always in competition to be chosen the favorite at Court and be the Belle who serves the royal family.
But, while all that works for me and Clayton’s writing is strong and her vision of this fantastical world is expertly conveyed, the plotting of this book and some of its character development arcs are wildly uneven. This is first in a series, and as such has a lot of worldbuilding to do, and Clayton weaves plot in as she goes, but there are probably at least 3 separate storylines being woven through our POV character Camille. By the nature of how Belles are raised Camille is necessarily very limited in her knowledge of how the world of Orleans actually works and as the reader we are stuck there with her, while being able to piece together the things she cannot. One of the negatives of this is that there is a lot of retread ground over the course of the 430 pages of this book, and it ends on quite the cliffhanger that felt rushed to get to… which is frustrating after having spent so much time with the book to that point.
But the story is strong enough that I am interested in knowing what comes next even if I need a break from Camille for a bit. But as lumenatrix said in their review: “Clayton has written a Young Adult book that deals with consumption culture, the Cult of Beauty, the exploitation of power, the power and strength found in female friendship, and slavery without ever using any of those words. She also does a pretty good job of exposing Western beauty ideals and the nonsense behind them.” and that is going to have me coming back.
Content warning include negative LGBTQIA+ tropes, torture of humans and animals, unhealthy beauty standards including some fat shaming.
Bingo Square: Review. Lumenatrix’s review is what put this book on my to read list in the first place, all those years ago.