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emily_gaynier's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved and enjoyed this book so much!
I found the world to be vibrant and compelling. I loved the descriptions of all the room decor and fashion styles. I loved how everyone was so over the top. This world really reflected how a world would end up if everyone was obsessed with beauty and if they didn't obsess they're only other option was monster-like and possible madness.
I also really like how the trends are formed and everyone will go from a normal look to something almost outrageous. I found the fact that people change their skin tone very regularly to be off putting, but again it fit well in the world. The fact that a skin ton had to be chosen to cover up the grey allows for skin color to also become a trend.
I really enjoyed all the characters, especially the villain. The villain is horrible and compelling and just the worst, but the motivations were amazing.
I found Camelle to be sweet and determined and so awesome. The Belle powers are so cool and I would like to learn about them more in the up coming book(s). I also really liked Bree and all the other Belles. Remy was awesome too. That moment with his sisters just melted my heart. The one character I didn't like was Auguste. I personally really didn't like Auguste from the beginning. His banter and 'flirting' weren't charming at all. But, Camelle hasn't spend much time around men, so she really wouldn't know any better.
This book is just so good!
I found the world to be vibrant and compelling. I loved the descriptions of all the room decor and fashion styles. I loved how everyone was so over the top. This world really reflected how a world would end up if everyone was obsessed with beauty and if they didn't obsess they're only other option was monster-like and possible madness.
I also really like how the trends are formed and everyone will go from a normal look to something almost outrageous. I found the fact that people change their skin tone very regularly to be off putting, but again it fit well in the world. The fact that a skin ton had to be chosen to cover up the grey allows for skin color to also become a trend.
I really enjoyed all the characters, especially the villain. The villain is horrible and compelling and just the worst, but the motivations were amazing.
I found Camelle to be sweet and determined and so awesome. The Belle powers are so cool and I would like to learn about them more in the up coming book(s). I also really liked Bree and all the other Belles. Remy was awesome too. That moment with his sisters just melted my heart. The one character I didn't like was Auguste. I personally really didn't like Auguste from the beginning. His banter and 'flirting' weren't charming at all. But, Camelle hasn't spend much time around men, so she really wouldn't know any better.
This book is just so good!
megsbookishtwins's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: I received this free from the publishers via NetGalley
trigger warning: bury your gays trope, body image, & sexual assault.
Camellia Beauregard is a Belle, and a Belle can control beauty. Camellia strives to be chosen the queen’s favourite, the most revered and important position a Belle can get. Not just that, but Beauty is an important commodity, and everyone strives to be beautiful above all. However, after her and her Belle sisters arrive at court and receive their positions, it is not clear to Camellia that being a Belle is not all she dreamed that it would be. Behind the beautiful royal family and the gilded palace walls, dark and terrible secrets are kept and Camellia discovers just how dangerous her powers are.
The Belles is a conflicting book for me. There were a lot of things I liked about but also some things that could have been improved on, or completely avoided.
One of my favourite things about The Belles is the lush, flowery, and extravagant writing. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, despite never really seeing beyond the castle walls. It is an imaginative and original world, and one of the best aspects of this book. The Belles is not a book that I would call body positive and I want to give a warning for readers going into this that if you have body image issues or anything like that then please tread with caution. While I don’t think Dhonielle intended for this, the whole concept of beauty being an important commodity, and the amount of societal pressure that is placed on, mainly women, being the most beautiful it is hard to avoid some potentially harmful content. This emphasis on beauty is also primarily still put on female beauty too & I would have enjoyed seeing more development into how these beauty expectations affect others.
I also really liked the magic system of the Belles, it was really interesting and unique. The ability to craft beauty and change people’s features and body is an interesting power and I enjoyed the exploration of it. I liked how near the end Camille starts to discover things about her powers and that it isn’t just about changing appearance or about beauty. The magic and power that flows through her veins can do much more, and can potentially be very dangerous.
*spoilers* My main problem with The Belles is the fact that the sapphic women in this book die. Claudine, one of the Princess Sophia’s ladies, is a trivial character who is barely in the book, until it is found out that she is in love with her female servant. She is then threatened with an engagement to a known serial rapist and then murdered (she’s basically tortured to death) soon after. While her death was not necessarily about her being sapphic it was used to further the story of Camellia and Amber, and it still was not handled well considering she was one of only three(?) sapphic characters, another being the queen (who also dies). The other is Princess Sophia who, in passing, was only speculated to have had affairs with her ladies, and is the main antagonist of this book. Claudine and the Queen are, in fact, the only characters to die in this book.*spoilers*
But, other than that, it is an important book and discusses some nuanced and complex topics. It discusses a lot of toxic femininity and it is a society that puts a lot of pressure on being ‘beautiful’ and it leads to a vicious cycle of oppression and self-harm, and discusses these in a nuanced and subtle way. It discusses class and privilege, but probably not as much as I would have hoped. It has a black m/c by an author of colour and it has an absolutely beautiful cover featuring a black model. And the story itself IS good, it’s compelling and it is full of lush and beautiful writing.
The Belles is an important and revolutionary book but I do feel like some readers need to tread with caution.
trigger warning: bury your gays trope, body image, & sexual assault.
Camellia Beauregard is a Belle, and a Belle can control beauty. Camellia strives to be chosen the queen’s favourite, the most revered and important position a Belle can get. Not just that, but Beauty is an important commodity, and everyone strives to be beautiful above all. However, after her and her Belle sisters arrive at court and receive their positions, it is not clear to Camellia that being a Belle is not all she dreamed that it would be. Behind the beautiful royal family and the gilded palace walls, dark and terrible secrets are kept and Camellia discovers just how dangerous her powers are.
The Belles is a conflicting book for me. There were a lot of things I liked about but also some things that could have been improved on, or completely avoided.
One of my favourite things about The Belles is the lush, flowery, and extravagant writing. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, despite never really seeing beyond the castle walls. It is an imaginative and original world, and one of the best aspects of this book. The Belles is not a book that I would call body positive and I want to give a warning for readers going into this that if you have body image issues or anything like that then please tread with caution. While I don’t think Dhonielle intended for this, the whole concept of beauty being an important commodity, and the amount of societal pressure that is placed on, mainly women, being the most beautiful it is hard to avoid some potentially harmful content. This emphasis on beauty is also primarily still put on female beauty too & I would have enjoyed seeing more development into how these beauty expectations affect others.
I also really liked the magic system of the Belles, it was really interesting and unique. The ability to craft beauty and change people’s features and body is an interesting power and I enjoyed the exploration of it. I liked how near the end Camille starts to discover things about her powers and that it isn’t just about changing appearance or about beauty. The magic and power that flows through her veins can do much more, and can potentially be very dangerous.
*spoilers* My main problem with The Belles is the fact that the sapphic women in this book die. Claudine, one of the Princess Sophia’s ladies, is a trivial character who is barely in the book, until it is found out that she is in love with her female servant. She is then threatened with an engagement to a known serial rapist and then murdered (she’s basically tortured to death) soon after. While her death was not necessarily about her being sapphic it was used to further the story of Camellia and Amber, and it still was not handled well considering she was one of only three(?) sapphic characters, another being the queen (who also dies). The other is Princess Sophia who, in passing, was only speculated to have had affairs with her ladies, and is the main antagonist of this book. Claudine and the Queen are, in fact, the only characters to die in this book.*spoilers*
But, other than that, it is an important book and discusses some nuanced and complex topics. It discusses a lot of toxic femininity and it is a society that puts a lot of pressure on being ‘beautiful’ and it leads to a vicious cycle of oppression and self-harm, and discusses these in a nuanced and subtle way. It discusses class and privilege, but probably not as much as I would have hoped. It has a black m/c by an author of colour and it has an absolutely beautiful cover featuring a black model. And the story itself IS good, it’s compelling and it is full of lush and beautiful writing.
The Belles is an important and revolutionary book but I do feel like some readers need to tread with caution.
lncastle's review against another edition
3.0
A good YA read exploring desirability politics in a fun and accessible way. I'm interested to see where the series goes!
ecbook27's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jayarna's review against another edition
4.0
2.5 stars. Maybe 3. If I'm in a good mood when you ask me.
I both loved and hated this book. I went in with high hopes as it had such a high rating. The plot of this book I did really enjoy. So much so I read it in three sittings, and this isn't a little book. But the writing was extremely hard for me to get through. Luckily, this has a strong ending, so it left me on a more positive note.
This book is sickly sweet. Emphasis on the sickly. Before we even get to the story, let's talk about the writing. Both the authors writing style and world building is so embellished. There's so many unnecessary words in here and so many unnecessary creations. I felt like I was wandering through a seven year old's princess birthday party - one she had been given full rein in planning herself. A lot of the descriptions felt overdone and hard to chew through, as of the author was shoving toffee after toffee into my mouth with no time to chew. I could see she was trying to create a beautiful world to juxtaposition against the dark themes, but I think she goes way too far. In fact, the world building is often extreme and seems to just be based on some bizarre dream the author must be clinging on to from when she was a child. In small amounts this would've been fine, but it felt like she was banging me over the head with it. Millions of lanterns, teacup animals (?! Cute perhaps, but felt like the icing on the cake when paired with everything else), perfume machines that hover over you, balloons for delivering post, flowers EVERYWHERE, twinkling lights, huge piles of deserts and pastries... The list goes on. Not to mention she would detail these things in paragraph after paragraph every few pages until I was deathly sick of hearing about the matching girly and sweet design of every room. It feel unrealistic that so many people would embrace such a childish and over the top world. I mean, come on. They called journalists Newsies (still not sure if these are humans or devices listening in on people, or both). NEWSIES. I couldn't even imagine a child reading this without wanting to vomit a little in their mouth. I just felt like I was reading some seven year olds fever dream gone wrong.
Yet there was little explanation for unique things that related to the story and the world - what the hell was the bei powder (amongst other products) and what was was the purpose of it, how does the entire population get service from (supposedly) only 6 Belles, what is the actual make up for each island, what is the travel, do only rich people get beauty treatments? If so, are Gris walking around the world too? Where are all the Gris living if they aren't? It took me a while to even work out what the hell Post-balloons even were, and I couldn't form a picture of them in my mind. Yet I'm overflowing with pictures of rooms filled with flowers and sweets and dresses of all different styles.
The constant hyphenated words drove me nuts, and they're usually completely redundant. Beauty-lanterns, Night-lanterns, day-lanterns (the difference of these is not really explored so why even have them all!!) Belle -bun, Post-balloons, ear-trumpets, Waist-sashes - just say sash! If you want to use this once, so I get what you're saying, then sure. But don't use it constantly. Half of these don't even need a hyphen! Please, of you're reading this, which I'm sure you're not - considering looking through your draft and cutting out those hypens.
There's also some parts of the world that just seem added in completely because it fits with the authors aesthetic. Newsies don't take photos, but rather they sketch pictures. (Again, not sure how to picture this. Are they humans or devices? How are they allowed everywhere?) This seems like a very difficult tradition, especially one in a world where they clearly have enough technology and magic to create something like a camera. I mean, they have flying lights designed just to follow you and light you perfectly. And you're telling me you don't have cameras? WHY?
I really struggled with the main character. She seems to have two moral compasses and swings between bearable and extremely dumb. Despite her character resting on her '"rebelliousness", sometimes she follows the rules of a Belle like a stickler, claiming that her job is extremely important and other times just decides that her job isn't that important at all. Her decisions are erratic and strange. She's sometimes smart, sometimes stupid. I mean come on! No one else is allowed to eat the food the evil princess is giving you, and you think it's safe to eat? Some of this was just so frustrating to read. She seems to have a knack for deciding to make the stupidest choices possible and never reflecting upon this. She acts very young and sheltered, which I can understand in some instances because of the structured training, but I find it hard to believe she underwent years of training only to watch her constantly speak so out of turn.
The love interest, if you can call him that, is about as undesirable as a big toe. I have no concept of why she likes him. I wish the author had given him some sort of likeable quality so I had some idea of why Camille liked him at all. I preferred Sophia over him. Actually I quite liked Sophia. She was a strong enough villain, although I couldn't work out why the queen never interfered.
Remy was always likeable, too obviously so. I just found Auguste to be so clearly evil. I wish she had made him more charming so I was a little more sucked in with him.
Complaints aside, I actually did like the story. It kept me reading and I really wanted to work out where it was all leading. I think she has a solid plot here. I just felt like I was reading the second draft of an amateur author. I was initially going to give this two stars, but the end saves it for me. I just wish we didn't have to take such a candy filled lane to get there. I also love Edel, and the last page made me want to read the next one just for that purpose. More Edel! Less Amber worship!
I both loved and hated this book. I went in with high hopes as it had such a high rating. The plot of this book I did really enjoy. So much so I read it in three sittings, and this isn't a little book. But the writing was extremely hard for me to get through. Luckily, this has a strong ending, so it left me on a more positive note.
This book is sickly sweet. Emphasis on the sickly. Before we even get to the story, let's talk about the writing. Both the authors writing style and world building is so embellished. There's so many unnecessary words in here and so many unnecessary creations. I felt like I was wandering through a seven year old's princess birthday party - one she had been given full rein in planning herself. A lot of the descriptions felt overdone and hard to chew through, as of the author was shoving toffee after toffee into my mouth with no time to chew. I could see she was trying to create a beautiful world to juxtaposition against the dark themes, but I think she goes way too far. In fact, the world building is often extreme and seems to just be based on some bizarre dream the author must be clinging on to from when she was a child. In small amounts this would've been fine, but it felt like she was banging me over the head with it. Millions of lanterns, teacup animals (?! Cute perhaps, but felt like the icing on the cake when paired with everything else), perfume machines that hover over you, balloons for delivering post, flowers EVERYWHERE, twinkling lights, huge piles of deserts and pastries... The list goes on. Not to mention she would detail these things in paragraph after paragraph every few pages until I was deathly sick of hearing about the matching girly and sweet design of every room. It feel unrealistic that so many people would embrace such a childish and over the top world. I mean, come on. They called journalists Newsies (still not sure if these are humans or devices listening in on people, or both). NEWSIES. I couldn't even imagine a child reading this without wanting to vomit a little in their mouth. I just felt like I was reading some seven year olds fever dream gone wrong.
Yet there was little explanation for unique things that related to the story and the world - what the hell was the bei powder (amongst other products) and what was was the purpose of it, how does the entire population get service from (supposedly) only 6 Belles, what is the actual make up for each island, what is the travel, do only rich people get beauty treatments? If so, are Gris walking around the world too? Where are all the Gris living if they aren't? It took me a while to even work out what the hell Post-balloons even were, and I couldn't form a picture of them in my mind. Yet I'm overflowing with pictures of rooms filled with flowers and sweets and dresses of all different styles.
The constant hyphenated words drove me nuts, and they're usually completely redundant. Beauty-lanterns, Night-lanterns, day-lanterns (the difference of these is not really explored so why even have them all!!) Belle -bun, Post-balloons, ear-trumpets, Waist-sashes - just say sash! If you want to use this once, so I get what you're saying, then sure. But don't use it constantly. Half of these don't even need a hyphen! Please, of you're reading this, which I'm sure you're not - considering looking through your draft and cutting out those hypens.
There's also some parts of the world that just seem added in completely because it fits with the authors aesthetic. Newsies don't take photos, but rather they sketch pictures. (Again, not sure how to picture this. Are they humans or devices? How are they allowed everywhere?) This seems like a very difficult tradition, especially one in a world where they clearly have enough technology and magic to create something like a camera. I mean, they have flying lights designed just to follow you and light you perfectly. And you're telling me you don't have cameras? WHY?
I really struggled with the main character. She seems to have two moral compasses and swings between bearable and extremely dumb. Despite her character resting on her '"rebelliousness", sometimes she follows the rules of a Belle like a stickler, claiming that her job is extremely important and other times just decides that her job isn't that important at all. Her decisions are erratic and strange. She's sometimes smart, sometimes stupid. I mean come on! No one else is allowed to eat the food the evil princess is giving you, and you think it's safe to eat? Some of this was just so frustrating to read. She seems to have a knack for deciding to make the stupidest choices possible and never reflecting upon this. She acts very young and sheltered, which I can understand in some instances because of the structured training, but I find it hard to believe she underwent years of training only to watch her constantly speak so out of turn.
The love interest, if you can call him that, is about as undesirable as a big toe. I have no concept of why she likes him. I wish the author had given him some sort of likeable quality so I had some idea of why Camille liked him at all. I preferred Sophia over him. Actually I quite liked Sophia. She was a strong enough villain, although I couldn't work out why the queen never interfered.
Remy was always likeable, too obviously so. I just found Auguste to be so clearly evil. I wish she had made him more charming so I was a little more sucked in with him.
Complaints aside, I actually did like the story. It kept me reading and I really wanted to work out where it was all leading. I think she has a solid plot here. I just felt like I was reading the second draft of an amateur author. I was initially going to give this two stars, but the end saves it for me. I just wish we didn't have to take such a candy filled lane to get there. I also love Edel, and the last page made me want to read the next one just for that purpose. More Edel! Less Amber worship!
ihateprozac's review against another edition
4.0
The Belles is set in what appears to be an alternate-universe New Orleans, where the gods have cursed the human race to be “ugly”. Fortunately for human society, a small group of humans dubbed “The Belles” have supernatural abilities enabling them to manipulate beauty. The novel follows a Belle, Camellia, as she finishes her years of Belle-training and is released into society to fulfill her purpose: to make people beautiful.
This book was the subject of too much hype. I’m aaaaaaaalways here for more diverse YA speculative fiction, but the extent to which this book was hyped on Booktube meant I went in expecting the most mindblowing YA dystopian-fantasy I’d ever read. And don’t get me wrong it was good, but definitely far from great.
This book has a steeeeeeep learning curve and it took me a solid 150 pages before I sunk into the story. I was confused by the magic system and I felt like Clayton unnecessarily complicated the world by shrouding the Belles’ abilities in arcana, leeches, and beauty tools. I wish their abilities had been described more simply as physiological manipulation and left at that.
I also didn’t really get the whole godly curse thing; it reads as if humanity were cursed from the stone ages to be these dull homogenous beings, so how did they discover the Belles and arrive at the current (and diverse) standards of beauty? It didn’t make sense to me how they got from A to B as a society.
After the first 150 difficult pages I was solidly entrenched in the story, but it wasn’t until the last quarter that it became clear where the story was even heading. The Belles meanders along and feels like it’s not sure what it wants to be; should it be exploring a dark secret that society’s been harbouring in their teahouses, should it be focusing on dissolving society’s unhealthy obsession with beauty, or should it be focusing on a big bad villain?
That being said, I did enjoy this book enough to warrant picking up the sequel. As a drag artist and makeup enthusiast I was liiiiiving for this world of teacakes and ballgowns, as well as the obvious commentary on body dysmorphia, POC, and unrealistic body standards. And while the story took too long to find its feet, I am now invested in both overthrowing the villain and the larger mystery at play here. Sure, I won’t be buying into the hype and banging on the doors of my local bookstore to buy the sequel, but I’ll definitely give this world another chance.
This book was the subject of too much hype. I’m aaaaaaaalways here for more diverse YA speculative fiction, but the extent to which this book was hyped on Booktube meant I went in expecting the most mindblowing YA dystopian-fantasy I’d ever read. And don’t get me wrong it was good, but definitely far from great.
This book has a steeeeeeep learning curve and it took me a solid 150 pages before I sunk into the story. I was confused by the magic system and I felt like Clayton unnecessarily complicated the world by shrouding the Belles’ abilities in arcana, leeches, and beauty tools. I wish their abilities had been described more simply as physiological manipulation and left at that.
I also didn’t really get the whole godly curse thing; it reads as if humanity were cursed from the stone ages to be these dull homogenous beings, so how did they discover the Belles and arrive at the current (and diverse) standards of beauty? It didn’t make sense to me how they got from A to B as a society.
After the first 150 difficult pages I was solidly entrenched in the story, but it wasn’t until the last quarter that it became clear where the story was even heading. The Belles meanders along and feels like it’s not sure what it wants to be; should it be exploring a dark secret that society’s been harbouring in their teahouses, should it be focusing on dissolving society’s unhealthy obsession with beauty, or should it be focusing on a big bad villain?
That being said, I did enjoy this book enough to warrant picking up the sequel. As a drag artist and makeup enthusiast I was liiiiiving for this world of teacakes and ballgowns, as well as the obvious commentary on body dysmorphia, POC, and unrealistic body standards. And while the story took too long to find its feet, I am now invested in both overthrowing the villain and the larger mystery at play here. Sure, I won’t be buying into the hype and banging on the doors of my local bookstore to buy the sequel, but I’ll definitely give this world another chance.
jeaninereadsss's review against another edition
5.0
READ THIS BOOK.
The Belles is a truly amazing book, it carries a very important message about how we view ourselves and the people around us, it is written with such honesty and sometimes it was too much for me, it grossed me out and made me fake vomit but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The world and the characters created felt vivid, imagining the words I read completely blew my mind even though sometimes I found the descriptions tiring. Can’t wait for the next part of the story and I hope Camille gets to kick some more ass with Edel, Amber and the whole gang.
4.5 ❤️
The Belles is a truly amazing book, it carries a very important message about how we view ourselves and the people around us, it is written with such honesty and sometimes it was too much for me, it grossed me out and made me fake vomit but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The world and the characters created felt vivid, imagining the words I read completely blew my mind even though sometimes I found the descriptions tiring. Can’t wait for the next part of the story and I hope Camille gets to kick some more ass with Edel, Amber and the whole gang.
4.5 ❤️
mousemilk's review against another edition
5.0
This book was so Stunning. I loved it so much, I don't even know where to start.
I feel like the message this book was themed of was a very important one. The high beauty standards that the media and the world place on the young people of today are extremely damaging. These pressures have always been in people's mind but it's much worse now, I believe. As the author says, this novel has been in her mind, almost haunting her for a long time now, and I think that just shows how these aren't new, only worse now.
But in terms of writing. I really adored it. The pace was fast but it got right to the story very quickly, which made me want to read it in almost one sitting. The characters are likable, well written and they're believable with their problems with this world they live in. I loved everything about this book, the characters, the world, the writing and the aesthetic of it all. I loved the message this book was saying, and I believe she did it very well. I can not wait for the second book, and I hope it comes sooner than later for I'm not sure how long I can wait to see what happens to my new favorite girls.
I feel like the message this book was themed of was a very important one. The high beauty standards that the media and the world place on the young people of today are extremely damaging. These pressures have always been in people's mind but it's much worse now, I believe. As the author says, this novel has been in her mind, almost haunting her for a long time now, and I think that just shows how these aren't new, only worse now.
But in terms of writing. I really adored it. The pace was fast but it got right to the story very quickly, which made me want to read it in almost one sitting. The characters are likable, well written and they're believable with their problems with this world they live in. I loved everything about this book, the characters, the world, the writing and the aesthetic of it all. I loved the message this book was saying, and I believe she did it very well. I can not wait for the second book, and I hope it comes sooner than later for I'm not sure how long I can wait to see what happens to my new favorite girls.