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A review by ihateprozac
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
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.