The Belles: a review

Dec 27, 20214 min read

D E T A I L S

- Title- The Belles

- Author(s)- Dhonielle Clayton

- Genre(s)- fantasy

- Age rating- 14+

- Publication date- 06/02/2018

- Publisher- Disney-Hyperion

P R E M I S E

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.

With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.

[GOODREADS] [STORYGRAPH]

R E V I E W

// Content Warning: animal cruelty / blood / body horror / body shaming / "bury your gays" trope / death / emotional abuse / torture / vomit //

THE BELLES followed Camille who belongs to this community / group (sorta) of women dubbed as "the belles" who are thought to be the most beautiful in the world and their sole purpose of existence is to beautify others aka the mortals (?) except the only way they can do any of this is through the vilest and most horrifying method known to humankind. It's too complex to explain but just know that it includes leeches, picking at their client's skin with surgical tools, and lots of blood.

The book begins with a competition meant to rank these "sisters" (they aren't related but they grew up together) and distribute them to prestigious teahouses where they'll work as beauticians for uh a really really long time. So, blah blah they got their ranks, oh no Camille's not the queen's favourite, but what's this? She's the queen's favourite but oh where's Amber?

You get the idea, right?

Seeing through Camille's eyes was a fresh take compared to the typical YA fantasy protagonist which I'm accustomed to. She had a strong personality and an even richer character voice. I loved her through and through.

Auguste (the love interest) reminds me of my other personality (I have multiple, depends on my mood really): sassy, flirtatious, charming and overly handsome. His back must hurt from carrying all the humour in this book.

The guard, Remy, (spelt with an accent on the E) is me 95% of the time: mysterious, sarcastic, rude and expressionless. It was pretty embarrassing seeing two of my personalities meet each other.

The sisters were fleshed out with their own set of hopes and ambitions, honestly 10/10 from me. The sister with the most dominant presence was Edel and I can't tell if I want to be her or be with her. She didn't give a flying fuck about what others thought about her and whatever she did. Amber, I did not like because she seemed too jealous for my liking (but looking back at it, these "sisters" were brought up to see each other as competition because they had to be the best of the best).

The ending was a bit rushed and had too many things happening in 4 to 5 pages. I wish that half of the scenes were carried out in the next book seeing that it is going to be a series.

This book would have been a 5/5 from me had there not been any issues with representation. The details below are quite heavy spoilers so consider yourself warned (in short, the trope I'm talking about is "bury your gays".

The whole entirety of the book consisted of 2 LGBTQ+ characters (lesbians). Their relationship was kept secret and then the most prominent one was killed off (quite graphically too) for the sake of furthering the storyline. This review on goodreads explains this better than I do so I urge you to check it out.

Another thing I also found problematic was this one headline that popped up some time during the book. It said something like "BOY TURNS INTO GIRL" and I don't understand why it was worded as such (even if it is a newspaper article meant to draw you in, it's completely unnecessary) because a) if they're trans, they were never a boy and b) if you aren't fully prepared to include a fully fleshed out trans character, please don't.

Remember that everything you are feeling is valid and this will always be a safe place for you to express yourself (except if you're actively hating on a group of people because their choices don't align with your beliefs in that case, go die in a hole)

4/5 stars