The Belles (Belles, #1)

by Dhonielle Clayton

'Looking for the next big groundbreaking event in YA? This is it.' Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series

The New York Times bestselling tale of beauty, obsession and magic. . .

I AM A BELLE. I CONTROL BEAUTY.

In the opulent world of Orléans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle's powers can make them beautiful.

Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle - the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family.

But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that her powers may be far greater - and far darker - than she ever imagined.

When the queen asks Camellia to break the rules she lives by to save the ailing princess, she faces an impossible decision: protect herself and the way of the Belles, or risk her own life, and change the world forever.

'Sumptuous and original worldbuilding, heart-pounding plot and gorgeous prose.' Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Season

'A whip-smart writer with grand, grand talents.' Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist

'Breathtakingly beautiful and deeply unsettling.' Marie Lu, #1 New York Times bestselling author

• ISBN10: 1473223962
• ISBN13: 9781473223967
• Publish Date: 8 February 2018 (first published 6 February 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

concept more than people So it's an interesting read, it's also an interesting concept but honestly I didn't care what happened to the people.
 
This is a world where in New Orleans people are born grey and only the power of a Belle can make them beautiful.  Camellia Beauregard is one of these Belles and she wants to be the court favourite.  However she isn't at first but later she is and she starts to discover that court politics aren't fun; that things are complicated and that the life of a Belle isn't that great.
 
These young women were badly educated for their roles and the fact that it came to them as a shock is actually shocking.  Court politics are messy and that should have been a core part of their education, never mind some of the other issues.  
 
It's an interesting concept novel but I feel no need to continue with the series.  I might pick it up but I'm not hunting it down.

[bgsbooks18]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I will say that it was a little weird at first and took some time to get into the book. You really do have to read half of the book to understand what's really going on. After that it is really good, more things piece together. So it helps you understand better. I would recommend this book.

[tellemonstar]

review to come

[sarahjay]

I started out really digging this and about halfway through I realized, oh. This is all it is. You look under the surface and just find more surface. The characters aren't going to get deeper or act like real people with consistent personality traits, or personality traits, period. The world isn't going to be built out at all. The """""""science"""""""" isn't going to get any kind of explanation. The politics are flimsy to the point of being non-existent. There are characters just called things like "the Fashion Minister." Okay. It was like reading The Selection, which I fully admit to enjoying, but without any of the redeeming qualities that made that series fun to read.

I see that there are going to be sequels to this, so maybe future books will course correct some of my complaints, but I will probably not read them to find out. There wasn't a single likable character I could invest in. The dialogue is unbearable. Everyone is excessively selfish and/or willfully stupid about their situations, no one communicates about goddamn anything, and the love interests are laughably ridiculous. On top of all of that there are some anti-LGBTQ tropes that no one asked for or needs in 2018. It's garbage. I wasn't going to be that harsh but fuck it. This book is garbage.

[emruth13]

First, I WANT A TEACUP DRAGON! Second, this book was sooooo good! I loved the concept of Beauty as a commodity (and after reading the Author's Note at the end, I totally see where she came from with that idea) and I loved the intrigue of the court world as Camille fulfilled her role as Belle. I'm so excited for the next book because I need to know what happens next!

[Jo]

4.5 Stars.

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Trigger Warning: This book features sexual assault.

I've been absolutely dying to read The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. There has been so much buzz about it for months now, so I've been eagerly anticipating reading it myself. It was absolutely worth all the praise it's received - The Belles is incredible!

In a world where everyone is born with grey skin, grey hair the texture of straw, and red eyes, Camellia and her five sisters, are Belles; girls born with colour, and the magical ability to make others beautiful. Camellia desperately wants to be picked by the Queen as the favourite Belle, meaning she'll do the beauty work for the royal family and it's courtiers. But life as a Belle at court isn't what she expected. The courtiers are demanding, requesting extreme beauty work that leaves Camellia exhausted. But the work is only half of it; she is asked by the Queen to use her powers in ways they've never been used before, in an effort to try and save her older daughter, Princess Charlotte, who has been in a deep sleep for many years. She discovers there are secrets hidden in the palace, kept from the people and Belles alike. When she uncovers the truth about the Belles, she questions everything she's ever been taught. She has a choice: keep the secrets and protect herself, or try to save the princess, change the world, and risk her own life in the process.

I cannot tell you just how incredible The Belles is. It's not just about beauty, it is, itself, beautiful; with gorgeous, decadent writing and rich, lavish imagery painting the most stunning of pictures, the act of reading this book is a luxurious experience. It's so opulent, it begs to be read out loud. And Clayton has created such an incredible world. It's high fantasy, so there's court life and intrigue, but it also has a modern feel, with newspapers and gossip magazines, it's own version of paparazzi, and technology; cameras, blimps with screens, lights for every purpose, devices to make your voice travel, and to hear what's being said at a distance, a mail delivery service using balloons, and so much more.

On the surface, the work of the Belles seems harmless enough, something akin to paying for a makeover, in a world where beauty means more than anything else, a shallow and superficial world, maybe, but not too different from our own. But then you realise that beauty work is actually a lot more like cosmetic surgery; it's not enhancing your appearance with make-up, or making it seem as if you're beautiful through some kind of glamour, it's actually physically changing your body - skin, bones and muscle, as well as colour and texture - and it's excruciatingly painful. Sure, you're given Belle-rose tea, which acts as an anaesthetic, but it doesn't get rid of all the pain. And the beauty work never lasts, it all wears off eventually.

But the people of Orléans are obsessed with beauty because being beautiful is everything; it's a sign of wealth, because beauty work is expensive; it's a sign of status, because those who aren't important can't afford beauty work. Without the Belles, you're grey and shrivelled and ugly, the dregs of society, and the people of Orléans can't imagine anything worse. But it's not just about being beautiful, it's about being the right kind of beautiful. Hair colours, skin colours, eye colours, bone structures, body sizes and frames come in and out of fashion. You don't want to be unfashionable, but you also want to be seen to set the newest trend. Who cares about the expense or how much pain you have to go through?

I did feel it took a while to get going. As sumptuous as the descriptions are, at the beginning, I felt it slowed the story down a bit; absolutely everything seemed to be described in extensive detail, that I did get a little tired of it, and just wanted the story to actually begin, to go somewhere. But once it did, the pace picks up. At first, we're discovering the world and Camille's life at court; the people she meets, the relationships she develops, how her arcana - her magical ability - works. We learn more and more about the people of Orléans, and their desperation to be beautiful.

Camellia - or, as she prefers, Camille - is in constant demand. And despite the fact that she is the one with the power, her advice is often unheeded. There was one moment when a woman comes to Camille with her five-year-old daughter, wanting Camille to make her more beautiful. As far as Camille is concerned, she's already pretty enough, maybe just needs refreshing a little as the grey is starting to show through, but the girl's mother disagrees. She has a very specific look for her daughter in mind, and won't accept anything less. It's quite clear from talking to the little girl that she is never beautiful enough for her mother. The beauty work her mother demands is so painful, the little girl has to be forcibly held down by her mother and a servant while she's screaming in pain. It's so shocking to read. And although Camille doesn't think the little girl needed such work, she still thought she needed refreshing, which would also have been painful. It's one thing to pay to put yourself through pain to be beautiful, but to forcibly do it to a child was just horrifying. The Belles really makes you think about the beauty industry, how our patriarchal society puts so much value on a woman's looks, and how we strive to be beautiful, how far we'll go to try to reach those impossible beauty standards.

But along with the beauty work, there's so much else going on; voices screaming and crying out in the night; the Big Sisters - the last generation's Belles - who now wear veils for some unknown reason; the darker side to the Belles' power and what they never imagined they could do; the illness or condition that put Princess Charlotte into a deep sleep four years ago, from which she has never woken. Loyalties are tested, lines are drawn, and the power balance is at risk. We have a sadistic villain who will horrify you, but delight you with how brilliantly sinister and terrifying they are. I was reminded a lot of Queen Levana from Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles, particularly Fairest, Levana's own story.

Before I end my review, I think it's important to note that Camille is a Black woman. At I said at the beginning of my review, although everyone else is born grey, the Belles are born with colour - so Camille is born with golden brown skin. There are no races in The Belles, as everyone except the Belles are born the same, but you can choose your skin colour, by shade, and the people of Orléans change their skin colour like they change their clothes. Belles can't change anything about themselves, they stay as they are, like we do, so Camille has golden brown skin - a Black woman - throughout. Camille is beautiful, but not only because she has colour, she is particularly very beautiful. She can't change the way she looks, but nobody would think she needs to. And this is so very important. This is a high fantasy, with a Black woman as the protagonist, who is beautiful in the eyes of everyone. And this is rare. We're doing better when it comes to high fantasy with people of colour as protagonists, in YA and adult, but not well enough. Apart from a few books here and there, the protagonists tend to always be white. I think it's also important to note that Camille is in a position of power; she has this magical ability, and her abilities are sought after; she is popular and is of high standing. Who has her own servant. Again, a Black woman, in a high fantasy. This is practically unheard of, which makes this book not just a fantastic high fantasy novel, but an incredibly important story. For what it says about beauty, but also so teen readers - particularly Black teen girls - see a Black woman, of high standing, in a position of power, who is beautiful, in a high fantasy novel - with a beautiful Black woman on the cover, too. There's still so much more needed, but slowly but surely, teens of colour are being given books where they get to star in magical fantasy stories, too.

The Belles ends on such a cliffhanger, and I am so desperate to know where the story will go from here! It's captivating, exciting, and just incredible. Book two cannot come soon enough. The Belles is exquisite; a temptation that is impossible to resist.

Thank you to Gollancz via NetGalley for the eProof.

[Amber]

I am so, so disappointed by The Belles. It’s possibly one of the most hyped books of the season, and I was really excited to get my hands on it, but it turned out to be a massive disappointment.


I loved the premise and the idea of what message the author was trying to send. The world in this book is basically run on beauty. The rich of Orleans get magical plastic surgery on a whim in order to look younger, look prettier, or just to stand out more. I loved the idea of a group of Belles using arcana to achieve these beauty standards. Unfortunately, the concept wasn’t executed very well at all.

The plot dragged right from the start. The first couple of chapters did nothing to draw me in, and I was bored pretty much from the beginning. I didn’t want to put it down, though, because everyone was talking about the book and I guess I didn’t want to miss out. The ending was slightly better than the beginning of the book, although that’s not saying much at all. If the book was written better, I would have been at least a little bit interested in reading the sequel after reading the ending. Alas.

On the plus side, the main character is black and this is an own voices book, so yay. Maybe others will connect with this more than I did.

That said, the LGBTQIA+ representation in this book is… lacking. There are two prominent queer characters, which would be great since one is the queen, except the book takes a nosedive when it falls into the Bury Your Gays trope. I’m okay with spoiling this because it’s not a nice trope, but if you’re not interested in finding out then you should skip this next bit.

One character, who is a lesbian, is killed in a violent and painful way by two straight characters. It was difficult to read, especially as it went on for a while. The second, the bisexual queen, is killed off-screen. We’re told that she’s dead via a newspaper article, which simply states that her heart has stopped. Nothing more.

I was really disappointed with how this was handled, especially as, as far as I’m aware, these two were the only queer characters in the book.

Like I said, I’m just disappointed by this book in general. I don’t really understand why it’s getting so much love or hype, but I guess other people are getting something from it that I’m not.

[Kelly]

Sixteen year old Camellia Beauregard is a Belle, a young woman disciplined in the artistry of beautification. On debut, Camellia and the Belles of Maison Rouge De La Beauté will perform for the cosmopolites of Orléans in the Beauté Carnaval, the Favourite chosen as the Royal Belle while her fellow sisters, blessed by the Goddess of Beauty, will be appointed to Tea Houses around the Kingdom.

In Orléans, citizens are are depleted of colour, their monochrome appearance dependant on each generation of Belles to beautify the wealthy and privileged citizens by bringing forth the Acana. Camellia is a grandiose young woman, her beauty and Belle stature are celebrated throughout the kingdom. From a tender age, Camellia has been cautioned to the significance of her responsibility, become the favourite. Competing for the converted position are her five fellow Belles, Edelweiss, Padma, Valeria, Hana and Camellia's childhood companion Ambrosia.

While Camellia with her mischievous temperament enjoyed the spoils of her gilded cage at Maison Rouge De La Beauté, Ambrosia demanded perfection. Ambrosia is a character of contrasts, a tender girl with a gentle disposition but beneath the surface is insidiously competitive. I admired the carefree, nonchalant boldness of Edelweiss, unafraid and unconcerned about the Belle position. As the narrative progresses, Edelweiss' insolence towards authority takes on a greater importance. Fiercely loyal and rebellious, I cherished her character.

The Belles must adhere to stringent guidelines. Only those with wealth and privilege are worthy of embellishment and in no circumstances should a Belle associate with men beyond a professional compacity or engage in consensual relationships. Charismatic Auguste Fabry is the son of the Minister of the Seas and although aware of the forbidden nature to engage with Auguste, Camellia is captivated by his confidence and insistence. The kingdom of Orléans is flushed with colour and glamour, the splendour the royal family of Orléans is eclipsed by the despair for their eldest daughter. Heir to the throne Princess Charlotte, who remains unconscious while the abhorrent Princess Sophia presides over extravagant parties. Sophia is a vindictive young woman, consumed by jealousy and hostility.

Beneath the imaginative extravagance is a narrative that explores cultural and racial identity, confidence, esteem and perception, challenging the confines of affluence and privilege. The Belles is exquisitely lyrical and atmospherically enchanting. Impeccable reading.

[Heather]

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did.  I've been hearing about it for so long and have heard such glowing praise of it that when I finished it and felt a bit blah towards it, I was disappointed.

The Hype

This book has been super hyped because of the use of a black model in a gown on the cover.  It was celebrated as a great step forward for representation in books and it is.  But because of that I thought that race would play a bigger part in this book than it does.  Skin color in this world is decided on a whim.  There is no change in status/power/importance placed on the skin color that you have.  It is a fashion accessory.  It just seemed like it went from "Yay for Black Girls" on the cover and in the promotions to "But actually, this doesn't have anything to do with you specifically" in the story.  If I didn't know anything about how this book was promoted, it probably wouldn't have felt strange to me.

Worldbuilding

The author does a great job in the opening of setting up the world.  It is imaginative and vivid.  After that though the world building just seems to stop.  This is a long novel at 448 pages.  In most fantasy books that size you'd know about countries around the area, the basis of the economy, how people of different classes live, what is their technology based on, etc.  The main character is very sheltered but that isn't unusual in fantasy.  Usually they find out more about their surroundings that she does in this book though.  At least they show some interest in what is going on around them.  Camillia really doesn't.

Wishy Washy Heroine

Events happen to the characters in this book.  They do not direct the action.  I think this is the key to my dissatisfaction with this book. 

Every time she is asked to make a decision, she puts it off for days. Eventually she makes a decision but it is usually irrelevant by then because events have moved on.  When deciding between what is right/hard and what is easy/cruel, she always chooses easy/cruel if forced to make a choice in the moment.  She seems like she is supposed to be a nice person - she remembers servants' names! - but she is so very weak.  Only after witnessing and participating in abuse after abuse does she start to think that something might be wrong.  I would be much more interested in reading a story about the one of her fellow Belles who threw a fit about what she was being made to do almost from the beginning.  

Series vs Stand alone book

It is fine to have a book designed to be part of a series but I hate it when there is no resolution at the end of a book.  Even just wrapping up some side storylines is more satisfying than a totally open-ended book.  In a way this feels like the story is just starting and the pages run out.  That's fine if you can move right on to the next book but it is annoying here.  At the end I kept thinking of questions that weren't answered and thinking, "Maybe that's in the next book" instead of enjoying what was in this one.  

Overall

I think the idea was good.  There are some very creative details in the world building like teacup elephants and mail being delivered by small balloons.  It may turn out to be the beginning of a good series.  But it doesn't stand alone well as a single book.  This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[shannonmiz]

The premise of The Belles is A+. I also loved the characters, and the strong female friendships that develop. I was fascinated by the girls being able to change appearance, and all the rules that accompanied it. Obviously, the wealthy and those in power had a lot of control and there was a lot of crappy stuff happening that Camellia didn’t know before she officially became a Belle. Camellia herself is a really strong main character, and I absolutely loved her passion and strength in the midst of tons of adversity. My only real complaint with the book was that it seemed longer than it needed to be, and was often more descriptive than it needed to be. I’ll definitely be reading book two though! Also, can we talk about that cover?! So much pretty!