The Beautiful (Beautiful, #1)

by Renée Ahdieh

[girlinthepages]

We were all thinking the same thing, weren’t we? As soon as the news of a vampire YA book coming out hit, we were all hoping this would revive our emo little Twilight hearts (at least, this is certainly what happened to me). After many, many years of vampires being almost taboo in mainstream YA after the slew of paranormal novels that followed the Twilight craze, burning everyone out on the topic. I, however, always bemoaned the decline in popularity of paranormal YA literature so you can bet that when I heard of The Beautiful it instantly shot to the top of my 2019 must-read priority list. However, after the book’s release review after review came out stating it was…not what everyone was expecting it to be. Armed with that information, I was able to go into The Beautiful with reasonable expectations and was overall able to mostly enjoy it for what it was- which was NOT the revival of vampires in YA that we were all expecting.

I would primarily categorize The Beautiful as a historical fiction novel, which is great! I love historical fiction. Set in the late 1800s, it follows protagonist Celine as she flees Paris and arrives in New Orleans determined to start over. Celine was an apprentice of a master dress maker in Paris, and I loved reading about the creations that she makes and the historical detail that goes into the descriptions of clothing in the novel. It’s unique and is a trait that sets Celine apart from other protagonists. Her skill with a needle leads to her introduction to a set a rich, mysterious group of wealthy folks from New Orleans who are part of a “court” which ultimately leads sets the stage for the paranormal activity to begin, driven by the continued mysterious murders of young women happening across the city. But there’s still not really any overt signs that “this is a vampire novel happening” even after Celine becomes involved with the court.

While there were not as many vampires as I would have hoped, like vampire novels of past there IS a love triangle. Now I don’t mind a love triangle if it is well done, however I just couldn’t bring myself to care about either love interest and honestly thought Celine was way more interesting than both of them. The main love interest, Bastien, really felt like a “this is what a hot, mysterious historical fictional alpha male love interest” should be and I really didn’t feel like he had a personality until maybe the end of the book. I was much more intrigued by the female cast of characters, from Pippa, Celine’s new best friend who is running from her own demons in England to Odette, a mysterious member of the court who claims she is a seer. It was also hinted that everyone in the court had some sort of paranormal power but this was all really glossed over and never really explained in detail and I personally kept forgetting who the different members of the court were *shrug* It was also hard to really feel the stakes because I felt like I didn’t have any backstory on the court, their powers, Bastien’s scary uncle, etc. Basically any part of the story that wasn’t about Celine’s own journey was sort of lost on me.

The end of the book ended on quite a big cliffhanger, and the events lead me to believe that the sequel will actually focus more on vampires and the paranormal than this novel did. Despite some of my lackluster thoughts on this particular story, I’m intrigued enough to continue on and hope that book two will bring more vampires to the table.

Overall: While The Beautiful was a book rich in setting, description, and personality of the protagonist, it really lacked substance and definitely lacked vampires. The writing was pretty and I’m intrigued enough to continue on with the second book (though it’s not at the top of my TBR) I don’t feel it’s a book that’s really going to stick as a staple in the YA paranormal genre- although hopefully it is hinting at a revival of it!This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages