Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
This book is a deep dive into beauty and power, in addition to being an excellent fantasy dripping with court drama, given this it makes me feel very shallow for having not even picked this book up because I didn’t like the cover. I think it looks blurry in a way that makes me want to clean my glasses, I don’t like the dots, and I think the flowers look like they are floating atop this lovely lady and not in her hair. So to dive into a book so intertwined with beauty, perception, the desire to be beautiful, and the power that comes with that makes me feel a little embarrassed I almost didn’t read it because of such a silly reason. It is especially weird because you can see the cover photo shoot here, and I love the way the photos look before they were edited for the final cover.
The Belles follows Camellia Beauregard, who is a Belle. The Belles are blessed by the goddess of beauty to be able to change the grey skin and dull straw-like hair of the nation Orleans into a dazzling array of beauty for a price, of course. They are raised to learn the talents they will need to provide these services, then whisked off to the Royal Palace when they turn 16. The Queen chooses a favorite to be satiation there while the others are stationed at various tea houses where they provide the painful treatments that make others beautiful. Camille and her best friend and sister, Amber, are determined to become the favorite. Once all the girls have their stations, they begin to notice that things are not what they seem in Orleans. They report to each other that they have been hearing screams in the night and noticing that their older sisters and predecessors are missing, among other oddities. Camille must figure what is going on beneath the beautiful exterior and try to help save Orleans from an unstable and cruel fate.
If you love lush description and unexplored magic systems, I think you will fall in love with this book. The world is rich and dripping with sensory information, as you would expect from a book so about beauty and color and appearance. It feels decadent, people and clothing are compared to cakes and foods and flowers, their appearances (aside from Camille and her fellow Belles) are ever-shifting in a way that is interesting and helps establish who the characters are by directly showing you what they care about. This is coming from someone who is oft very bored by segments of novels that are deeply interested in extensive fashion or appearance description because I do not tend to really care to hear every detail of a dress or a person I am obviously not able to see, the character description really helped the world and characters take root in my mind in a way that I enjoyed.
That is not to imply this book is surface level or light; the beautiful surface is a lovely covering to secrets, conspiracy, and oodles of royal intrigue. It gets just as dark as it is beautiful.
There were a few things that I didn’t completely love about this book. It is a matriarchal society (and this is an issue I tend to have with lots of books where the power is even somewhat gender slipped) the Queen is the primary monarch, she passes the crown to her daughter, those who train and control access to the Belles are women, and women are seen in positions of power throughout the book. Yet every character meant to be a physically imposing force is male, women are healed to a much higher beauty standard than men, wasting so much of their lives on their appearance, and men are still shown to have the upper hand in credibility in he-said-she-said situations. I can see how my annoyance by the beauty part of that complaint is maybe not rational because this book is clearly written in part to critique the beauty industry and its control over women. Still, I would have liked it if the only adult character who pushed back against the idea of these beauty standards wasn’t a man.
There were also many situations where I did not understand why the Queen could not intervene, the answer I assume is because that would stop the plot’s progression, but it made me feel like she didn’t have much control and had a pretty passive role far more often than I would have liked to see. The Queen literally seems to have a complete lack of anything resembling authority after she is off the page for a few days. Also a small warning, there are four queer characters introduced in this book, and half are dead by the end. It is not inherently problematic to kill LGBTQ+ characters in books, of course, but if you are looking to avoid books that fit into the bury your gays trope, I would want you to be aware. I will say that these characters are fleshed out and part of the plot, but I still wanted to include a heads up.
Back to what I loved about this book. Clayton’s writing, in addition to being beautiful, will undoubtedly play with your emotions incredibly well. She had me more anxious than my unfinished thesis is able to produce. I listened to the audiobook for most of my consumption of this story (the narrator is excellent 10/10 recommend), and I literally had to go on walks while listening to certain parts to try to physically get rid of the nervousness and anticipation.
I really look forward to reading the next book, The Everlasting Rose, and Goodreads says the third and final book is out this year, but it has neither title nor release date yet, so I am unsure about this. I also plan to explore her back catalog, the positive to being late to the party is I don’t have to wait a long time to access more of Clayton’s work!
I gave this book four stars on Goodreads and would recommend it to anyone who wants a unique magic system, is interested in the exploration of beauty, or just loves a YA full of court intrigue.
