Falls short in world-building and character development, but succeeds in exploring the concept of beauty expectations
Conceptually, this is an interesting story. However, I never felt like The Belles found its footing and became a fully grounded novel. The idea that there is a world cursed without beauty and the people are all born gray and colorless is intriguing, and clearly laying itself out to contrast with the world in which the reader lives with such a lovely variety of human beings. The Belles wasn't focused on race, per say, but there were hints of tackling racist ideas. Unfortunately, those don't play any role in the concept. Instead, Clayton has focused on the underlying idea of Beauty based on society's expectations.
If you look at physical beauty expectations over the centuries, set by a variety of customs, civilizations, and societies, you easily see how beauty demands change just like fashion. What was popular and considered beautiful during the Renaissance is not considered beautiful or desirable in the 20th century, and so on. In singular execution, I think Clayton succeeded in getting her point across (driving it home actually) and the way it’s expressed in the novel. Beauty is fashion—although here it seems to change overnight instead of sticking to more seasonal trends. Seemingly, nothing is off limits—hair, eye, skin, body...shape, color, texture. Nearly anything and everything can be changed.
Enter the Belles. The Belles are gifts from the Goddess of Beauty after the first humans had been cursed by the God of the Sky to have gray skin, red eyes, and straw-like hair. The Belles have the ability to manipulate humans' bodies through some kind of magical, non-magic that is a reservoir of something called arcana. (More on that in a minute.)
Our main Belle and narrator is Camellia Beauregard. She and her Belle sisters have just turned 16 and are revving up, at the beginning of the novel, to start the traditional contest/exhibition for displaying their Belle skills. One Belle will be chosen as the favorite by the Queen of Orléans to be the Belle who will serve the royal court and the royal family.
As a main character, Camille felt more like an execution of ideas rather than a fully-fleshed out person. Her weaknesses seem incongruous and written to be part of the balance, instead of them coming up from true, deep characterization. She was pretty much the too stupid to live kind of main character, overlaid with messages sent directly from the author via this puppet.
There seems to be a huge disconnect between what these Belles were supposedly trained to do, what their expectations are (at least for Camellia), and what the clients and society demands of them—to the point that it wasn’t believable. What on earth were they trained to do? I suppose it can be explained away by inadequate training, but that only really opens up the discussion with more questions that seem unanswerable.
One aspect I did enjoy were the transformations the Beauty clients would undergo to change their features. I thought Clayton, along with hammering home the concept of what it means to be beautiful, handled these sections well and allowed for a number of combinations. These changes the Belles make are not permanent changes. If the changes aren't maintained, the subject will fade back to gray and whatnot. But with the changes being so painful, is the slow transformation back not just as painful and then also prolonged?
Also, given all of what could be and was changed—especially with Princess Sophia!—I don't understand how anyone was recognizable at times. Apparently all that identifies someone at times, is the emblem they wear to signify to which class or house they belong.
If it weren't for the royal Orléans emblem hanging around her neck, she'd be unrecognizable.
Along with that there was a fair amount of diversity in other aspects. There was one mention of someone being transgendered, but it was delivered as part of a lift on the previous ban of having a Belle change your gender. And the few women who were mentioned to be in love with or in a relationship with other women weren't treated well by the other characters. So, I was left feeling unsure about how the society or governing body viewed these women. Women who seemed disposable (let's just say).
Yes, you like women, but you have to have babies.
I know you want to be with her but I want you to marry this man.
World-building leaves a lot to be desired. While Clayton paints a nice picture with dozens upon dozens of accoutrements, she never really made me feel as though this world, this place, were part of a larger story or that it was anything more substantial than something to be decorated with colorful phrases.
—• Teacup animals as pets is an intriguing idea, but they serve zero purpose other than further underscoring this society that changes things to be beautiful and frivolous. I got it. Except I have no idea how they are so small. Were they simply bred that small over hundreds of years? It's baffling.
—• Post-balloons are sent in lieu of a ground postal system, and I have no idea about them other than they seem to be magically controlled by something in a world where there is no true magic. (Magic is too simple an explanation for the arcana, apparently.) There are different colored post-balloons: black, gold-and-white, and scarlet. And they can deflate in some manner, because once when Camille was feeling down, her mood was described as such. "I deflate like a post-balloon that's lost its air,...." But that's all I know. And while this is a small piece, it is indicative of the world as a whole.
The history of Orléans and the Belles is smoothed over, and seems more weighted in myth and folklore-type stories which are never brought into question. Everything is taken at surface value—even to our main character who often just shrugs pesky questions away. Clayton spends a great deal of time on describing Camille's surroundings, but not much on government, history, places and beliefs outside Orléans, or opposing ideas. Perhaps nothing more so than the reserve of power which each Belle draws from in order to manipulate people's bodies: the arcana.
A mysterious gift from the Goddess of Beauty. Only Belles can tap into the arcana, which is in their blood, and which can be practiced, mastered, and summoned. They can also be checked on a meter, balanced intravenously, and damaged from emotions. The arcana also has three facets—like access points to different aspects of manipulation: Manner, Aura, and Age. Everything about this mystical arcana is too loosely held together for me. With arcana in the blood, checking the level of arcana in the Belles' bodies makes some sense—however, on the whole it seems utterly and completely arbitrary. What do we have here—midichlorians? Reset by leeches?!
In contrast to the lack of information in many areas, we are instead bombarded with secondary and tertiary characters. So much so that I sometimes found it hard to keep them straight. Between the other Belles, the Beauty clients, the members of the royal court, the society women, the entourage for Princess Sophia, the household staff, and other random people thrown in, there were times when I wasn't sure who was who and had to just keep going.
The entire thing felt like being stuck in that Welcome to the Capitol scene from The Hunger Games, where the audience gears up to shout: How outrageous! How frivolous! How out of touch! How exaggerated! So saccharine! So false! I get the picture early on, but Camellia seems to lack both the oomph to carry a story alone and the individuality to feel that she will trigger the necessary change.
Despite situation after situation arising, Camille never questions anything about her upbringing, about her origins, about the people around her, about any underlying or hidden agendas. It's absolutely ludicrous. The only thing she occasionally does is wonder to herself What is going on? She never takes action, and she never investigates (except one time in regards to a Belle sister of hers, but then she never does anything else) to any degree of satisfaction.
An overall intriguing idea but plagued with problems and a pedestrian follow-through, The Belles took a turn into Tediumville and rarely came back from it. There were several reveals near the end, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to believe Camille didn't guess any of them...well, not only did she not guess the truth, but she never questioned it in the first place.
Audiobook narrated by Rosie Jones. This is a hard one to know where the fault lies or how much to attribute to the performer and how much to the author. I was not fond of the narration here. Ms. Jones had a voice that easily lent itself to a certain level of sweetness, I don't think it helped the already overly sugary writing and setting. Plus, we had the irritating choice of present tense. Her pronunciation was lovely, especially with the French-based terms, but her rather posh-sounding accent coupled with the inability for the main character to take action only served to irritate or bore me. Some of her choices for the voices of the characters were odd at best, laughable at worst. Many characters were fine in her chosen representation, but two in particular stood out to me as shockingly bad. Claudine, a member of Princess Sophia's entourage of young ladies, had some weird voice that only put me in mind of the jowly monotone voice of Droopy dog. Enough said, I think. The other was Princess Sophia herself. The choice for her seemed to over emphasize her whininess and spoiled nature...she sounded absolutely pouty all the way through. It was too much, too over the top, and did nothing to add a level of subtlety to the character. Aside from that, I suppose she read well—crisp and clear.
If you look at physical beauty expectations over the centuries, set by a variety of customs, civilizations, and societies, you easily see how beauty demands change just like fashion. What was popular and considered beautiful during the Renaissance is not considered beautiful or desirable in the 20th century, and so on. In singular execution, I think Clayton succeeded in getting her point across (driving it home actually) and the way it’s expressed in the novel. Beauty is fashion—although here it seems to change overnight instead of sticking to more seasonal trends. Seemingly, nothing is off limits—hair, eye, skin, body...shape, color, texture. Nearly anything and everything can be changed.
Enter the Belles. The Belles are gifts from the Goddess of Beauty after the first humans had been cursed by the God of the Sky to have gray skin, red eyes, and straw-like hair. The Belles have the ability to manipulate humans' bodies through some kind of magical, non-magic that is a reservoir of something called arcana. (More on that in a minute.)
Our main Belle and narrator is Camellia Beauregard. She and her Belle sisters have just turned 16 and are revving up, at the beginning of the novel, to start the traditional contest/exhibition for displaying their Belle skills. One Belle will be chosen as the favorite by the Queen of Orléans to be the Belle who will serve the royal court and the royal family.
As a main character, Camille felt more like an execution of ideas rather than a fully-fleshed out person. Her weaknesses seem incongruous and written to be part of the balance, instead of them coming up from true, deep characterization. She was pretty much the too stupid to live kind of main character, overlaid with messages sent directly from the author via this puppet.
There seems to be a huge disconnect between what these Belles were supposedly trained to do, what their expectations are (at least for Camellia), and what the clients and society demands of them—to the point that it wasn’t believable. What on earth were they trained to do? I suppose it can be explained away by inadequate training, but that only really opens up the discussion with more questions that seem unanswerable.
One aspect I did enjoy were the transformations the Beauty clients would undergo to change their features. I thought Clayton, along with hammering home the concept of what it means to be beautiful, handled these sections well and allowed for a number of combinations. These changes the Belles make are not permanent changes. If the changes aren't maintained, the subject will fade back to gray and whatnot. But with the changes being so painful, is the slow transformation back not just as painful and then also prolonged?
Also, given all of what could be and was changed—especially with Princess Sophia!—I don't understand how anyone was recognizable at times. Apparently all that identifies someone at times, is the emblem they wear to signify to which class or house they belong.
If it weren't for the royal Orléans emblem hanging around her neck, she'd be unrecognizable.
Along with that there was a fair amount of diversity in other aspects. There was one mention of someone being transgendered, but it was delivered as part of a lift on the previous ban of having a Belle change your gender. And the few women who were mentioned to be in love with or in a relationship with other women weren't treated well by the other characters. So, I was left feeling unsure about how the society or governing body viewed these women. Women who seemed disposable (let's just say).
Yes, you like women, but you have to have babies.
I know you want to be with her but I want you to marry this man.
World-building leaves a lot to be desired. While Clayton paints a nice picture with dozens upon dozens of accoutrements, she never really made me feel as though this world, this place, were part of a larger story or that it was anything more substantial than something to be decorated with colorful phrases.
—• Teacup animals as pets is an intriguing idea, but they serve zero purpose other than further underscoring this society that changes things to be beautiful and frivolous. I got it. Except I have no idea how they are so small. Were they simply bred that small over hundreds of years? It's baffling.
—• Post-balloons are sent in lieu of a ground postal system, and I have no idea about them other than they seem to be magically controlled by something in a world where there is no true magic. (Magic is too simple an explanation for the arcana, apparently.) There are different colored post-balloons: black, gold-and-white, and scarlet. And they can deflate in some manner, because once when Camille was feeling down, her mood was described as such. "I deflate like a post-balloon that's lost its air,...." But that's all I know. And while this is a small piece, it is indicative of the world as a whole.
The history of Orléans and the Belles is smoothed over, and seems more weighted in myth and folklore-type stories which are never brought into question. Everything is taken at surface value—even to our main character who often just shrugs pesky questions away. Clayton spends a great deal of time on describing Camille's surroundings, but not much on government, history, places and beliefs outside Orléans, or opposing ideas. Perhaps nothing more so than the reserve of power which each Belle draws from in order to manipulate people's bodies: the arcana.
A mysterious gift from the Goddess of Beauty. Only Belles can tap into the arcana, which is in their blood, and which can be practiced, mastered, and summoned. They can also be checked on a meter, balanced intravenously, and damaged from emotions. The arcana also has three facets—like access points to different aspects of manipulation: Manner, Aura, and Age. Everything about this mystical arcana is too loosely held together for me. With arcana in the blood, checking the level of arcana in the Belles' bodies makes some sense—however, on the whole it seems utterly and completely arbitrary. What do we have here—midichlorians? Reset by leeches?!
In contrast to the lack of information in many areas, we are instead bombarded with secondary and tertiary characters. So much so that I sometimes found it hard to keep them straight. Between the other Belles, the Beauty clients, the members of the royal court, the society women, the entourage for Princess Sophia, the household staff, and other random people thrown in, there were times when I wasn't sure who was who and had to just keep going.
The entire thing felt like being stuck in that Welcome to the Capitol scene from The Hunger Games, where the audience gears up to shout: How outrageous! How frivolous! How out of touch! How exaggerated! So saccharine! So false! I get the picture early on, but Camellia seems to lack both the oomph to carry a story alone and the individuality to feel that she will trigger the necessary change.
Despite situation after situation arising, Camille never questions anything about her upbringing, about her origins, about the people around her, about any underlying or hidden agendas. It's absolutely ludicrous. The only thing she occasionally does is wonder to herself What is going on? She never takes action, and she never investigates (except one time in regards to a Belle sister of hers, but then she never does anything else) to any degree of satisfaction.
An overall intriguing idea but plagued with problems and a pedestrian follow-through, The Belles took a turn into Tediumville and rarely came back from it. There were several reveals near the end, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to believe Camille didn't guess any of them...well, not only did she not guess the truth, but she never questioned it in the first place.
Audiobook narrated by Rosie Jones. This is a hard one to know where the fault lies or how much to attribute to the performer and how much to the author. I was not fond of the narration here. Ms. Jones had a voice that easily lent itself to a certain level of sweetness, I don't think it helped the already overly sugary writing and setting. Plus, we had the irritating choice of present tense. Her pronunciation was lovely, especially with the French-based terms, but her rather posh-sounding accent coupled with the inability for the main character to take action only served to irritate or bore me. Some of her choices for the voices of the characters were odd at best, laughable at worst. Many characters were fine in her chosen representation, but two in particular stood out to me as shockingly bad. Claudine, a member of Princess Sophia's entourage of young ladies, had some weird voice that only put me in mind of the jowly monotone voice of Droopy dog. Enough said, I think. The other was Princess Sophia herself. The choice for her seemed to over emphasize her whininess and spoiled nature...she sounded absolutely pouty all the way through. It was too much, too over the top, and did nothing to add a level of subtlety to the character. Aside from that, I suppose she read well—crisp and clear.