Gorgeous worldbuilding, compelling plot, just wanted more!
From the very beginning of The Belles, I was drawn in by the lushly described world of Orleans, and its unique situation: a world featuring a majority population struck by a disease that withers and greys and eventually kills, but with people --
the Belles -- with the ability to transform and create color and life back in. There were so many questions I had: where did this disease come from? Was this ability magic or natural? Was this something learned or born into? What about the obvious class differences between those who could afford "beauty" and those who could not? Why didn't they seek to CURE the disease?
Some, but not all of these answers were given.
In The Belles, we are drawn into a world of courtly intrigue, as the titular group of sisters with inborn powers supposedly granted to them by a goddess of beauty all vie to be the Favourite of the royal family. The main character, Camille, is at first second place, but she is called to substitute in for her sister Amber under mysterious circumstance. From there, things get more and more mysterious and dark as she serves the second born princess, copes with a crush on one of her suitors, and learns the high price of beauty.
I felt that the world itself was the best part of this story -- it was lushly laid out and described in detail befitting of a society obsessed with, essentially, magic cosmetic surgery (including the intense pain you'd expect when changing everything from eye color to bone structure itself). The darker sides of Orleans' beauty-obsessed society are layered and hinted at in a way that I didn't expect or see coming necessarily, but that I definitely wanted to find out about. Camille is a relatable main character -- she's driven and ambitious within her society's expectations, as well as creative and headstrong. She isn't ridiculously Good, but she isn't cruel, and she has a believable arc of realizing that she can or must stand up for herself and for others, even if it means losing status.
I definitely appreciated the diverse main cast: The Belles has been noted for having a POC model on its main character, and the sisters are diverse in skin/hair color as are the various preferences of the royals as to how they want to look. One of the main male characters is very darkskinned and another is fair and there's no judgement as to this, because there's no reason to have colorism in a world that can change colors and favors tonality and saturation of color rather than greyness. There's also a similar diversity of sexuality: same-sex attraction isn't a news-worthy issue but is present. (I did have a tiny issue with this though, because regardless of a lack of specific homophobia, both major same-sex love interests die -- it suffers from the Bury Your Gays trope.)
The political intrigue seemed realistic and definitely pulled me in, as did the personalities of the various major side characters besides Camille.
I did want a little more exploration into the class system and the illness that seems to plague the commoners. There's a lot of information that we get all at once near the end (there's a little bit of odd pacing toward the latter half of the book that speeds way, way up) that clues us into what may have happened -- but we really only get to see the royals and their totally decadent existence. But, there's almost certainly going to be a sequel based on the ending, and I definitely enjoy the writing enough to read it, so I'll just have to be patient.
the Belles -- with the ability to transform and create color and life back in. There were so many questions I had: where did this disease come from? Was this ability magic or natural? Was this something learned or born into? What about the obvious class differences between those who could afford "beauty" and those who could not? Why didn't they seek to CURE the disease?
Some, but not all of these answers were given.
In The Belles, we are drawn into a world of courtly intrigue, as the titular group of sisters with inborn powers supposedly granted to them by a goddess of beauty all vie to be the Favourite of the royal family. The main character, Camille, is at first second place, but she is called to substitute in for her sister Amber under mysterious circumstance. From there, things get more and more mysterious and dark as she serves the second born princess, copes with a crush on one of her suitors, and learns the high price of beauty.
I felt that the world itself was the best part of this story -- it was lushly laid out and described in detail befitting of a society obsessed with, essentially, magic cosmetic surgery (including the intense pain you'd expect when changing everything from eye color to bone structure itself). The darker sides of Orleans' beauty-obsessed society are layered and hinted at in a way that I didn't expect or see coming necessarily, but that I definitely wanted to find out about. Camille is a relatable main character -- she's driven and ambitious within her society's expectations, as well as creative and headstrong. She isn't ridiculously Good, but she isn't cruel, and she has a believable arc of realizing that she can or must stand up for herself and for others, even if it means losing status.
I definitely appreciated the diverse main cast: The Belles has been noted for having a POC model on its main character, and the sisters are diverse in skin/hair color as are the various preferences of the royals as to how they want to look. One of the main male characters is very darkskinned and another is fair and there's no judgement as to this, because there's no reason to have colorism in a world that can change colors and favors tonality and saturation of color rather than greyness. There's also a similar diversity of sexuality: same-sex attraction isn't a news-worthy issue but is present. (I did have a tiny issue with this though, because regardless of a lack of specific homophobia, both major same-sex love interests die -- it suffers from the Bury Your Gays trope.)
The political intrigue seemed realistic and definitely pulled me in, as did the personalities of the various major side characters besides Camille.
I did want a little more exploration into the class system and the illness that seems to plague the commoners. There's a lot of information that we get all at once near the end (there's a little bit of odd pacing toward the latter half of the book that speeds way, way up) that clues us into what may have happened -- but we really only get to see the royals and their totally decadent existence. But, there's almost certainly going to be a sequel based on the ending, and I definitely enjoy the writing enough to read it, so I'll just have to be patient.