I'm sure this is going to be a big hit in YA literature, but it's not my favorite idea. It reminds me a lot of the Cass series, The Selection. We get a glimpse into an French aristocratic Orleans where a group of young girls are solely adorned with the power of beauty. They wield it like a magic power over the Gris (so tempted to call them the gris-gris, not very subtle), the gray commoners who are lackluster and ugly. The Belles are made to bring beauty to the people, like a super power. In the brief glimpse we get of the world in which the Belles rule, it’s as if Marie Antoinette’s court were brought back to life in stunning Sofia Coppola Color. Even the governess of the Belles is named Du Barry, no historically French stone unturned. Big hair, colored powders for wigs, the author describes all these dandies as colorful candies in a box, or eggs in a carton, and every Belle has skin like flavors—caramel, apricot, butter, etc. They’re all edible. I’m sure the plot gets to a very aesthetics-aren’t-everything moral, but I’m too bored to want to invest time to get there.