Slow Start, Confusing Magic, and Burying of the Gays
3 stars
I really wanted to like this book like it was the best thing that ever graced this world. Really, really.
The Belles has done so much for YA lit--it's helping show that yes, we really do want diverse books, thank you very much. Dhonielle is such an amazing and influential person in the kidlit community, founding Cake Literary and is the COO of We Need Diverse Books, (and she also went to college with my English teacher?!) and has done so many amazing things for the community.
That being said, I unfortunately didn't love The Belles as much as I was hoping to.
The first roadblock is that this isn't really my style. It's way too much of a frou-frou story for me--with Selection-type musings on dresses and fashion and whatnot. And although there's really good commentary underneath the pretty sparkles and glitter, I'm just not a sparkles and glitter person.
I'm a "oh you're about to die oops did you just vaporize into a bloody mist?" type of person. I love my action and the most frou-frou I can really enjoy is princes and kingdoms and royal backstabbing.
So to say that the overlying premise of The Belles isn't really my style is very accurate.
The next roadblock was the magic system. I was confused, to say the least. Even at the end and even now I'm still kind of confused. But especially at the beginning, I was confused.
I understand the whole "people are naturally gray" thing, but I don't really get what the arcana is and how it works. I know that it does work, but the how managed to escape me. I get that you want to avoid an info dump, but a new trend I'm seeing is that authors don't tell us enough.
And it's my fault that I didn't read close enough and analyze the whole thing for the magic system's details better, but I did go into this looking for an easy read. The beginning just kind of dragged and there was a lot of pretty descriptions and stuff but not a lot of things happening.
Like the whole thing with the queen that the summary promises? Yeah, that doesn't really happen until at least the 1/3 mark.
Besides the slow beginning and the confusing magic system, the other thing that I didn't like was how the gays were buried. There are three queer characters in this, and one's a villain and the other one dies. *sigh* I love the racial diversity, but I wish there was more body-size and LGBTQ+ diversity.
Oh, and Camellia did get on my nerves for most of the first half. She was very competitive and thought mean things about her sister, which I didn't really like. I enjoyed seeing her change, though, and her character growth nullifies this issue for me.
Despite all of this, there were still highlights to the story.
One of the biggest pluses was the commentary on slavery and beauty. I can't talk about the first theme too much without spoiling things big-time, but I liked how it played an integral part to the story and underlay all the frills and sparkles and magic. And the beauty commentary was really strong and I liked how Clayton talked about this and also included race in this commentary.
I think the last half of the novel was a lot stronger than the first half, in terms of pacing and things actually happening. I wasn't really into the romance (I barely recognized it as a romance) and I think the second novel has a lot more potential.
Things happen in the end of the novel that basically assure that the second book will be more my style--death and killing and all that good stuff.
I think this is a great book for readers of books like The Selection to get deeper into YA and more *cough* meaningful and socially relevant reads. I'm not really a frills type of gal, but if this seems like your style, you might like it a lot more than I did.
I really wanted to like this book like it was the best thing that ever graced this world. Really, really.
The Belles has done so much for YA lit--it's helping show that yes, we really do want diverse books, thank you very much. Dhonielle is such an amazing and influential person in the kidlit community, founding Cake Literary and is the COO of We Need Diverse Books, (and she also went to college with my English teacher?!) and has done so many amazing things for the community.
That being said, I unfortunately didn't love The Belles as much as I was hoping to.
The first roadblock is that this isn't really my style. It's way too much of a frou-frou story for me--with Selection-type musings on dresses and fashion and whatnot. And although there's really good commentary underneath the pretty sparkles and glitter, I'm just not a sparkles and glitter person.
I'm a "oh you're about to die oops did you just vaporize into a bloody mist?" type of person. I love my action and the most frou-frou I can really enjoy is princes and kingdoms and royal backstabbing.
So to say that the overlying premise of The Belles isn't really my style is very accurate.
The next roadblock was the magic system. I was confused, to say the least. Even at the end and even now I'm still kind of confused. But especially at the beginning, I was confused.
I understand the whole "people are naturally gray" thing, but I don't really get what the arcana is and how it works. I know that it does work, but the how managed to escape me. I get that you want to avoid an info dump, but a new trend I'm seeing is that authors don't tell us enough.
And it's my fault that I didn't read close enough and analyze the whole thing for the magic system's details better, but I did go into this looking for an easy read. The beginning just kind of dragged and there was a lot of pretty descriptions and stuff but not a lot of things happening.
Like the whole thing with the queen that the summary promises? Yeah, that doesn't really happen until at least the 1/3 mark.
Besides the slow beginning and the confusing magic system, the other thing that I didn't like was how the gays were buried. There are three queer characters in this, and one's a villain and the other one dies. *sigh* I love the racial diversity, but I wish there was more body-size and LGBTQ+ diversity.
Oh, and Camellia did get on my nerves for most of the first half. She was very competitive and thought mean things about her sister, which I didn't really like. I enjoyed seeing her change, though, and her character growth nullifies this issue for me.
Despite all of this, there were still highlights to the story.
One of the biggest pluses was the commentary on slavery and beauty. I can't talk about the first theme too much without spoiling things big-time, but I liked how it played an integral part to the story and underlay all the frills and sparkles and magic. And the beauty commentary was really strong and I liked how Clayton talked about this and also included race in this commentary.
I think the last half of the novel was a lot stronger than the first half, in terms of pacing and things actually happening. I wasn't really into the romance (I barely recognized it as a romance) and I think the second novel has a lot more potential.
Things happen in the end of the novel that basically assure that the second book will be more my style--death and killing and all that good stuff.
I think this is a great book for readers of books like The Selection to get deeper into YA and more *cough* meaningful and socially relevant reads. I'm not really a frills type of gal, but if this seems like your style, you might like it a lot more than I did.