The Belles

Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.

The world created in THE BELLES is fascinating, and once I really started reading this, I couldn't put it down. I wanted more about how the society and the world worked - does absolutely everyone have to see a Belle to stay beautiful? What do commoners/non-wealthy people look like (or how can they afford to visit a Belle regularly)? Is the whole society matriarchal or just the royal line of succession? Do other countries in the world also have Belles? None of those questions really take away from the plot, but the world is so intriguing, I could read more about any of those. The plot is kind of your standard YA dystopia with a Chosen One and dark secrets and an honestly kind of unnecessary love triangle - at least, kind of? I absolutely could not stand Auguste throughout the book, and the twist seemed completely out of nowhere to me, though I wonder if there were clues I missed because I was reading so quickly. This is very much the first book in a series, so a lot of things are unresolved at the end - I'm excited to see how everything turns out!

(Edited to add: also, this cover is incredible and I love it.)

Lushly written fantasy on the costs of beauty and human cruelty. The world building is excellent, but building the world slows the pace down at the beginning. As more is revealed about what lurks under the surface of a beautiful society, the pace picks back up and speeds to a relative cliffhanger of an ending (this is the first of a series). Will definitely be booktalking this memorable story.