I think this book is basically what Tyra Banks was trying for when she wrote Modelland? And I applaud the work deconstructing beauty standards and think that'll be important for a lot of teens to read, especially related to skin color/social construction of race.

That said, I didn't love this? It has a lot of kind of steampunk-y trappings that just aren't my jam. (For example, measuring time in "hourglasses" but not specifying how long an hourglass is? You'd think an hour, since it has "hour" right in there...but it seemed inconsistent? This is a minor point but also something that consistently distracted me...) But also I'm never really into steampunk type situations, so again, this is the kind of thing that might be a draw for someone else.

Also the friendship between Camellia, the protagonist, and her best friend Amber, seemed a little strange to me? A lot was made about how they're ~best friends~ and tell each other everything...but also have secrets and also are very competitive?? I mean I guess as I type it out, that's pretty typical ~teen girl but it just felt very hollow as I was reading it.

I'm filing this under Things That Are Not My Personal Cup Of Tea But I'm Glad They Exist For Other Readers.

I asked for the ARC because the author is coming to our library in the spring and I wanted to be familiar with the title. Now I am hooked and can't wait for more in the series! I work primarily with our Adult book clubs, but I can really see promoting this as a great crossover read.

Loved this book! I totally bought in to the story and characters! Can't wait for more! Really like the mythology and world building. Bravo!

What an amazing, visually stunning, unique world Dhonielle has created. I fell in love with her world-building and stunning descriptions right off the bat, getting sucked into this story and unable to put the book down. It reflects how dangerous putting too much stock in beauty can be, and how sometimes all you have in life is your convictions. The characters were quick to grab ahold of you and wrench your heart out mid-scene. I absolutely cannot wait for the next installment of The Belles.

Will add my review to Amazon and BN as soon as they allow. (usually on sale date)

This was quite a great start to a new series, I was taken in enough to be on the look out for the next book! I think this first book could have been developed a little bit more but I also see the draw in having the reader need to keep reading!

The Belles pulled me in from the start, the writing is vivid and I could picture the people being described. I can’t wait for the next book.

Ibpivked this book because of its cover. I know....but it was not a disappointment. I highly recommend.

Camilla Beauregard is a 16-year-old girl in the fantasy archipelago nation of Orléania. She is a “Belle”, a taleneted arbiter and shaper of beauty, with the ability to control the idea of beauty. She has the power to use a system of arcane magic & gilded, pain-inducing tools to transform others' appearance and her own. A Belle may even aid the Beauty Minister in drafting beauty laws.

However, what beauty is changes frequently in this world. The people of Orleania pay dearly for treatments which alter their bodies to fit fickle beauty standards that change by season; it's an obsessive, expensive way to control the population. Without the work of the Belles, a small, select group with knowledge and power of magic, the people of Orleania all look the same: “with skin pallid, gray, and shriveled, eyes cherry-red, hair like straw”. As Camilla explains, “We can save them from a life of unbearable sameness” (Ch. 2.) But one must suffer to be beautiful, as my Great-Aunt Oneida used to say. The beauty transformations, the experiences of being carved and reshaped with arcane tools, are painful enough to make the beauty seekers scream in agony, but the mantra of the Belles is: “Beauty is in the blood”. And it is, but these transformation last only a month before those seeking beauty must pay and suffer again.
A proverb from the world built by Clayton for this thought-provoking YA novel states: “Beauty is a dying flower.”

Camilla is drawn into palace intrigue that makes her question herself and her own role in an attractive system of oppression. Realizing that the royals and nobles around her are using her in ways that harm others, she begins to break rules, and soon finds herself in danger. Beauty can be used to cover terrifying things.

I appreciated that way that the altered beauty standards included dark skin tones as well as light ones, but this story isn't specifically about colorism. In this world, Orleanians pay to alter their skin tones whenever the fashions set by the royal and dominant classes change. This is food for thought about how power and technology may be used for temporary, superficial benefit instead of the greater good. This is a world in which blimps prowl the sky displaying a princess' picture in a kind of beauty propaganda and people pull monocles and eyescopes from their pockets” to examine other people with invasive closeness.

Clayton’s writing is beautiful, rich with elegant phrasing that never turns into purple prose. The fantasy world of Orleania feels vivid and real from the first chapter. An example: “The Orleans archipelago is a string of islands stretching like a rose with a crooked stem out inot the warm sea. Most of them are connected by golden bridges or can be reached by lavish river coaches. We came from the very top – the bloom – and we've made a long journey to the heart of the stem to display our talents” (Ch. 1).

I thought The Belles to be one of the most engaging fantasy novels I've ever read. The landscape and physical elements of the world have elements of steampunk and L. Frank Baum's Oz. Expect to feel like you're in a half-dream state.

As a Librarian, I'd recommend The Belles to readers who may have avoided YA in favor of adult fiction. Although our protagonist is 16, and many of the characters driving the action are also young, author Clayton provides insights into human behavior that are meaningful beyond age.

I am obsessed with Dhonielle Clayton’s The Belles, and I know the world will be, too.

A quick summary: Set in Orléans (a city very much French regency meets old-school New Orleans), beauty is a limited commodity. Camellia Beauregard is a Belle, a class of magical women who can sculpt and perfect the mood and appearance of those around her. As trendsetters and practitioners, Belles have incredible power to shape the tastes of the day for the upper classes.

Only one Belle will be stationed at the palace, however. The book opens on a contest to judge the abilities of the Belles. Not all is well in Orléans, however. At the palace, a princess is asleep, a queen is sick, and the youngest princess seems, at best, a little flaky. Tricky politics and court uproar threaten to not only test Camellia’s moral mettle, but also her safety. In the aftermath of the Belle placements, Camellia and her sisters discover danger, deception, and more about the nature of Belles themselves.

If you’ve read Clayton’s Tiny Pretty Things or Shiny Broken Pieces (a collaboration between her and Sona Charaipotra), you know that Clayton knows how to weave a compelling, dramatic story. I found the characters in The Belles even more interesting. Cut free from the bounds of realism, Clayton’s magical realm still feels real. The idea of beauty magic and beauty as a commodity feels so applicable, especially to a YA audience– or to women in general. The wish to change ourselves is one of the most common, and Clayton doesn’t preach on body image or romanticize the painful process of beauty changes. The limits placed on magic in a world often set how real they feel to the reader, and Clayton’s execution of that magic and setting of its limitations is clear.

This book has all of the makings of a good series. Strong set up of internal and external complications, a few hints at romantic side plots, and funny and interesting secondary characters (loved the sister relationships, especially). I finished this book, sighed, and wished that the next was already out.

Add this one to your to-read list.

I read one really great review of this title. I read a few chapters and I could sort of see where the story was going, although there wasn't enough information early enough. It seems many authors have a difficult time striking the right balance between hinting that there's more to the world but not flooding the reader with backstory. I would have given the author a few more chapters to sort it out, but there were serious problems with the prepub file that made it impossible to read. The punctuation was sprinkled sparingly around, mostly missing, and nearly all the quotation marks were MIA. I spent far more time trying to parse sentences than trying to figure out the world.

I will have more coherent words later, but right now, it's just holy crap, you guys. Holy crap. That was AMAZING

I enjoy a good surprise and an unpredictable story and that is what this book was for me. I find myself waiting and hoping for more. Great characters and we'll written!

An enthralling story set in a unique world. I can't wait to see what happens next!
The Belles is set in a world of tightly controlled magic innately born in a group of women called Belles who grow to young adulthood over the course of a year and are carefully trained to then serve in the capital for one year to mold the populace and the court (who would otherwise have gray skin and hair) into whatever shapes and forms have been deemed beautiful. The book follows the twisty road of a particular Belle who has great talent but greater creativity than allowed by her elders as she discovers the hidden secrets behind their world of careful tradition and the great ugliness behind the beauty. Mysteries include crying heard in the night, the disappearance of friends, the true nature of the Belle's powers, and of course the inevitable question of who can be trusted in a court oozing with intrigue?

Absolutely enchanting! This is a refreshing take on elements that have been done before in YA fantasy, but THE BELLES brings a new voice that must be heard. It's truly a gorgeous read.

The Belles is a refreshing, magical read with a cast that is interesting, refreshing, and, yes, beautiful. With a strong heroine at the center, the story has some wonderful developments that will no doubt be explored in the coming sequel.

It was a bit slow in the beginning, but it really picked up. The world she created was fantastic and well constructed. I'm looking forward to the next installments!

This book has one of the most interesting concepts I have read in awhile. Basically you're in a dystopian society where women called "Belles" are forced to do magical cosmetic surgery on citizens because they are naturally gray with red eyes. Belles is full of scandal, betrayal, and teensy bit of romance. I hope that this becomes a series, because I have way too many unanswered questions to be able to resist reading another!

I didn't love this book. I get where the author was trying to go with her discussion of gender, physical appearance, and identity (which are all awesome things to tackle--and are all things that need to be tackled in YA) but this book just kind of left me feeling indifferent at the end. I also felt like I was reading two separate books, because towards the end a few of the characters take a hard right into crazy-town and everything goes ham.

There was also a lot of world building that took place, but it often seemed like there was information that the author was expecting the readers to know (even though very little and sometimes no explanation happened--so I often felt lost and slightly confused).

I don't know, maybe weird steam-punk-y, dystopian whatever just isn't my genre. I'll be adding this to my library collection and hopefully it will find an audience with my teens.

I read this book in an entire sitting and was pleasantly surprised at its unpredictability.

Camellia is part of an elite squad of beautiful women known as Belles who have an inherited magical ability to change others' appearances. This gift is highly valued, as all people have been cursed into a sort of zombie/wraith appearance, with sunken, wrinkled gray skin, red eyes, and dull, straw-like hair. People spend exorbitant amounts of money for monthly maintenance sessions with a Belle to keep up their artificial beauty.

Camellia's new glitzy world of beauty is hiding dark secrets, however, and the more she learns, the more she realizes that she can no longer move through this world as a passive observer, but must use her abilities to try and make things right.

This book's only weakness was that it occasionally got caught up in its descriptions -- while extended descriptions of outfits, makeup, and hairstyles may be necessary for screenplays or scripts, I'm not especially invested in what kind of outfits the characters are wearing. These parts were easy to skim through.

I was also disappointed to discover that this is book 1 in a new series. I was under the impression it was a stand-alone novel until I reached the final few pages and it began to dawn on me that there was no way the plot was getting resolved anytime soon. Book 1 offers no resolution. I am, however, looking forward to book 2, whenever that may be.