The Peoples Are Born Gray Except The Belles // Book Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: February 6th, 2018
A Series?: Yes, The Belles #1
Genre: Young Adults, Fantasy
Buy Links: Kinokuniya Malaysia | MPH Online
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Rating:
Source: Huge thanks to Pansing Books for providing me a copy.

Blurbs

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.

With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever. 

The Belles has been one of my most anticipated reading in 2018. Ever since I knew it will be out soon to the world, my my, I was truly excited to pick this book up. I just finished reading this and I am still in a daze as to what shall I write my review about it. Well, we will see.

Short Summary

The Belles are the girls who have a special power to make a person turns beautiful. To achieve that, all of them needs to undergo special training and participate in a contest to be selected by the  Queen to be her favourite. The people of Orleans are born gray thus, they need The Belles. Once, there are all assigned to the selected House and who is the favourite, the journey as The Belles starts, however, little did they know, the dark secrets behind all the beauties.

Characters

Camellia - She has her own mind more like, not a rule followers. She did what her mind thought is suited to the circumstances and that kind of annoys me sometimes of her. I feel like want to shout at her to say, 'can you please not doing that.' Despite, her annoying attitude, she definitely has an amazing power to create an amazing beauty to the person and she is also a sweet person as she always thinking of her other sisters. 

Plots/Writings

I need to be honest with this, the beginning of this book was way too slow and makes me think whether am I able to proceed my reading or should I stop but fortunately, the writing pace getting better that caught my interest to stay with my reading to know what happened to Camellia and the royal family also the people of Orleans. 

Besides that, the author ensures to include everything for the readers to know the world's building in this book, how all the details she has written made me feels like I was there in that world and could actually witness all the situation happened in it. There's no doubt how freaking amazing The Belle's World and the vivid descriptions of it was spectacular especially when describing the skin tones/appearance/body reshape - scary yet astounding on how she made it works.

Dhonielle's writing is beautiful and addicting because you know, you would want more and all the detail she pours into the book makes it interesting although the beginning I was kind of in a daze and the feels to skip it to other pages as soon as I can is so strong but thankfully, I don't do that. 

Thoughts

I was fascinated with how The Belles' working and to please somebody is never easy especially when you give a service to made someone beautiful. As the words said, beauty is pain.

The romance in this book is not that much and I could not sense any except the annoying guy who being flirtatious to dig up secrets. 

The people of Orleans are obsessed to be beautiful/handsome and they will do anything to their body and paid a huge amount to make sure they stay beautiful/handsome for the rest of their life. It was scary, a real scary that I flinch whenever Camellia perform her treatment.

Overall, the world's building in The Belles is amazing with full of secrets and has a power to change peoples' appearances. I love all The Belles as each of them has their own specialty (magic) on how to make someone beautiful. The only thing that still lingers in my mind now is how actually all The Belles' are born? Hmm Anyhow, The Belles are surprisingly an amazing dark fantasy which I am looking forward to the next sequel.