"The God of the Sky fell in love with the Goddess of Beauty after the world began. Sky showered Beauty with gifts of his loveliest objects—the sun, the moon, the clouds, the stars. She accepted his offer to be his wife, and together they had the children of Orléans. But Beauty loved her children so much, she spent all her time with them. After she refused to return home, Sky sent rain and lightning and wind to drown the first humans. When Beauty protected the people from harm, Sky cursed them with skin the color of a sunless sky, eyes the shade of blood, hair the texture of rotten straw, and a deep sadness that quickly turned to madness. In return, Beauty sent the Belles to be roses growing out of the dark and ravaged soil, destined to bring beauty back to the damned world, as the sun brings light.
The Belles is a 2018 novel by Dhonielle Clayton. It received sequels in 2019 with The Everlasting Rose and in 2023 with The Beauty Trials.
Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orleans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orleans, 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 Orleans 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.
With the future of Orleans 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.
Summary from Google Books.
Tropes:
- A Birthday, Not a Break: In the first chapter, Camellia describes how she and her sisters celebrated their sixteenth birthday being presented to the public while most girls celebrate their sixteenth birthdays with pink champagne, raspberry and lemon macaroons, and teacup elephants.
- A-Cup Angst: Amber envies her sisters curves and complains that she's as flat as a crepe.
- Affectionate Nickname: Camellia, Ambrosia, Edelweiss, and Valeria are called "Camille," "Amber," "Edel," and "Valerie" by their belle sisters.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Sophia's heavily implied to have untreated narcissistic personality disorder that's been worsened by her rank and power. Notably, Charlotte mentions she wasn't always like this and decides to imprison rather than execute her so she can get the treatment she needs.
- Ambition Is Evil:
- Princess Sophia wants the power and status of being queen without the compassion that the role requires.
- Subverted on the other hand by Camellia and Ambrosia, who are both highly ambitious but heroic. At least Camille thinks so, until Amber is outed as a mole to Sophia.
- Animals Not to Scale: There are teacup versions of many animals, ranging from elephants and zebras to the recently engineered dragons and unicorns, that are no bigger than cats and often quite smaller. Only the horses seem to be of a normal size (for pulling carriages), and Camille has never seen any of the teacups' full size counterparts.
- Apologetic Attacker: Camellia is genuinely remorseful when she has to knock a female member of Sophia's staff out in order to sneak past her, and takes the time to ensure that she's still breathing.
- Arranged Marriage: Princess Sophia does this as a favor to her favorite Courtiers. She also possibly unknowingly arranges a marriage between a Courtier who's in love with a woman to a man Camellia knows is a rapist.
- Ascended Extra: Edel who gets very little presence in The Belles becomes one of the main characters in The Everlasting Rose and is the main character in The Beauty Trials.
- Asleep for Days: Camellia and the other Belles tend to pass out quite easily after using their powers due to their fragile nature, but Camellia herself spends several days asleep recovering after Sophia poisons her and again when she overuses her power trying to stop Sophia for good.
- The Atoner: In Book 2, Auguste joins the Iron Ladies to atone for selling Camille out, having realized what a monster Sophia is and what he's unleashed by selling Belle secrets. She does not forgive him for it and he doesn't expect her to, but wants to make things better any way he can.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Camellia wants nothing more than to become the favourite and is devastated when Amber is chosen over her. Then she's finally given the opportunity to replace her, but almost immediately she realises that it wasn't all that she thought it would be.
- Berserk Button: Camellia is quite a sweet and well mannered girl, but don't insult or hurt her sisters. As Sophia finds out the hard way.
- Betty and Veronica Switch: Camellia can't help but flirt with Prince Auguste, who seems to be a sweet sheltered prince, and ditch her bodyguard Remy, who is very stiff and expresses jealousy. Auguste is revealed to be a remorseless spy for Sophia, who tells her all the Belle secrets Camellia told him, and Remy spirits a fugitive Camellia and Amber out of the castle to save their lives, forsaking his status in the process.
- Bittersweet Ending: Sophia has been removed from the throne and is getting help for the issues she clearly has, Orleans is now being taken care of by the kind and just Charlotte and the Belles are free and able to return home. But Amber, Valerie and Arabella are dead, the future of the Belles is unknown and the people of Orleans will have to adjust to not being as beautiful as they once were.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- The papers paint Sophia is a potential queen, not necessarily good or bad, but an heir. Camellia works with her firsthand, however, and finds out that Sophia is a petty sadist that likes power more than duty. Sophia can play the part of a simpering princess well enough.
- Prince Auguste plays the part of a sweet prince that wants to rescue Camellia from her regimented life. It's all a lie so that he can report her secrets to Lady Sophia. While book two reveals that he joined the Iron Ladies on realizing what a monster Sophia was, he also acknowledges. that there was no excuse for breaking Camellia's heart and selling out the Belles.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three main Belles fall under this; Edel is blonde, Camellia is brunette and Amber has red hair.
- Body Horror:
- Belle gifts, when overused, hence why there are strict laws against too much tampering. Sophia doesn't care and forces the Belles to deform a Courtier she dislikes. Later Camellia and Amber accidentally kill a woman after Sophia makes them fight over changing her, overwhelming her body.
- The knockoff Belles. The one we first meet has rose-red skin and two mouths, and she's one of the lucky ones. The unlucky ones get fatal mutations like too many eyes, no skin, or no faces, and the majority don't even live past their first day.
- Bullying a Dragon: A Prince who attempts to assault Camellia learns the hard way that Belle magic can do more than change your appearance.
- Bury Your Gays: Happens twice over. A noblewoman in love with a working-class girl is accidentally murdered during a disastrous Belle treatment. Queen Celeste, known for keeping a mistress, also dies due to failing health. Presumably in response to this, the second book averts the trope: the living lovers of the noblewoman and the Queen participate in the plot, and even when he's caught aiding the Belles Gustav is imprisoned rather than killed.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Not surprisingly, the Belles treatment also extends to bra sizes. Clients who go in for appointments are well-endowed or have Petite Pride.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Camille rightly chews out Dr. Du Barry, the closest thing to a parent she has after her maman Linnea died, for lying to her about everything and making the Belles a slave race.
- Cain and Abel: Sophia is revealed to the the Cain to her older sister Charlotte's Abel and the one responsible for her two year coma.
- Camp Gay: Gustav du Polignac plays with the trope. On the one hand, he would definitely be this trope in a modern work, being obsessed with fashion and looks and having a husband. On the other, in the beauty-obsessed, matriarchal world of Orléans, this is considered normal masculine behavior regardless of orientation.
- Character Development: Camellia starts the novel with a sense of entitlement of what life owes her for hard work, and wanting to be the best of the best. This puts her at odds with Amber when Amber becomes the favorite. The climax of the novel has her openly turn against Sophia to save Amber's life, by taking Princess Charlotte hostage, albeit without harming Charlotte. By the end they're traveling together, and Camellia is not letting her jealousy and ambition override basic decency.
- Character Witness: Camellia starts torturing Auguste for betraying her and her sisters when she sees him with the Iron Ladies. Her rage is understandable, given that Auguste pretended to have feelings for her and sold them all out to Sophia. The other Iron Ladies have to vouch for Auguste before Camellia kills him, saying that he's provided them valuable intel to take down the queen. To accentuate that he has changed, Auguste apologies to Camellia, while acknowledging that he doesn't deserve her forgiveness for his actions.
- Chekhov's Skill: Camellia discovers her ability to slow down heart rates in The Belles when a male client is trying to force himself on her which later becomes instrumental in finally stopping Sophia and an entire room of people that might have helped her.
- Commonality Connection: Camellia and her bodyguard Remy don’t get off on the right foot at first, but Camellia starts to warm up to him after learning that he has a bunch of sisters that he deeply cares about as she does.
- Contrived Coincidence: Happens quite a lot, especially in The Everlasting Rose where Camellia is likely to run into someone who can help her at every turn; she and Remy are fortunate enough to run into Edel, they are then taken in by the Iron Ladies shortly before they would have been discovered, and finally it's Du Barry who helps get Camellia into the castle.
- Covers Always Lie: According to Camellia, the official Belle emblem is a golden fleur-de-lis with an intertwined red rose. On the cover, the rose woven into the fleur-de-lis is pink.
- Crapsaccharine World: A key theme of the novel is the obsession of beauty as a cover for ugly behavior. The beauty treatments are painful, the princess' quest for beauty makes her cruel, and the court's concern with beauty hides nasty, self-centered scheming.
- The Dandy: The men of Orléans are this to a certain degree given the setting, but the Royal Fashion Minister Gustav du Polignac, really takes the cake.
- Darker and Edgier: The Everlasting Rose mostly takes place in the poorer and overlooked parts of Orleans where crime is rife and the people are unhappy, a stark contrast from the glitzy and wealthy areas that Camellia stayed in during The Belles. Camellia is forced to dirty her hands in order to stop Sophia, which includes hurting people and even killing Sophia's teacup elephant. Additionally the deaths are also more brutal, two Belles take their own lives rather than suffer from having their blood drained until they're mere husks of themselves, and Amber has her throat slit by Sophia.
- Dark Secret: The more Camille investigates, the more she realizes that the whole of what she's been taught about Belles is a lie. For one, they are much more powerful than they're taught. For another, there's knock off, mutilated Belles secretly serving society. And finally, Belles aren't born, they're grown, and there's a Belle baby who looks exactly like her even down to the dimple.
- Decadent Court: The Court of Orléans revels in this. They have daily gatherings, regular parties, and are all expected to maintain gorgeous appearances.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Camellia only has fond memories of her late mother, Linnea.
- Description Porn: Used to show the Orléans obsession with beauty. Camellia notes how everything from food to message balloons to architecture to carriages to animals has been painstakingly put together to make things as beautiful as possible.
- Dirty Coward: When Camellia knocks out a female member of staff and incapacitates a guard with her magic, she scathingly considers the remaining guard a coward because he runs away instead of fighting her.
- Establishing Character Moment: The Beaut Carnaval gives the three main Belles the chance to establish their personalities through their showcases, where they have to each use their magic to give a young Gris girl a makeover.
- Camellia gets to show her innate magical talent and her knack for thinking outside the box when she defies the orders she was given, and she also gets to show her compassionate nature when she realises that her girl is scared and so she tries to comfort her by making her resemble Camellia herself.
- Amber follows the instructions she was given perfectly, which shows her perfectionist nature and inability to take chances like Camellia did, and this is why she's chosen as favourite.
- Edel also defies her orders by shaving her girl's head and writing 'Dung' in the hair that remains, showing from the start that she's rebellious and unlike the other Belles, doesn't really want to use her magic that way. However she also shows that she's got a kind streak, as she gives her girl a free beauty token so she can get her looks fixed immediately afterwards.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Sophia is genuinely very fond of her various teacup pets.
- Everyone Has Standards: Edel is a jerk about Amber's ambitions and is proven right, but after Sophia kills Amber, she makes the symbol to honor the dead with her sisters and doesn't tell a bedridden Camille I Told You So because Camille is obviously grieving.
- Evil Prince: Auguste. Though not quite as evil once he realises Sophia's true intentions, whereupon he tries to redeem himself.
- Fairytale Motifs: Bears quite a few to Snow White. Among them are a jealous princess (later queen) wishing to be the fairest of them all, a magic mirror, and a poisoned comb.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Camellia, her sisters, and all the other Belles have amber brown eyes.
- Fantastic Science: Belles have definite magical gifts, literally coming from the heavens as bulbs to be grown into the favored generations, but the way they're approached is highly scientific. There are devices to measure arcana levels, Belles have magical proteins in their blood, and Belle magic can be detected under a microscope as a sort of glowing net in the cells. In fact, the du Barrys figured out a while ago how to genetically engineer knockoff Belles using the blood and DNA of the divine ones, although the knockoff Belles have a fraction of the true Belles' potential and are always mutilated in some way.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The world of Orléans is undeniably French in influence, from the names to the cuisine to the architecture. There's also a notable New Orleans element, as several traditional dishes show up, voodoo is practiced in the lower classes, and the Belles are raised in a bayou.
- Fashion Hurts: Belle transformations are painful, even with a pain-numbing tea, but people force themselves through them anyway.
- Fate Worse than Death: Sophia's eventual plan for the 'favoured' generation of Belles; she'll use their blood to create abundant yet lesser Belles that she can then sell throughout the Kingdom. Arabella and Valerie are left as withered husks after such treatment and are in so much agony that they both choose to take their own lives instead of suffering on.
- Floral Theme Naming: Also overlapping with Family Theme Naming, all Belles, all of whom are considered sisters, are named after flowering plants.
- Forced Transformation: Princess Sophia forces Camellia to deform a Courtier she doesn't like. Camille then uses her first chance to change her back.
- Gilded Cage: The luxuries they have and the status they're conferred serves to obscure the fact that Belles are essentially slaves, bought and sold under the pretense of a "contest" and brainwashed to not think of anything but their job. This gets a lot worse in book 2 when Sophia learns how to grow Belles, and farms them like roses, even getting the idea of "Belle-gardens" for Orléans.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: This is how the book ends after Princess Sophia successfully takes the throne despite Charlotte having been awoken.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Amber spins on her heel so much that it's genuinely hard to know whose side she's on. She starts out on the Belles side, is presumably won over to Sophia's side, only to seemingly be back on Camellia's side after the death of Claudine. But when they go on the run from Sophia it's discovered that Amber is a spy for Sophia, and that she has been giving her information about Camellia and Edel's whereabouts, so it's debatable about whether she was ever on Camellia's side during that time. We never get to hear Amber's reasoning or even if she's still on Sophia's side at the end because she's killed before we find out.
- Auguste is loyal to Sophia at the start but swiftly changes sides once he realises how cruel she truly is. Again, we don't get to find out the exact circumstances but it's heavily implied that Auguste is genuinely remorseful about his actions.
- The High Queen: Orléans is a Matriarchal society.
- Karmic Death: Sadly enforced; Amber against her better judgment was a Mole for Sophia and faked being captured to return to her. Sophia trapped her in an hourglass and whipped her; when Camille attempted a rescue and glamours herself to mimic the queen, Sophia whips Amber to death out of spite.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: Camellia's sisters, Edelweiss and Ambrosia, are best known as "Edel" and "Amber" for short.
- La Résistance: In The Everlasting Rose, we meet the Iron Ladies, a secret organization of people who have been working to upend the current system, both by taking Sophia out and putting Charlotte on the throne and by making treatments so that people can live without regular Belle visits. They start out despising the Belles themselves, but eventually realize that the Belles don't have a choice in the matter.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Auguste sold out Camille and the Belles' secrets to Sophia in the hopes of gaining political favor. He unfortunately gets exactly what he wants and realizes that marrying Sophia will come with having to curb her or assassinate her. Camille also tortures him with the arcana when they reunite and he only lives because the Iron Ladies vouch for him.
- Sophia is a narcissistic spoiled child who wants beauty and to control the Belles. Camille uses the arcanas that Sophia wants to nearly murder her by slowing down her heart as well as everyone in the room when Sophia kills Amber. It's only because Charlotte begs for Sophia's life that Camille stops but she gives the usurper quite a scare.
- Magic Mirror: Camille's mother gives her a mirror that, when fed with Belle blood, shows her the true face of someone.
- Matriarchy: Downplayed. Orléans' only actual matriarchal rule is that there must be a queen regnant and king consort, but the majority of the power players are female anyway.
- Mirror Character: Camellia and Sophia both have high ambitions to be the favorite and to be the most beautiful respectively. But while Camellia wants to honor her late mother's memory and for her years of hard work to mean something, Sophia is motivated by entirely selfish reasons.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted with Camellia's bodyguard Remy, who is in service to the Crown. He stabs Camellia when she holds Charlotte hostage to save Amber, drags her and Amber away in cuffs, and then spirits them down an escape route. By the time they're settled in an inn, he's got papers for them and a cover story.
- No Self-Buffs: Part of a Belle's power is that she can only change others, never herself, presumably since she's already born beautiful. In the second book, this is revealed to be a partial lie. Belles can't give themselves long-term changes, but they can temporarily glamour themselves.
- Overly Long Name: Camellia and her sisters’ guardian and mentors full name/title is Madam Ana Maria Lange Du Barry, Royal Gardien de la Belle-Rose. At home she’s called “Du Barry”.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Most of the women in the book spend most of their time in these.
- The Power of Blood: The source of a Belle's power, and with it Belles can do far more than change appearance.
- Promotion, Not Punishment: Initially averted; Camellia is told she wasn't chosen as favourite because she went against the rules that she was given, even though she's easily talented enough to take the position. But when Camellia is chosen to replace Amber, it's because she went against the rules, something that Princess Sophia really admired.
- Properly Paranoid: In book 2. Edel has a bad feeling about Amber and thus doesn't share the fourth arcana with her. She was secretly reporting back to Sophia the whole time, and if Sophia had heard it would have derailed the final plan.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Book one ends with Camellia and Amber on the run with Remy protecting them, Sophia being crowned queen after her mother dies, and Auguste engaged to marry the new queen. Camellia is worried and despairing. But Edel shows up, making it clear she's ready to help Camellia fight to find Charlotte and rightfully crown her.
- Rejected Apology: Auguste apologies to Camellia for leading her on and selling out the Belles to Sophia. He's also not surprised when she makes it clear she doesn't forgive him and never will; the only reason she stopped torturing him is the Iron Ladies said that he was too valuable.
- Royal Brat: Sophia who turns out to be keeping her sister Charlotte in a coma to seize power.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Queen cares for her people, does everything in her power to keep Sophia off the throne, and changes the laws to allow sex changes so that trans people can make use of the Belles to transition.
- Show, Don't Tell: The novel suffers from quite a bit - Camellia frequently tells the reader how she is feeling in response to what's going on around her, but her actual emoting tends to come across as Dull Surprise.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- During the debut night, Camille goes off-script and makes up her own design. While this wows the crowd, instead of earning her first place, as she expects, it gets her second place and a lecture about following instructions—because in a design field, no matter how good you are, you can't push your own vision over what the client actually asked for, and fulfilling the request exactly was just as much part of the challenge as her artistry.
- In the climax of book two, Camille nearly kills a whole room of people, including Sophia, in revenge for Amber being killed. Even though Sophia has poisoned Charlotte and killed their mother, while enslaving the Belles, Charlotte talks down Camille from stopping everyone's heart. For one, Camille would live with the stain of mass-murder forever, even if in this case she is very justified, and she would have to be investigated for assassinating a royal. For another, Camille is visibly dying from the effort, and Charlotte wants her to live.
- To Be a Master: Camellia and Amber both want to be the favorite Belle, the Belle who is preferred by the Royal Family and gets to live in the palace, above all else. Amber initially succeeds, but Princess Sophia wanted Camellia, so she intentionally overworks and sabotages Amber, forcing her out of court. Camellia is then brought in.
- Undercover as Lovers: At the end of the book, Remy and Camellia are now posing as a married couple as a part of their false identities.
- Unstoppable Rage: In the climax of The Everlasting Rose, Sophia kills Amber with a whip in front of the entire court, who do nothing, and has Camille arrested while bragging about using her and her sisters as slaves. Up until this point it was established that Belle powers can only affect one person at a time, but Camille is so enraged by everything Sophia has done and the court has stood by and allowed to happen that she slows the hearts of Sophia, the guards, and every courtier in the room. It's only Charlotte talking her down that stops her from killing them all.
- We Used to Be Friends: Camellia and Amber used to be best friends until Amber is made the favourite. They reconcile when Camellia tries to save Amber's life, and when they run from the palace with Remy.
- A World Half Full: By the end, it's acknowledged that major societal changes will need to happen to truly free the Belles and the people of Orléans from their current beauty-obsessed society, and that there's a lot of hard work ahead. But Charlotte is on the throne, the Belles have been rescued from the teahouses, and the Iron Ladies are teaching people how to live without the Belles.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Sophia wants to be this.
