The Belles

The Belles is the first book in Dhonielle Clayton's fantasy series of the same name, set in the kingdom of Orléans, an archipelago where all people are born Gris: cursed with gray skin, red eyes, and straw-like hair. According to Orléansian myth, the God of the Sky cursed the children of the Goddess of Beauty, and in response, Beauty created the Belles, women who wield the arcana, supernatural powers carried in their blood that can alter a person's appearance, temperament, and age. Without Belles, the people of Orléans cannot maintain beauty, as all transformations fade back to gray within a month.

Camellia Beauregard, the novel's narrator, is one of six Belles who have just turned sixteen. She and her sisters, Ambrosia (Amber), Edelweiss (Edel), Hana, Padma, and Valerie, were raised at Maison Rouge de la Beauté under Madam Du Barry, the Royal Gardien de la Belle-Rose and guardian of the Belles. Having never left home, they travel to the imperial island for the Beauté Carnaval, a festival held every three years where each generation of Belles debuts before the royal court. One will be named the favorite, the Belle who serves the royal family at the palace. Camellia desperately wants this honor, just as her late mother, Maman Linnea, held it before her.

During the carnaval, each Belle demonstrates her powers on a young Gris girl. Camellia goes last and defies her assigned instructions by transforming her subject into her own mirror image and wrapping her in a chrysalis made from a living camellia flower. The crowd erupts, but Queen Celeste studies Camellia with an unreadable expression. Afterward, Camellia encounters a charming boy near the palace gate who asks about her powers but does not identify himself.

The next morning, Du Barry scolds Camellia for breaking protocol. At the naming ceremony, Amber is named the favorite while Camellia is assigned to the Chrysanthemum Teahouse in Trianon. Camellia is devastated. She and Amber have a bitter fight in which Amber invokes Camellia's dead mother, saying Maman Linnea would be ashamed of Camellia, and they part on terrible terms.

At the teahouse, run by Madam Claire, Du Barry's sister, Camellia begins daily beauty appointments but struggles emotionally. Late one night, she discovers Madam Claire presenting a disfigured, unfamiliar Belle named Delphine to a client. She also finds her late mother's Belle-book hidden in her beauty caisse, a portable chest of tools. Inside is a letter from Maman and a miroir métaphysique, a small enchanted mirror that reveals a person's true soul when activated with Belle blood. Post-balloons from her sisters carry disturbing news: Edel may have run away from the Fire Teahouse, and Hana reports hearing mysterious crying at the Glass Teahouse.

The queen summons Camellia and makes an unprecedented decision: She replaces Amber with Camellia as the new favorite. Camellia learns that Amber was dismissed after performing grotesque beauty work on the ladies serving Princess Sophia, the queen's younger daughter, though Camellia suspects Sophia coerced these actions. Ivy, the favorite of the previous generation of Belles, trains Camellia in court protocol, and Rémy Chevalier, a decorated young soldier, is assigned as her personal guard.

Camellia meets Sophia, who is warm and eager, and impresses her with an innovative two-toned hair color. Sophia confides that she, not the queen, wanted Camellia as favorite from the start. At the birthday banquet, the king announces three suitors for Sophia's hand, including Auguste Fabry, the son of the Minister of the Seas and the boy from the gate. Camellia is drawn to Auguste despite rules forbidding fraternization between Belles and men.

Court life proves treacherous. Sophia takes Camellia to her private workshop and reveals a wall of living portraits powered by Belle blood, confessing her obsessive desire to be the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. Ivy privately warns Camellia, recounting how Sophia once forced Ivy to reshape a teacup animal's bones, then killed it. Reading Maman's Belle-book, Camellia discovers that her mother once accidentally killed a client by losing control of her arcana, stopping the woman's heart.

Sophia's behavior grows more brazen. At a card party, she orders Camellia to reshape a courtier's nose into a pig snout as public humiliation. Camellia reluctantly obeys, then secretly restores the woman's face. She also attempts to use her arcana to soften Sophia's temperament during a beauty session, but Sophia seems to sense the manipulation and ends the appointment.

The queen privately brings Camellia to see Princess Charlotte, her eldest daughter, who has been in a coma for four years, always wearing the jeweled hair comb her grandmother gave her. The queen reveals she is dying and begs Camellia to wake Charlotte before the Declaration of Heirs Ceremony, the event that will determine the royal succession, because Sophia must never rule. Ivy urges Camellia to refuse, warning that healing with the arcana could kill her, and reveals her own disfigured face, the result of overusing her powers to please Sophia.

Danger mounts. Camellia's bed catches fire, destroying Maman's Belle-book. She is poisoned at a dinner Sophia hosts, and Sophia frames Camellia's servant Bree for the crime. Prince Alfred, the king's nephew, sexually assaults Camellia during a beauty appointment; she fights him off with her arcana, nearly stopping his heart before Rémy intervenes. Auguste kisses Camellia and asks her to leave Orléans with him, but she refuses, bound by her promise to help Charlotte. Seeking Amber at the Chrysanthemum Teahouse, Camellia instead discovers thirteen disfigured, chained Belles hidden in the attic, forced to work late-night appointments. Du Barry admits these secondary Belles have always existed to meet the kingdom's demand.

Sophia invites Camellia and Amber to a dinner party and forces them to compete in transforming her lady-of-honor Claudine. The competing work overtaxes Claudine's body, and she dies. Sophia reveals that Auguste's mother, Duchesse Georgiana Fabry, has conspired with Sophia to learn the secrets of the Belles, and that Auguste was sent to seduce Camellia. He was behind the dead roses left in Camellia's chambers, the fire, and the poisoning. Sophia displays glass pods containing Belle babies grown from Belle blood, announcing plans to mass-produce Belles, and orders Camellia and Amber arrested for Claudine's murder.

Rémy, who carried out the arrest, secretly frees Camellia and leads her to Charlotte's bedchamber. Sophia, now regent queen after the queen's health collapsed, sends forces after them. In a desperate bid to free Amber, Camellia uses her arcana to threaten Charlotte's life with thorny vines, but Sophia's dragons attack and Rémy stabs Camellia to break her concentration, ending the standoff.

Reunited with Amber and joined by Arabella, a Belle who had warned Camellia about Sophia's schemes, Camellia discovers that Charlotte's treasured hair comb has been lacing the princess with an untraceable poison made from bloodroot pollen. They remove the comb, apply leeches, and combine their arcana to cleanse Charlotte's blood. Charlotte begins waking as Sophia's guards break down the doors.

Arabella reveals a profound truth: Belles are not born but grown, and Camellia was created from Arabella's own template. She provides disguises and false papers, then opens a secret passage. Rémy navigates them to the underground dock and secures passage to the Spice Isles. At a boardinghouse, they learn that Queen Celeste has died, Charlotte has disappeared, and Sophia will be coronated. Edel, who had sent Camellia a coded message weeks earlier, is waiting for them. She demonstrates a new ability she calls "glamour," the power for Belles to alter their own appearance. Camellia resolves to find Charlotte, return her to the throne, and stop Sophia.