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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Surrey Libraries.
Sep 23, 2018
For someone choosing whether to try and stop an evil tyrant from taking power and possibly die in the process, or stand by while an evil tyrant takes power and probably die in the process, Camellia is remarkably indecisive. She probably takes an hour to choose between waffles and pancakes. There’s not much to her relationship with her love interest other than curiosity and lust. Which is fine- get it, girl! But I didn’t buy the book’s suggestions of something deeper. The Belles does better with sibling relationships: Camellia and Amber's thorny mixture of affection and rivalry felt realistic, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops in the next book. The slow reveal of Orleans' secrets was genuinely creepy, making me wish for a deeper plunge into horror. If the sequel takes that route, its villain is more than up for the challenge: awful in the best possible way, she reads like a cross between Cheryl Blossom and Elizabeth Bathory. The one horror element in this book that upset me was the fate of its queer women- I still have hopes for some of them, but I'm not holding my breath.