"I was surprised by how many people are deeply dissatisfied by the body they have, and if given the chance to change it radically and magically, how many would jump at the opportunity. Then, I interviewed a lot of my friends about their bodies," she says. "I started by pouring over my middle school journals and taking notes on the things that bothered me when I was 11 and 12 years old. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton, $12, Amazon It's a dichotomy that she purposefully wanted to put front and center. The palace hides 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.Īs Clayton dives into the dark underbelly of Orléans, the aspects of beauty she explores are at once so familiar to own own world, and so fantastical as to be almost unrecognizable. 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.
She wants to be the favorite - the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace and serve the royal family. But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. The revered Belles control Beauty, and the people of Orléans covet Beauty above all else. That connection between beauty and power is on full display in The Belles, which follows Camellia Beauregard, a Belle who lives in the opulent world of Orléans. I started to obsess about the relationship between beauty and power and attraction." This conversation changed my view about my own body, and the bodies of other women. They were thumbing through a popular magazine as they discussed how much better their girlfriends might look if they had longer and leaner legs, bigger breasts, etc., and comparing them to celebrity women. "When I was a pimply, puffy-haired preteen in the mid-1990s, I overheard a conversation at my local suburban mall between several men about their respective girlfriends’ bodies. " The Belles came out how I felt about my body during adolescence," Clayton tells Bustle. It's a story that not only comes straight from Clayton's own experiences, but one that will be familiar to anyone who has ever fallen victim to society's often unreachable and unrealistic beauty standards. "Haunt" is just the right word to describe Clayton's powerful YA fantasy, which takes a deep dive into the dark side of beauty, exposing the monster behind the mask of pretty dresses, perfect bodies, and glowing skin.
In the acknowledgments to The Belles, author Dhonielle Clayton writes, "This book has haunted me for almost 20 years."
0 kommentar(er)
