The Belles (The Belles, #1) by Dhonielle Clayton | ★★★★☆ (4.5)“Dreams remind us of who we are and how we feel about the things around us.”
The Belles was one of my most anticipated YA releases of 2018 and with good reason: it sounded unlike anything I've ever read in the genre. And, through the years, I've read a lot of YA--so it's always nice to stumble upon something new. Plus, the lack of diversity is such a large problem in the community and The Belles promises to be more so.
Before I get started on my thoughts, I'll be level with you straightaway: I went into this book with no knowledge regarding the bury-your-gays trope used in it. I hope I didn't butcher what it's widely called because I suck at terms when it comes to tropes in anything. Finding this out, while reading it, really did sting and brought downy my rating a notch for obvious reasons. The Belles let me down in only two ways. the use of that trope and the lack of worldbuilding to a specific degree; only one of these can be ignored fully and I'm not going to hold the lesser note against Clayton.
While I was reading The Belles, I was struck by two things: the plotline is utterly unique (to me) but I felt very familiar while reading it. Dhonielle Clayton's story and prose are undeniably hers alone, and should be applauded, however, I felt similarly to how I felt whilst reading The Selection by Kiera Cass and The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz.
