Review by New York Times Review
NOW, MORE THAN anytime in recent history, we're hearing the triumphant roar of women of color as they break down longstanding barriers in art, film and literature. In young adult literature in particular, inventive, international stories told in newly empowered women's voices are claiming their rightful place at the table. Take these five new Y.A. books, ranging from fantasy to realistic fiction to memoir. In these authors' hands, non-Western sensibilities might reign in a vivid and original Yoruban religion-based world, or classical settings might be reinterpreted to create a universe in which beauty is not tied to race. A heartbreaking fictional front row seat to the Syrian refugee emergency is offset by a humorous true tale of growing up an Iranian-American immigrant without a green card. And a very modern romance proves that, despite divides both cultural and digital, love still wins. So do YA. readers, when it comes to seeing exhilaratingly new kinds of characters sharing space. In Dhonielle Clayton's lavish fantasy the BELLES (FREEFORM, $17.99; AGES 14 TO 17), a thing of beauty is only temporary. The decadent island society of Orleans is home to a select group of sisters born with the disconcerting ability to perform plastic surgery without the plastic. As "descendants of the goddess of beauty," the Belles have a fuzzily explained magical "arcana" in their blood that allows them to temporarily change the physical appearance of the native Gris, who are cursed with gray skin and red eyes. After a childhood of training, the teenage Belles are introduced to upper-class society and tasked with transforming the hair, skin and bone structure of the race-fluid rich and royal. But when the rebellious Belle Camellia uncovers a plot by the truly vile Princess Sophia to enslave her and her sisters, she sows the seeds of a grass-roots revolution that is bound to blossom more fully in the inevitable sequel. Clayton, a co-founder of the We Need Diverse Books organization, has created an opulent mash-up setting, which seems to be a cherry-picked combination of 18thcentury France, Japan and the antebellum American South. If it never quite coalesces into a seamless cultural whole, readers seduced by the page-turning palace intrigue and the vivid food and clothing descriptions won't notice or care. Magic also lies dormant in the platelets of chosen teenagers in the Nigerian-American Tomi Adeyemi's debut, children of BLOOD AND BONE (HOLT, $18.99; AGES 12 AND UP). But these diviners are no debutantes. Born with snow white hair and deep brown skin in the imaginary country of Orisha, young diviners morph into mighty, magicwielding maji, or magicians, at 13. For centuries they relied on their powers (which Adeyemi based on aspects of the religion of the Yoruban people of West Africa). All that ended when the nonmagical King Saran ordered the slaughter of all adult majis. But when a mysterious scroll falls into the hands of Amari, a defiant princess, and Zélie, a tenacious diviner warrior, the two young women set out on a thrilling, deathdefying journey to restore magic and take back the throne. Black Girl Magic, indeed! ft's no surprise that this epic trilogy opener has already been optioned for film. Full of cinematic action sequences (the most memorable of them set almost entirely underwater and employing an army of the dead) and creatures worthy of Star Wars (horsesize "lionaires" have saber teeth and horns), it storms the boundaries of the imagination. Yet it also confronts the conscience. Adeyemi's brutally depicted war between the noble, lighter-skinned kosidans and the enslaved, darker-skinned majis poses thought-provoking questions about race, class and authority that hold up a warning mirror to our sharply divided society. Atia Abawi mixes a fantasy element with extreme realism in her second novel, A LAND OF PERMANENT GOODBYES (PHILOMEL, $17.99; ages 13 and up). Tareq is a Syrian refugee whose perilous journey is narrated by the voice of Destiny, characterized as a kindly, prosaic entity. After Tareq's mother, grandmother and four of his siblings are killed by a bomb, he and his father flee to Türkey with his remaining sister, Susan. They hopscotch from Türkey to Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria and finally to Germany, where he finds a fragile safety. Along the way he witnesses beheadings and drownings, but also experiences the kindness of aid workers like Alexia, an American student. Abawi, a foreign news correspondent, does an admirable job of showing the grim horror of refugee life. But her efforts are occasionally undermined by cartoonish villains ("You tink you will be saved? Who will save you? Captain America is not real, just movies") and by some of Destiny's well-meaning but obvious platitudes: "When you truly love someone, their life means more to you than your own." These interruptions may pull readers out of the story, though perhaps that distance is necessary for adolescents trying to process something as bleak and overwhelming as the Syrian refugee crisis. Of course, once refugees finally arrive in their adopted country, new problems arise. Until she was 13, Sara Saedi, an franianAmerican television writer and the author of the memoir Americanized: rebel without A GREEN CARD (RANDOM HOUSE, $17.99, ages 12 and up), was cheerfully oblivious of her family's immigration status. After her older sister breaks the news that they are "illegal," Saedi suffers through the usual teenage rites of passage at her Silicon Valley high school (unibrow management, pimple wars, pot smoking) with the added pressure of possible deportation hanging over her head. Saedi adroitly and humorously uses these universal pubescent ordeals to contextualize Iranian culture and the immigrant experience. A memory of being teased about her eyebrow in ninth grade expands into a discussion of beauty norms: When her mother praises her for being hairless, "she meant by Persian woman standards. 1 was still hairy by everyone else's standards." And she has the sobering realization that pot is a privilege American teenagers can enjoy, but not undocumented kids: "ff 1 got caught, I'd have a criminal record that could be grounds for deportation." Very funny but never flippant, Saedi mixes '90s pop culture references, adolescent angst and Iranian history into an intimate, informative narrative that thoroughly defies current divisive views on immigration. Mary H.K. Choi's blushingly tender and piquant debut novel, emergency contact (SIMON & SCHUSTER, $17.99; AGES 14 AND UP), about two isolated, misfit college students from Austin who fall in love via text message explores our emotional rather than geographical divides. In "Emergency Contact," a Korean-American would-be writer named Penny keeps everyone at a distance, the result of living with a single, oversharing mom she calls "the equivalent of... human glitter." But when she rescues Sam, a half-German, half-Polish student filmmaker, from the sidewalk during a panic attack, she becomes his "emergency contact," and he hers. Their charged, initial banter on text soon develops into increasingly personal exchanges about art, death, unstable moms and pregnant ex-girlfriends. Yet their burgeoning bond keeps stalling out. Burned by past relationships and millennial-ly tethered to their devices, they struggle to connect romantically IRL. Sam "couldn't imagine the space Penny would take up in his life if she sprang out of his phone," and Penny admits "Sam was her phone and her phone was Sam." Choi, a culture correspondent for HBO's Vice News, inserts timely issues like sexual assault, cultural appropriation and even DACA into her characters' intimate conversations, but it is her examination of digital vs. F2F communication that feels the most immediate. Has digital communication become so ubiquitous, and interpersonal contact so arduous, that we'd rather type than talk? Thankfully, no. Penny and Sam put down their phones long enough to make out, proving that touch trumps text, and hormones still conquer all. jennifer HUBERT swan is the director of library services at the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. She blogs at Reading Rants.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [March 11, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Clayton's latest imagines a world in which the drive for perfection is also the greatest ruin. In Camellia's archipelago world of Orléans, a Promethean legend has it that the God of the Sky fell in love with the Goddess of Beauty but soon grew jealous of the attention she gave to their children, the first humans. In punishment, he cursed them with ugliness: 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 retaliation, the legend goes, Beauty made the Belles. Now, beauty is the ultimate commodity. Camellia is one such Belle, a beautiful girl who is blessed, like her sisters, to transform the gray and ugly bodies of the citizens of Orléans into something beautiful for a time. Camellia and her five sisters have just turned 16 and are about to take their places in society, where they will, for an exorbitant fee, work their magic upon the citizens of Orléans when the people's beauty starts to fade. For one Belle, that place will be in the imperial palace alongside the royal family. Like all her sisters, Camellia wants desperately to be chosen as the favorite, and though her talents are strong, her reluctance to follow directions may keep her from the ultimate prize. Despite the magic in Camellia's blood, beauty in Orléans is also pain. The expensive treatments Camellia performs can be torturous for the customer, but they drain Camellia of her own energy, which can only be replenished by having her blood treated with leeches. But above all other things, beauty here is deception. It's not long before Camellia realizes that the life she has been trained for and the world she has been prepared to enter are nothing more than mirages. The royal family is facing terrible challenges: a crown princess who has been in a mysterious sleep for years and a second daughter whose ascension to the throne could be disastrous. Camellia and her sisters have been kept in the dark most of their lives about their powers and strengths, and when Camellia is asked to use her Belle magic in ways it's not intended, she finds herself caught up in a political plot and faced with impossible choices. In many ways continuing a conversation that began in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, Clayton examines the price of beauty in a society that reveres it. Unlike in Westerfeld's series, race isn't edited out of Clayton's universe, and she's altogether wily about describing beauty, especially when it comes to skin tone skin is the color of toasted walnuts, the rich color of honey bread, a sugared beignet fresh from the oil. It's a clever indictment of the way women of color in particular are often portrayed in literature today, in a way that fetishizes and commodifies them. And Camellia, despite her status and her abilities, is often subjected to both. Clayton impressively offers up a series starter that, despite its broad commercial appeal, doesn't shy away from facing uncomfortable truths in our own society. The dual natures of ugliness and shame, the commodification of beauty and of women, the drive for perfection at any cost, the widening of one girl's moral landscape all of it comes into play here. But even as it does, the action never slows, and the rich, rotting world never wavers. Readers may be almost grateful for that cliff-hanger ending it means there's more to come.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sixteen-year-old sisters Camellia, Edelweiss, Ambrosia, Padma, Valeria, and Hana are the new generation of Belles, young women who are responsible for keeping the citizens of Orléans beautiful, magically transforming their appearances to align with the latest trends. Descendants of the Goddess of Beauty, the Belles are paid to perform their magic to prevent their people from reverting to pallid, red-eyed creatures, their natural state. Talented Camellia believes that she will be selected as the Queen's favorite, a role the sisters covet deeply. But when another Belle is chosen, and Camellia is assigned to a teahouse to perform beauty rituals on the wealthy, she begins to wonder if what she has always believed about the Belles is true. Clayton (coauthor of Tiny Pretty Things) creates a vivid island world in this enticing series opener, saturating the narration with lush descriptions ("Carts hold tiers of pastries frosted in rose-petal pinks and pearly whites and apple reds, flutes overflow with jewel-tone liquids") that reflect the culture's obsession with elegance, appearance, and luxury. Readers will be left with much to consider about morality, individuality, and the malleability and artificiality of beauty. Ages 14-up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-When the Goddess paid more attention to her children, the humans, the God of the Sky became jealous and cursed them to have skin of colorless sky. Never one to abandon her children, Beauty created The Belles to bring beauty back to the damned. Camillia Beauregard and her sisters are Belles, vessels of beauty, and their time has come to save Orleans from a life of unbearable sameness, but they must first be placed in houses. The coveted position is The Favorite, and to serve the royal family. Camillia desires to be chosen Favorite like her mother and when her time comes to shine, she is unforgettable. Sophia the Queen Regent does not forget her. As Camillia begins her life of royal servitude, she starts to see the underbelly of her world-mysterious cries within the walls, veiled Belles of a time passed, and people who risk their lives to be beautiful. The grandest realization is the volatile temperament of Sophia. Camillia must make a choice-be the vessel of beauty and follow every command or use her powers to save her world from Sophia. Clayton has created a world full of lush colors, beautiful people, and delicious desserts. Strong themes are interwoven in this fantasy, including choice and envy. This work challenges readers to reflect on their notions of beauty. Through the actions of the characters, teens will understand what a beauty-obsessed world really looks like and that possessing conviction and selflessness is just as beautiful as outward appearances. VERDICT A must-have addition to libraries with fans of The Selection by Kiera Cass.-Dawn Abron, Zion-Benton Public Library, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In the fantastical courtly society of Orlans, everyone is born uglyskin pallid, gray, and shriveled, eyes cherry red, hair like strawas if all the color was leeched out of them. Everyone, that is, except the Belles, the few girls in each generation blessed by the Goddess of Beauty with innate loveliness (of diverse skin tones and body shapes) and the supernatural ability to manipulate the appearance and personality traits of others. The Belles gifts require long study and discipline to refine; the treatments are exhausting for the Belles and often excruciatingly painful for their clients. As the Queens Favorite Belle, Camille moves into the palace to provide beauty services to royals and aristocrats. Her primary client, Princess Sophia, soon reveals her sociopathic obsession with becoming the most beautiful in all of Orlansas well as her insatiable thirst for power. In this deceit-filled and dangerous environment, Camille must make alliances and decide whether to use her gifts to intervene in Sophias schemes. In an immediate present tense, Clayton vividly describes dazzling fashion and lavish galas in profound contrast to gruesome, invasive treatments and extreme class disparity. And while Claytons primary theme is the destructiveness wrought by societally imposed beauty ideals, she also touches upon other systems of exploitation, including slavery, racism and colorism, rape culture, and forced labor. The (slightly rushed) ending leaves many questions to be explored in projected further installments. katie bircher (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In Tiny Pretty Things co-author Clayton's solo debut, beauty comes at a price.On their joint 16th birthday, Camellia and her five sisters are sent out to restore beauty to Orlans, where everybody is born gray and ugly. They've been training for this their whole lives. As Belles, the sisters can use their magic to transform the citizens of Orlans from their original states. For the right price, Belles can grant any desired look. When Camellia secures the coveted spot of Her Majesty's favorite, it seems as if her dreams have come true. As the most powerful, sought-out Belle, she is in charge of the royal family's looks. However, the princess is insatiable in her quest for beauty and will do anything to get iteven if it means endangering the Belles and the kingdomand Camellia may be the only one who can stop her. Not only that, but Camellia finds herself slowly uncovering the secrets of the Belles' origin, and it's not as pretty as she was taught. With wonderfully descriptive language, Clayton builds a grand and lavish world, carefully chipping away at the veneer to reveal its dark, sinister interior. In a world where anyone can change their skin color as often as they can change their hair color, race is fluid. Camellia is brown, and her sisters are various shades of brown and pale.With a refreshingly original concept, this substantial fantasy, the first in a duology, is an undeniable page-turner. (Fantasy. 14-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
