The Belles
by Dhonielle Clayton
Publisher: Freeform Books
Publication Date: February 6, 2018
This book is set in a cursed society where beauty is of the utmost importance; social status is expressed by who has the latest trends on everything from skin tone to waist size. Clayton’s THE BELLES tells the story of Camellia, a Belle with the power to turn the people of New Orleans beautiful. After Camellia is chosen as the royal Belle, she slowly discovers the dark secrets of the Belle world and the royal family. This book was full of plot twists and exciting surprises that had me thoroughly engaged in Camellia’s world.
Overall, I quite enjoyed reading this and I thought the undertones of social commentary on the impossible beauty standards of today’s society are especially impactful for young adult readers.
Meet Cute
edited by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
MEET CUTE, a romantic anthology with contributions from top YA authors, tells the stories of 14 different couples, starting and ending at their beginnings. From the classic to the creative, each author takes his or her own spin on the infamous "meet-cute", or the way in which two people meet. A wide range of settings and characters are represented, including sci-fi worlds, typical high school environments, unlikely pairings, and several LGBTQIA+ relationships. The outcomes faced by the couples differ from romantic to sorrowful, as many of the authors are aware of the cheesiness and impossibility of actual meet cutes, and choose not to have a happy ending, which is surprisingly refreshing and grounding. New twists on old tropes make these stories exciting and unique, and there are definitely a few shocks in store.
I really enjoyed this short story collection, and would highly recommend it to any YA reader. There wasn't one story that I didn't like, and they were diverse enough to stay interesting. The only problem I had was with how short some of them were and how abrupt the endings could be, but that was the premise of the collection (in a way) so I was already expecting that to be the case. I'm a big anthology fan in general, and this one was no exception. Even the stories that didn't have the most fairytale type endings were still uplifting, making this a perfect light--yet still meaningful--read.
