The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Initially I wanted to give myself at least a day before writing this review, but I have this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and decided it’s best to get this over with and move on. The story started out relative well, sadly it didn’t end that way, at least for me.
The characters came across as uneven and inconsistent. I understand what the author tried to accomplish with them, mostly create a sense of mystery and intrigue, but they were nothing more than stiff, 2-dimensional entities that meant to move the plot along.
The plot or rather the main idea that got me interested in the book in the first place was good enough, but through the unfolding of the story I grew more and more frustrated with little inconsistencies, details that didn’t add up and scenes that appear to only exist as an attempt to keep the reader’s attention. The story, which should have created mystery, which then slowly unfolds, went from mildly entertaining to a tangled web of confusion mixed in with many borrowed ideas and themes that are meant to stimulate discussions.
The writing improved as the story continued, although the dialogue between the main character and her “love interest” remained stunted with poorly executed efforts at flirting that felt like a disaster in slow motion. In the first 100-150 pages were more than a few awkward sentences that I had to read few times over. Further along in the story I came to my attention that various lines of description, which were unnecessary this far into the story, were simply copied and pasted.
Overall, I tried to like it. I tried to be patient. But in the end, I can’t recommend it and I honestly can’t wait to return it to my library.
