The Belles, by Dhonielle Clayton

Title: The Belles
Author: Dhonielle Clayton
Genre/ issues: YA. Dystopian fiction. Beauty standards.

Shop local where you can: For Australian readers, search Indies to locate your closest independent bookstore, or find it on Booktopia. US readers, check out Bookshop.org.

I’ve had this book and the sequel for a while now, and I’ve gotta say I kind of judged it. It looks sweet, and I figured it was largely a romance novel. I’ve read some heavy stuff over the past couple of weeks, so I pulled this off my shelf for a slightly lighter read.
*cue Present Tamara laughing uproariously at Past Tamara*
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton is great. A fantasy world in which appearance is all, and the Belles are charged with the mysterious and goddess-given power to manipulate physical appearance to manifest beauty on those who can pay for it. This reminded me somewhat of the premise of the Uglies series, which I love. The difference? The “upgrades” come from a mystical and biological process rather than the more technological ones of the Uglies world, and the protagonist is one of the Belles who treasures her role in beautifying the land rather than someone who is on the receiving end of the procedures. A great read – I feel like there’s a lot I’m still missing, and the ending felt a little rushed, but I’ve got book 2 waiting for me, so I’m hoping that there’s some more of the detail I’m craving about these procedures in that!
As someone who has long struggled with her appearance – especially given that so much about me has/would/will never fit within the traditional societal views of beauty, there were moments in this book that were really hard to read. It’s an important issue to be addressed though, particularly for YA readers who are navigating their understanding of own identities in so many ways.

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge 34/52

Happy reading,

Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi

Title: Children of Blood and Bone
Author: Tomi Adeyemi
Genre/ issues: Fantasy. Race. Magic.

Shop local where you can: search Indies to locate your closest independent bookstore, or find it on Booktopia.

Blurb: Tomi Adeyemi conjures a stunning world of dark magic and danger in her West African-inspired fantasy debut Children of Blood and Bone.
They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
Zelie remembers when the soil of Orisha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zelie without a mother and her people without hope. Only a few people remain with the power to use magic, and they must remain hidden.
Zelie is one such person. Now she has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zelie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orisha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zelie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy.”

Well. I am still not over this book. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is a stunning fantasy about a world in which the ruling monarchy have inflicted genocide on a people who had previously been able to use magic but have found themselves severed from it, and are treated like vermin by an increasingly corrupt military. It’s a powerful and confronting read, with close parallels to the treatment of black people in contemporary American society. There is a sequel to this book, which I am very much looking forward to reading, but I need some time to sit with this for a bit. It hits very close to home, particularly with the current public attention on the BLM movement. If fantasy is your genre, this one is a must-read.

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge 31/52

Happy reading,

Black enough, ed. Ibi Zoboi

Title: Black Enough: Stories of being young and black in America
Editor: Ibi Zoboi
Genre/ issues: Contemporary fiction. Short stories. Anthology. Race. Coming of age stories.

Shop local where you can: search Indies to locate your closest independent bookstore, or find it on Booktopia.

From the GoodReads blurb:
Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America.

Black is…sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp in Portland, Oregon, as written by Renée Watson.
Black is…three friends walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything, in a story by Jason Reynolds.
Black is…Nic Stone’s high-class beauty dating a boy her momma would never approve of.
Black is…two girls kissing in Justina Ireland’s story set in Maryland.
Black is urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be Black enough.
Contributors:
Justina Ireland
Varian Johnson
Rita Williams-Garcia
Dhonielle Clayton
Kekla Magoon
Leah Henderson
Tochi Onyebuchi
Jason Reynolds
Nic Stone
Liara Tamani
Renée Watson
Tracey Baptiste
Coe Booth
Brandy Colbert
Jay Coles
Ibi Zoboi
Lamar Giles

With the resurgence of an international focus on the Black Lives Matter movement, I’ve been focusing on novels written by black authors this month, and this book is excellent. Black Enough is an anthology of stories about growing up black in America, written by some outstanding black authors. From romance to friendship, from code camp to horse races, it’s a fantastic depiction of a diverse range of coming-of-age stories. They don’t all explicitly deal with racism as an issue, but race is an ever-present element of all the narratives. This is a beautiful mix of stories, some funny, some sad, some tense, but all excellent reads. I’m searching out books by all the authors in this collection to add to my TBR.

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge 30/52

Happy reading,