The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh
Series: The Beautiful #1
Rating: 2.5 stars
Release Date: October 8th 2019
Goodreads Synopsis:
In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.
"I am not so captivated by the beautiful, monsieur." Celine met his gaze without wavering. "For I know beauty is only a moment in time." p. 365
The Beautiful takes place in New Orleans, 1872, following Celine Rousseau as she escapes from Europe to find new life in America (with a dark secret, of course). She initially seeks a life of anonymity with a convent of sisters, but becomes acquainted with the La Cour des Lions, a coterie of otherwise otherworldly beings. As Celine gets involved with this group, a murderer descends upon New Orleans, and Celine may be the next victim.
Haven't read a vampire book in a long time so I was excited to read this... but as I read, the more I kept on asking myself, where are the vampires? The pace of this book is excruciatingly slow, as Celine navigates through the dark underground that is The Court and meets a long list of characters. There are so many that it was hard to keep track of (and honestly, what was the point?). Bastien, the beautiful mysterious guy, Pippa, her friend, Odette, part of Bastien's group, Bastien's Uncle Nicodemus, and Detective Michael, the one investigating the murderers, are the characters that are the easiest to remember. However, most of the interiority comes from Celine, and we don't have more in-depth characterization from the secondary characters. They appear in scenes for the briefest of seconds. Even Celine's own interiority and musings have the breadth of modernity, making me wonder what was the point of setting it in 19th century New Orleans.
"C'est assez! None of us should have to wear corsets unless we decide to wear them. In the meantime, I say we take to the square and burn them all." - p. 215
We get glimpses of the setting, but never something that truly grounds us in this Victorian era world. This book really reminded me of The Diviners, but in that book, I really got the full flapper girl, 20th-century New York City vibe. Here, not so much.
There's a bit of conflict between Michael and Bastien that slowly turns into a love triangle with Celine (as opposed to presenting any kind of real complexity these characters might have); they're all shown as very beautiful, rogueish individuals (tall, dark and handsome!).
Back to the bit of vampires we did get to see. There was the tiniest of scenes with the coterie of vampires, but to present this as a dark book is a stretch, honestly. There are murders and vampires but it honestly wasn't substantial enough.
Spoilers...
The villain was unremarkable. He appeared for one second as an assumed death, showed up in the vampire feeding scene as a vampire, and becomes the villain. For him to be part of Bastien's group, I couldn't understand why it had to be him of all people. What happened to caring about the villain in some way? We had Voldemort's backstory. We sympathized and came to love Holland. Even Billy in Stranger Things we had some pull of emotion towards!
Which means I couldn't care about this villain at all. I couldn't bring myself to care much about this story at all, really. Which is really disappointing.
Maybe one day I'll find a vampire book to enjoy.
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