Tuesday, December 12, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia




  When I sometimes describe SF/F books as being "Romance" novels, that description can mean many different things.  Some of these books are ones where Romance is a significant part of a Fantasy/SciFi plot; others are books where the Romance is simply part of a subplot of such a SF/F book instead.  But other books are essentially Romance Novels where the science fiction/fantasy elements are simply part of the background.  You could easily put such books in the Romance section of the bookstore/library without having any reader feel that you have "deceived" them into reading a genre book.

 The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is such a book - it is entirely a Romance Novel, where the only fantasy elements (the presence of "talents" like telekinesis being the only such elements) are minor character traits.  This is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination - I enjoyed this book a lot, as the characters are really believable and the romance is extremely well done (okay, I shed a tear at one point near the ending).  Of course, if you aren't heavily into romance, you won't be into this book at all - so fair warning to you.

More after the jump:



-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
Hector Auvray is a showman, a telekinetic who has made decent wealth over the last ten years by performing telekinetic feats at shows.  But when he comes to the City of Loisail, it is ultimately not for business purposes - he aims to try to win back the girl who stole his heart, Valerie, who he left ten years ago because he had neither the name or fortune to truly be able to marry her.  Valerie had said she would wait for Hector....but a few years later she became married and became Valerie Beaulieu.  But Hector still feels the flame of love for Valerie....and Valerie, who married for duty as her family - impoverished but with a famous noble name - needed her to, may still have some feelings for Hector as well.  But Valerie is too caring of her family's name and her reputation as a Lady to run off with Hector.

Enter Antonina "Nina" Beaulieu, a young woman who is Valerie's cousin through her husband, and who is nearly everything Valerie isn't.  She isn't proper like a lady, isn't quite a stunning beauty like Valerie, loves beetles and butterflies, and is independently willful.  To infuriate Valerie, her husband's family doesn't seek to force Nina's hand in marriage and is willing to give Nina some level of choice.  And Nina is also, like Hector, a telekinetic, though such a talent is considered uncouth in a woman in this world.

When Nina meets Hector, he sees her as an avenue to get close to Valerie, so that he can hopefully convince her to take him back.  But Nina sees Hector as something more, as the first man who seems to share her interests and not shun her for them, and begins to fall in love.    And Hector himself can't help but notice some feelings arising in himself for Nina, even as he still pines for Valerie.  But while Valerie does still carry some flame for Hector, she cares too much for proprietary and her family name to act upon it and she despises Nina for her carefree attitude and her ability to act upon such impropriety.

Between the feelings held by Hector, Valerie, and Nina, will any of the three of them be able to find a happy ending?  Or are they all destined for only heartbreak?
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The Beautiful Ones is split into two parts:  each part deals with two years (or "Grand Seasons", as the year of parties for the high classes of the City are called) in Loisail as the main characters - Hector, Nina, and Valerie - try to figure out their places in the world.  Each chapter takes place from one of the major character's points of view, so you really get to know how each character is thinking during the scenes in the story.

Thankfully at least two of the three characters - Hector and Nina - are wonderfully written characters.  Nina is the most clear "good guy" (or "good girl" in this case) character of the three, being the youngest, and the most naive - whereas the other two characters are at times playing games with ulterior motives, Nina is at worst confused as to what she wants, and never insincere in her actions.  This could easily come off poorly, but Nina is just such a delightful character - the girl who wants to be who she is, a telekinetic who want to use her power despite being told it's uncouth for a lady, who wants a storybook romance - that you wind up rooting for her to get what she wants.

Hector is also a fantastic character, though he's a lot more grey than Nina, given how he very much begins the book trying to use Nina to get to Valerie.  That said, it's very easy to understand his feelings and his devotions, even when he's basically being a total jerk to Nina in leading her on as a result.  I couldn't help but start rooting for him in Part 2 of the book, and his changing emotions are incredibly well done.

I keep going back and forth on what I think about the third main character, Valerie.  I don't want to spoil anything since I definitely recommend this book, but while she's in Part 1 a very understandable, if more than a bit spiteful, character who it's easy to feel for and understand.  In Part 2 on the other hand, she starts to verge into almost comic villainy, and despite seeing her point of view of the proceedings, I'm not sure it works.  The other two characters carry the romance in Part 2 well enough (as well as some other minor characters I haven't referenced) that the book is still delightful, so my ambivalence may not matter.

The end result is a romance book with several love triangles (arguably a love quartet in Part 2) and excellent characters that I would definitely recommend to those who enjoy the genre.  Again, the fantasy elements are very limited - Hector and Nina are telekinetics and part of their romance is Hector teaching Nina how to use the power, but even there the plot purposely puts the two in situations where the use of their powers is unavailable even though one would imagine it would solve part of the conflict.  So this is a Romance novel with Fantasy elements, not the reverse.

But if you like a Romance Novel, I'd highly recommend The Beautiful Ones.   It is truly excellent and even made me shed a tear near the end.
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