The Beautiful Ones

3 min read

Romance, drama, and exaggerated gasps will be the feature of today’s Ariel’s Arcs. I recently Finished The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Last June, I raved about a new summer horror, Mexican Gothic (also by the same author) and since then I’ve really enjoyed reading a couple other of her books, Untamed Shore and Gods of Jade and Shadow. When I was approved The Beautiful Ones, I knew I’d be in for an amazing reading experience. Each book of this author’s I’ve read has had distinctive and different flavors to them– From 1950s horror to 1970s crime thriller– I was excited to see how an 1890s (guessing on the year by context clues of the story, this year could be off) romance would be.

The Beautiful Ones has a slight aspect of fantasy– two of the main characters have a magical ability of telekinesis. Don’t go into this book expecting your formulaic fantasy, however, this book definitely resides in a romantic drama category. I haven’t read a lot of romances myself, but from my vantage point, The Beautiful Ones was a solid story all around, and I went in expecting a dramatic romance and that was exactly what I received.

This story is mostly guided by the characters, so I wanted to spend a moment describing the three main points-of-view (as spoiler free as possible!) so you can get to know our main characters before diving into this ridiculously fun book.

First up we have Nina. She’s young, sweet, and grew up in the countryside. She’s about to head to the city to socialize and look for a husband, and she’s completely unprepared for all the social niceties of high-society. She’s an adorable character full of life and spunk, and I especially loved her interest and fascination with insects.

Next we have Valerie. Married and part of the town’s social elite, she’s Nina’s cousin by marriage. She’s taken it upon herself to guide Nina and teach her the ways of the city’s high class, but her patience runs thin pretty quickly. She’s not the most likeable character at times, but at every aspect her motivations are clear and understandable, and even in the worst times I was rooting for her happiness.

Finally we have Hector. He’s a performer in the local theater, but he’s adjacent to the high society class that Nina and Valerie operate in. He’s kind but unsure of what he wants in life, and that makes him very relatable in some aspects.

This book was a light but dramatic read. The characterization was really well done, and everyone felt well fleshed-out. If you’re looking to dive into this dramatic foray into high society, grab some popcorn and enjoy some scandalous drama! A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review.