Book completed
Jul. 1st, 2023 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeThe Beautiful Ones, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Reread. Most of her books are set in a fantasy or noir version of Mexico, but this one's in a fantasy version of France in the early 1900s, and its fantasy element (other than the fact that it's in a make-believe world based on France, rather than actual France) is pretty trivial - a form of telekinesis that's just used for entertainment.
In the first half of the book, travelling entertainer Hector Auvray is doing something very wrong - he's courting young Nina in order to spend time with Nina's horrible but extremely beautiful cousin-in-law Valérie, who was his first love. At the end of the first half, he realizes that Valérie is horrible and that, whoops, he's actually fallen in love with Nina, but Nina has seen him kissing Valérie. The second half of the story is the two of them carefully figuring things out, with yet more negative interference from Valérie.
Moreno-Garcia is such a fine writer, and the ending feels satisfying and truthful.
In the first half of the book, travelling entertainer Hector Auvray is doing something very wrong - he's courting young Nina in order to spend time with Nina's horrible but extremely beautiful cousin-in-law Valérie, who was his first love. At the end of the first half, he realizes that Valérie is horrible and that, whoops, he's actually fallen in love with Nina, but Nina has seen him kissing Valérie. The second half of the story is the two of them carefully figuring things out, with yet more negative interference from Valérie.
Moreno-Garcia is such a fine writer, and the ending feels satisfying and truthful.