The Beautiful Ones

By: Kody Boye

Narrated by: Jessica Hazard

My mother once said that only the Beautiful Ones survive. This is because in the war-torn Great South, beauty is a currency, and to have it means you will never have to worry about a thing. The only problem is: Beauty is judged by our capital’s Gentlewomen, and there is no guarantee we will pass their test.

Every year, the Gentlewomen of the capital leave the Glittering City to oversee the annual Procession. They travel settlement to settlement selecting girls, aged 16 and older, to become Beautiful Ones. If chosen, we will be lifted into a life of luxury, but the cost is our free will.

©2018 Kody Boye (P)2019 Kody Boye

Love this

I loved this story. It is very interesting and I couldn't wait to finish it. I also loved the narrators voice. Definitely worth the listen!

A Dystopian Fairytale

The Beautiful Ones makes me think of a dystopiian fairytale reminiscent of Hunger Games and the Handmaidens tale. Very Interesting and easy listen. I was given this audible in exchange for an honest review.

Great dystopian

Absolutely loved this book! The author did an amazing job creating a new dystopian world with characters that immediately catch your attention and leave you curious. It reminded me a bit of the uglies series mixed with hunger games. Point of view is from the beautiful ones and I loved getting in their minds. I loved the mix of romance with the tension of the world. I truly enjoyed Kelendra and watching her grow and develop. Can’t wait for book 2! I got this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Great book

This novel by Kody Boye is very thought provoking. It is set in a world where to be beautiful is the most highly sought-after commodity. Unfortunately, being beautiful is not quite as glamorous as they've made it seem to those on the outside looking in. No spoilers here, but definitely worth checking out. Can't wait to start the sequel!

I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely Hooked!!

This is a beautifully woven story about Kalendra as she becomes a Beautiful one and leaves everything behind. Its almost like the hunger games but only in the world portion as an example. This is a masterpiece and doesn't fully compare to anything. Kalendra is from the West and travels east to the Glittering City. She makes friends and learns so much. There isn't really romance in this story but I expect it to grow alot come book 2 with how the last part is unfolding. It ALMOST reminds me of The Selection series without the romance and a bit more action and drama! Kalendra constantly had me on edge because she kept getting into self made trouble as any teenager does!
Kody Boye did an amazing job and I can't WAIT to see where this world leads to!!
Jessica Hazard did a breathtaking job of reading this story and I was sneaking in listens while at work.

I requested and was given this audiobook complimentary at my request and have voluntarily left this review with my honest opinion

Engaging dystopian fairytale

A young woman (Kelendra) takes part in basically a beauty pageant to elevate her standing in life and become a "Beautiful One". The great reward is to be taken to The Glittering City and entered into an arranged marriage and be one of the chosen people to further an idealized version of humanity. The clash between the book world and the wrongness that you feel as a spectator makes for an engaging read.

Kelendra is a great character to be our access point into this world. She is indifferent to the goal of becoming a "Beautiful One" and fairly naive to the goings on of this world. We get to learn many truths along with her and see some of the world-building through her eyes for the first time instead of just being info dumped on us. The world-building is great in this book and I think the unveiling of information is done with the restraint of knowing this will be a series.

The narration by Jessica Hazard is pretty great throughout and thought she embodied Kelendra perfectly and brought the world to life. I enjoyed that Kody Boye defied some expectations I thought would come with a story like this and look forward to the choices he plans on making in future books. An endearing main character that you want to cheer for and some great world building made for an entertaining listen.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Dystopian world

This was a great story about a dystopian world where young girls deemed beautiful are able to escape their life or poverty and go to the capital city where they live a life or opulence. Girls prepare their whole lives but no one really knows what happens to them once they leave. It is similar to hunger games or divergent but without all the combat (so far). The society seems to be matriarchal. It’s an interesting twist to this genre and was well written. I am looking forward to reading Book 2 to see what happens next.

Amazing!

Loved this book! Was very different than any book that I have read before! Really love the main character! The author did an awesome job keeping my attention, I wasn't able to predict what was going to happen! I'm sure the next book is just as good! The narrator wasreally great!

Better than expected

It was a very engaging story! I finished it in on sitting and now can’t wait for the next one. The narrator did a good job on the characters.

PG-13 version of the Handmaid's Tale

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES by Koby Boye is a Young Adult dystopian novel with a twist. Rather than being about a young action heroine who is struggling against the tyranny of the week, it is the story of a woman who wins a peculiar "beauty pageant" that results in her becoming one of the Beautiful Ones. They are people who have been selected for their strong genetics to be the pampered and beloved wives to a eugenicist experiment in the Glittering City. If this sounds like there's a shoe waiting to drop, you'd be half-right.

Kelendra is an entertaining but reserved character as she has been raised by her family to endure The Process. They've done her best to use their meager resources to make her spectacularly lovely in hopes of getting her accepted as one of the Beautiful Ones. It's something Kelendra never got a chance to particularly want for herself and when she is accepted, doesn't quite know what to do with herself since it separates her from the only life she's ever known.

If I had to describe this, I'd say this is something akin to a PG-13 version of The Handmaid's Tale. There's even a figure known ominously as the Commandant who develops a liking for Kelendra's best friend (and goes after her in a subdued but horrifying scene). There's also elements of The Hunger Games with the entirety of Kelendra's village being fascinated by the prospect of her becoming a Beautiful One even as they expect to never see her again.

The world-building is exceptionally well done as Kody draws on the Antebellum South and Civil War motifs to give a sense of what the world is like. It is definitely in the future but not so far in the future that the Old World is completely forgotten. Indeed, it's implied it may be only a few decades away from now with the dystopian Glittering City having been built in the aftermath of the United States' recent fall.

Do I have any issues? Well, one. The thing is that being a Beautiful One doesn't actually seem to be that bad. You're required to be in an arranged marriage but Kelendra is set up with a young man of her own age, who seems to be every bit the kind of pleasant and good person she is. It also does rescue her from poverty and near-starvation.

When dealing with a bunch of eugenics-obsessed bad guys, I kept expecting some terrible twist: that Kelendra was actually asexual or gay, her husband to be was, her husband to be was abusive, or the Beautiful Ones were meant to be harem girls for the rich and powerful of the city. Kelendra is horrified by the thought of getting married so young and having children but arranged marriages were the way things went for most of human history. At the least least, I was expecting a horrible racial undercurrent to exist to the Process but I didn't see any evidence of that either.

This is a small issue, though, as I genuinely enjoyed following Kelendra through her journey. She is a passive character but incredibly perceptive. I really did sympathize with the fact she's being taken from her loved ones for the promise of a new life she's not sure she wants for herself. There also are many hints to just how horrifying this society is with the majority of lower-class men having been conscripted into what is implied to be a WW1-esque meatgrinder. I immediately picked up and read the second book after finishing the first one and suspect you will too. I rarely comment on covers but I also feel the artist for this one should be commended--it's a really lovely work.

The narrator did an amazing job.