The Beautiful Ones is very unlike Ms. Moreno-Garcia’s noir-ish Velvet Was the Night. The Beautiful Ones is a comedy of manners set in an imaginary world in which the characters maintain the tightly-drawn roles of the late 19th century British gentry with the addition of some characters having the ability to teleport objects. Members of high society are “the beautiful ones.” Antonina (Nina) Beaulieu is an amateur lepidopterist in the fashion of the 19th century people who enjoyed collecting and categorizing the natural world. She has the gift of telekinesis, a trait she’s unable to control and which manifests itself most strongly when she is overly emotionally. Hector Auvray, a telekinetic performer, returns home after a decade away, hoping to settle his feelings about Valerie Beaulieu, a woman he’d loved who broke off their engagement to marry the wealthy Gaetan Beaulieu. Hector, still reeling from that blow, is taken with the young, naive Nina but fears losing his heart again. Valerie, a villain you will love to hate is a scheming, bitter, manipulative virago who tries to break Nina’s independent will.
The Beautiful Ones turns a scathing gaze on male privilege, the stifling roles allowed women, materialism, and the artifice of “manners.” The language is poetic and languid and the pace stately in keeping with the world built by Moreno-Garcia.
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The Beautiful Ones is available through:
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My review of Velvet Was the Night
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