The two women are studies in contrast, one instantly likeable and the other increasingly vile, but similarities emerge as the book progresses that cast a little light on Valerie’s appalling behaviour. The three characters’ arcs are perhaps not especially surprising but it’s deeply satisfying to watch them develop, in particular the dynamic between Valerie and Nina as the older woman attempts to force her younger cousin along a path she has already walked. In their own ways they both struggle to let go of each other despite how their lives have ended up, whereas Nina – pushed to become something she isn’t, and doesn’t want to be – hopes to forge her own future unbound by social constraints. Events proceed at a gentle pace, allowing Moreno-Garcia to gradually explore a little of this world along with Hector and Valerie’s obsessions with the past and their designs upon Nina. Unaware of Hector’s history with Valerie, Nina sees in Hector a dashing suitor and a man she could love.Īnd so the plot plays out, a stately dance of drama between (mostly) the three main characters that’s variously awkward, uncomfortable, angry and endearing, while also cleverly told, beautifully depicted and consistently heart-rending. When he finds Valerie cold and unwelcoming, however, he sees in Nina an opportunity to stay close to the Beaulieus and cling to his long-held dreams, so sets out to court her. A decade ago Hector and Valerie fell in love only to be forced apart by circumstance, and with fame and fortune on his side Hector hopes to finally win her hand. There’s Hector Auvray, a charismatic entertainer who has dragged himself up from the gutter and made his fortune wowing audiences with his telekinetic prowess Valerie Beaulieu, a beautiful socialite locked in an unhappy marriage for the sake of her family and Antonina (Nina) Beaulieu, the young cousin of Valerie’s husband, who’s been sent to the city from her country home to make of her a lady, though her own telekinetic gifts are the least of her problems in this regard. The story begins in the city of Loisail during the Grand Season, with its glittering balls attended by the Beautiful Ones – the cream of society – and revolves around a trio of characters caught in a tangle of history, passion and deception.

With the carefully observed characters and social customs of a novel of manners, set in a fictional world influenced by late-19th Century Europe and with a dash of telekinesis added in for a little bit of a fantasy edge, it’s a rich and characterful social drama, a slow-burn romantic love triangle, and a tale of conformity and conflict.

First published in 2017, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones is back in print in a lovely new 2021 edition from Jo Fletcher Books (or via Tor in the US), and deservedly so.

The beautiful ones silvia