'After her life was recently turned upside down, things have finally begun to settle for Anabelle "Belle" DiMarco. Now, working with the organisation known as C.H.I.P. she has more allies than she has ever had in her war against the beasts who threaten mankind. But, with her new allies comes a new mission, and the price she will be asked to pay may not be worth the cost. Get ready to be pulled back into Belle's world as she learns more secrets of her family and is put to the
test in this new limited series, Belle: Oath of Thorns!'
It's been at least a decade since I've seen a Xenoscope book, so I'd kind of forgotten that the company does a lot of re-imagined fairy tales, and it took me a moment to realise that of course the Belle here refers to Belle from Beauty and the Beast. That being said, even with the knowledge I didn't expect this book to go the way it did.
Belle: Oath of Thorns follows Anabelle 'Belle' DiMarco as she continues to work with the paramilitary group C.H.I.P., helping with their mission to track down and neutralise monsters across the globe. In exchange for her assistance the group has agreed to try to help cure Belle's brother of the curse that has transformed him into a monstrous beast.
Despite being a later volume of the series the book fills you in quite quickly on the things that I'd missed, and important information that I needed to understand who everyone was, and their relationships with each other were explained in plenty time enough that I never felt like I was a set behind, or that the book wasn't accessible because I hadn't read any of the series prior. This was a good thing for myself, but as I'd never read it before I can't say if these segments would drag for anyone who's familiar with the series, or whether these recaps provide any more information that they'd usually have. But as a new reader they proved indispensable.
The central plot of the book, of Belle being set up by Otts to be killed off whilst she is able to steal the curse that is afflicting Alex so that she could weaponise it doesn't always make sense, and there are a lot of moments that don't quite hold together once you start to really look at it. For example, why is Belle sent to fight Medusa and her daughters in the hopes that it will lead to her death rather than Otts just simply killing Belle whilst she had her in her secret base. There's a moment where Belle is drugged unconscious, and would have provided the perfect opportunity to kill her or keep her locked up.
There also seems to be a lot of coincidences that become quite vital to solving the plot too, such as Belle's father just happening to turn up right at the perfect moment to save her life, and to help her get back into C.H.I.P. to save her friends. And there's the fact that Candlestick was given a distress signal to use decades before that's not only still useful, but manages to get picked up without any issue. These might not be huge things, but when the plot hinges on them they seem a bit incredulous at times, and leaves you wondering just how Belle would have saved the day without this outside help turning up right when she needed it the most.
There's some stuff to like in this book though, the action is entertaining, and the plot does have some interesting moments, despite the weird coincidences and the almost shoehorning in of names and themes from Beauty and the Beast. Fans of the series will definitely enjoy the book, new readers will probably find stuff to like, even if it doesn't set your world on fire.
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