Mona Awad - Rouge

Mona Awad - Rouge

3⭐

Genre: Horror, Gothic, Fiction, Thriller, Contemporary, Literary Fiction 

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback Proof 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 

Date Published: 12th September 2023

Huge thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy.

Book Blurb: 

From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

My Review: 

This book was quite disturbing but at the same time quite interesting. It is one of those books where I don’t know whether I liked it or disliked it.

The book follows Belle, who since very young again, influenced by her mother's beauty, is obsessed with her appearance, especially her skincare. One day, her mother Noelle mysteriously dies and Belle has to face her past, first by coming home to Southern California. At home, she realises that her mother is in debt, which prompts her to start asking questions about how her mother died. Her suspicions grow even more when she meets a strange woman in red who invites her to a secret spa and club, which her mother was a member of. There Belle slowly discovers herself, and truths about her mother's past but also faces her demons from the past.

I liked the beginning of this book. It gripped me and captivated me, however, the more I read the more cryptic and confusing the story became. In the end, I was confused as to what was going on and what this story was supposed to be about. At first, I thought it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but looking from 21^st-century eyes, and our obsession with skincare, always looking young and putting on a ‘fake façade’, as well as, how social media and companies make us part of the ‘cult’ when it comes to beauty, skincare products and focusing on the impossible beauty standards. At least that’s what I took from the book. However, I also felt that there was more, which I might not understood or didn’t get whilst reading this book.

Not going to lie, the writing was beautiful, but I felt that some parts of the story were not necessary and rather repetitive. I thought this book would have read much better if it was a shorter novella. There were also times when I didn’t care about Belle as she was quite insufferable and naïve. I also didn’t care about the in-depth exploration of Noelle’s and Belle’s relationship as for me that wasn’t the main point of the book, and it also took away from exploring the beauty and unattainable beauty standards. I didn’t connect to their relationship at all…

Overall: Very mixed opinions about this book. Part of me liked it a lot but there was part of me where I didn’t like it. This book gives a lot of food for thought, especially about the beauty industry in the 21^st century but at the same time delivers those thoughts in a very cryptic and crazy way. 

About the Author: 

Mona Awad is the author of BUNNY, ALL'S WELL and 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL. 13 WAYS won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Her second novel, BUNNY, was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror, the New England Book Award, and won the Ladies of Horror Fiction Best Novel Award. It is currently being optioned for film with Bad Robot Productions. ALL'S WELL was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Her new novel, ROUGE, is forthcoming in September 2023 with Simon & Schuster.

She earned an MFA from Brown University and an MScR in English from the University of Edinburgh where her dissertation was on fear in the fairy tale. In 2018, she completed a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Denver. She currently teaches creative writing at Syracuse University and lives in Boston.

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