I was thrilled to see another release coming from Mona Awad, critically acclaimed (and well-deserved) author of Bunny. This one focuses on a woman who goes through a bit of a spiral when her mother passes unexpectedly. She's on a "treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty," essentially a horror retelling of Beauty and the Beast and none can stand in her way. Twists and turns, surprises and some chuckles, this read kept me going. Awad is absolutely terrifying at times in the best way possible.

Wow this was such a trip. Awad's writing is lovely and poetic on a sentence level, and there are some really funny parodies/critiques of the ~beauty industry~ and beauty bloggers etc. The structure is a little like...weirder and dreamier than I generally prefer to read personally but it was a really compelling journey to go on.

Like her books before this is a wild trip into Awad’s mind. This take on an old fairy tale is interesting if not always entertaining or clear. Sometimes weird can be too weird.

This book was weird, as expected from Mona Awad. I’m not sure it will have staying power in my head, but it is a good rec for someone looking for a weird book.

Mona Awad’s “Rouge” follows Mirabelle Nour, 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.

While I appreciate "Bunny" (I gave it four stars), “Rouge” didn't resonate with me as much. Some elements felt too reminiscent of Awad’s most famous novel, particularly the presence of a cult. This suggests the author's preference for certain themes, but I still have to check out “All’s well.” However, my main issue with the book is its considerable slowdown after the 50% mark. Part of it stems from the strenuous repetition of symbols, of which there are too many. Symbols such as Belle’s father’s bracelet, her mother’s shoes, mirrors, the color red, roses, jellyfish, mannequins, water, and others are repeatedly emphasized. Their significance in the story is quite clear, so mentioning them so frequently feels unnecessary. In addition, I believe Awad should have stuck to three or four symbols and explored them in depth instead of introducing so many for a book this short. There are also numerous references to Disney princesses and fairy tales, which, overall, make the narrative feel overloaded and repetitive.

Similar to my aversion to the abundance of symbols, there is an excess of characters, many of whom could have been combined as they serve similar functions, especially the "spa" characters. For instance, the veiled twins and the girl with blond curls are introduced and then forgotten, their roles essentially interchangeable with the woman in red (no, they don’t have names).

Throughout the book, I couldn't shake the impression that the author prioritized aesthetics over character development or plot (I’m a character-driven reader), which is shown by her emphasis on describing everything as red. The novel “Rouge” is, at the end of the day, a product of its time, when the internet heavily favors aesthetic and trope-driven content, such as cottage core and dark academia. At times, reading the book felt more like watching a montage of pretty scenes in a movie rather than engaging with a cohesive story. While some readers may enjoy this style (and I certainly love books that feel like a fever dream), I found it forced and pretentious, seemingly written with the intention of being adapted into a film—which is a pretty realistic expectation, considering everything is turned into a movie nowadays. Many descriptions reminded me of scenes from "Suspiria" and "American Beauty."

As a parody of skincare obsession, the book succeeds. It also addresses race, with the main protagonist being half-Egyptian by her father’s side but raised by her White Canadian mother, who treats her daughter as “exotic” while perpetuating White European beauty standards for herself, such as never leaving the house without an umbrella to protect her skin from the sun, and we can see how this affects Belle’s image of herself from the childhood. This aspect feels realistic but is approached in a superficial and obvious manner—I mean, does anyone doubt that beauty standards reward Caucasian features? The book also explores a complex mother-daughter relationship, which I found well-executed. Overall, if viewed as a journey through grief, it offers a unique and raw perspective but could have been better crafted.

I’m still going to check out “All’s well” as I loved “Bunny,” but this one disappointed me.

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It is devastating for me to say but I had to DNF this book. Mona Awad's Bunny is one of my favorite books and I've held her in such high regard since reading it, but her last two books were major flops for me. Rouge was no different. I could not get myself excited about reading it even though skincare and cults are my two buzzwords. It was so hard to stay interested and I started the book over at least three times before I gave myself permission to just skip this Awad release.

Coming off of how much I enjoyed Bunny by Mona Awad I did not enjoy this book to the extent that I enjoyed the other. That being said I did see enjoy this one. My only problem with this one how much it felt like there was judgement from the author about the entire beauty world and not just the parts of it that are harmful. It almost felt like you were being attacked if you enjoy any element of the beauty world. Other than that is is a wonderfully weird story that is well written.

"Rouge" by Mona Awad is a mesmerizing exploration of obsession and identity, weaving together elements of mystery and psychological depth. Awad's prose is lush and evocative, immersing readers in a world where beauty and darkness collide with breathtaking results.

This book was great. If you are a fan of the author you will love this one. It has a very surreal feeling too it while still having a concrete plot that keeps you interested. Awad does a wonderful job at creating a setting that has a film-like aesthetic.

This is a classic Mona Awad. Beyond the gorgeous cover, the story explores the complexities of mother daughter relationships, art, and beauty standards. This has been a trope in lit fic lately and I think this story discusses it masterfully. If you've enjoyed any of Mona Awad's other reads you are sure to enjoy this one.

Mona Awad does it again.

Awad's unique surrealist style weaves a story that left me white knuckled to the very last page. In previous novels Awad has examined the isolation of womanhood (Bunny) and the isolation of chronic pain (All's Well) and in Rouge she takes a tongue in cheek look at the online beauty influencer industry. Awad's unique style of horror gives this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast a painfully feminist twist.

As with all of Mona Awad's books, I absolutely loved Rouge. I do agree with another review that this novel seems similar in style to her previous novel All's Well but I enjoyed this book quite a bit more. There's no way to describe her books but weird -- they're so strange and twisting that sometimes I feel like I'll never know what's actually going on. And yet by the I am always weeping, wondering what the hell just happened to me and desperate for her next book.

If you loved Bunny, you'll love Rouge. Enough said.

In “Rouge,” Belle, a Canadian woman in perhaps her mid-thirties, goes to Southern California after her mother’s accidental death. Belle is a skincare aficionado, but she always felt insufficient around her glamorous mother and her string of boyfriends. At first, she wants nothing more than to settle her mother’s affairs and return to Montreal. But when she happens upon the mysterious spa that her mother visited and is given a free treatment with incredible results, she changes her mind. “Gone are the folds around my mouth; the scar on my forehead; my misery lines; the sad, slack jaw and the puffy, dark-ringed eyes. All is sharp and taut. All sparkles. Brightly. Whitely. Beautiful. I look beautiful.” Awad refers to fairy tales like “The Red Shoes” by Hans Christian Andersen and “Snow White” but only thematically—she looks to these stories for their broader cultural impact, such as jealousy between mothers and daughters and perceptions of beauty, and the idea of beauty or worth coming through an external application.

But she also makes a lot of other cultural references that are more lowbrow than that, because she’s really funny. This might sound absurd, and, well, it does: “I misted diligently between skins with the rosewater and birth milk Moon Juice to create what Marva calls a moisture mille-feuille. I then anointed myself with the Marine Collagen Regenerating Day Soufflé using her patented seventeen dot technique. The day Soufflé not only brightens, firms and plumps, but seals in the hydrating Moon Juice skins, preventing any trans-epidermal water loss.” But I defy anyone to watch two minutes of any skincare video on YouTube or (gulp) Gwyneth washing her face on Instagram and not find something on par. Is Awad just taking aim at the easy target of the beauty-industrial complex in “Rouge”? It’s certainly not that simple. The beauty industry is built on a sturdy foundation of hundreds of years of telling girls that their worth is tangled up with their physical beauty and their youth. Whether it’s the mother of a girl in a fairy tale or not, she might wish for her daughter to have skin as white as snow and blood-red lips while nevertheless feeling deeply envious as her own youth and beauty fade.

As Belle spends more time in her mother’s town, she seems to lose her grip on reality. She thinks she looks better than ever, but an acquaintance greets her with alarm. An old family friend is deeply concerned about her. And maybe even her mother wasn’t as stern as she recalls. She remembers telling her mother about a game she played with friends as a child called “Honestly.” “We sit in a circle and take turns closing our eyes. When you close them, you ask the circle Am I beautiful? and people raise their hands if they think yes and don’t raise them if they think no, sorry. And someone counts the hands for you, and that’s how you know honestly.” After Belle explains, her mother tells her to never play “that fucking game ever again.” Belle asks why and she blurts out, “Because it’s stupid, that’s why,” a reasonable enough answer for a tired mother who doesn’t have the energy to explain the many horrible aspects such a “game” could have on a group of girls, particularly friends, not to mention a child one loved and cherished.


If you’re already an Awad fan, consider this a worthy addition to her oeuvre. If you enjoy your fiction a little off the beaten path, funny, and brimming with intelligence, “Rouge” might be a perfect pick.

“Rouge”
By Mona Awad
Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books, 384 pages

this had a slow start but I did end up getting intrigued by the weirdness & fever dreamy vibes. unfortunately, the pace is so slow and though it got weird quickly, it never got weirdER. I needed more horror, more weirdness, more anxiety and never ended up getting that.

I loved this book. It was bizarre, but it holds so much meaning. A lot of us girls/women grew up with such expectations of beauty. Awad perfectly captures this desire to be beautiful at the cost of happiness and life. Love love this book.

I’m a huge fan of mona awad and this book did not disappoint. Bunny is my favorite book so when i saw Mona was coming out with this i was so excited! Mona’s storytelling is so captivating and i get emerged into the world she creates with every word i read. I love this book and i would recommend it to my friends.

This book left me queasy and uneasy, and I think mostly in not a bad way. It's a lot at times for a squeamish reader like me.

Man, I wish I could live inside Mona Awads brain. Just float around in there for a bit.
This was awesome.

Thank you for the ARC! I purchased a copy for my Mona Shelf ❤️

I love a good weird book but I think this is where I may part my ways with Awad. I’ve read All’s Well which I didn’t like and Bunny which I liked so I thought maybe I’d like this one too but I was disappointed. It became so repetitive and I lost interest, which is sad because I think Awad could’ve made some strong points about the beauty industry and societal standards of beauty.

I’ve noticed her books all have pretty similar plots even though this one kind of lacked one. Also the Tom Cruise obsession got old real quick.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

After reading 20%, I had to dnf. This one was so very slow for me and I couldn’t get into it. I am still looking forward to reading Bunny, but this one wasn’t for me.

I really enjoyed Mona Awad's Rouge. Her books are always such a ride and this was no different. I found the premise very intriguing and timely. The mother-daughter was exceptionally complicated, but realistic and relatable.

I really loved this one and the resolution was surprisingly touching.