Rouge by Mona Awad


Rating: 2.5/5

Rouge is a surreal, skin-deep descent into obsession—explored through beauty culture and mother-daughter grief. The story follows Belle, a lonely woman mourning the sudden death of her enigmatic mother. She soon finds herself lured into a luxurious, cult-like spa in Southern California, the very same spa her mother frequented before her untimely death.

As with Bunny, Awad excels at crafting a hallucinatory atmosphere where reality and delusion blur. The prose is strange and unsettling—filled with mirrors, roses, and red light. But while the aesthetic is fully committed, the narrative itself often feels unfocused. The symbolism is heavy-handed, and certain details disruptive to the overall story.

Belle’s journey is compelling at first, but the character’s internal landscape—her fixation on appearances, her fractured memories, her need to be chosen—starts to feel repetitive and stagnant. As the plot becomes more abstract, it loses urgency, and by the time the novel reaches its surreal climax, I found myself more tired than thrilled.

If you enjoy body horror and gothic fairy tales, there are moments here that will linger. But as a whole, Rouge didn’t quite land for me—it felt like looking into a mirror that keeps fogging up just when things start to come into focus.

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the digital ARC!

Mona Awad is one of those authors where in theory I would love her books, but on paper I find them underwhelming.

Incredible book: No one does eerie, Wonderlandian suspense like Mona Awad. Let her write whatever her weird little mind musters up forever, as they’re the most delicious works of literature being published.

This book had a hard time holding my attention. There wasn't enough of the cult aspect, or maybe it just wasn't clear enough that it was a cult. What was the motive? Just youth and beauty? I'm not sure, but something about this book didn't work for me.

It was too long and a bit too unclear. Weirdness level was good though.

Mona Awad never fails to deliver the most delightfully weird time of your life, in book form! There were times I felt a little lost as the plot jumped from bit to bit, but you have to surrender yourself to the ride with this novel. The themes were dark but explored in ways that I appreciated and the writing, as always, was well done, if sometimes veering towards OVERdone. I'll definitely pick up Mona's next book!

As always with Mona Awad, this was weird and trippy! It's why I keep coming back! This was an interesting twist on Snow White, but it followed a pretty similar storyline to All's Well. Those similarities made the story a little predictable, but I still really enjoyed it.

I have loved so many of Mona Awad's books that I was ecstatic to receive an ARC for Rouge! Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC. Unfortunately, I ended up not finishing this title, dropping it at around 30%. I could not for the life of me get hooked into the story, and the subject matter ended up being triggering for me as I was dealing with the loss of my own mother at the time. Based on what I did read, and how the story went (I spoiled myself for the ending) I would rate this book 3 stars.

I like how this is summarized as a “horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale” because it is that! I knew I was in for a time when I read this would combine a take on the beauty industry and cult like behaviors but I was not prepared for what was to come and loved the horror aspects that came with mirrors and red🪞💋

Rouge 🌹
by @misss_read
💀💀💀💀💀/5

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.

*thank you @netgalley

Mona Awad is one of our greatest writers today. Her books, the voices, her choices, always live up to the hype. There's no words to describe a Mona Awad book that will do it justice. David Lynch crossed with Christopher Nolan in literary form, because there is no author to compare her to.

I heard someone call this a beauty dystopia and I think that is fairly accurate. The complex relationship between mother daughter feelings of inadequacy feelings of self-worth feelings of appearance. Never satisfied. A wide shapes the stories around our characters innermost fears and wants and takes it in such unexpected directions. A surreal fairy tale that leaves you both terrified and amazed.

This unfortunately was a DNF for me.

I enjoyed Bunny. I wasn't as obsessed with it as everyone in other book spaces was, but it was still a 3-star. However, with this one, I just could not get through it. It was boring and couldn't seem to find a point fast enough or have a storyline interesting enough to keep me reading.

After getting 50% in and picking it up 4 separate times, it's time that I part ways with this book and also come to terms with the fact that Mona Awad's books aren't really for me.

(Marking as 1 star for DNF)

This book is like a spooky fairy tale set in the beauty world. It’s about a woman who discovers a mysterious spa after her mom dies. The spa promises to make her beautiful, but things get really creepy. If you like stories that are both magical and scary, this one will keep you hooked!

This one was not for me but I will still recommend to others. Thank you to the publisher for the copy so I can recommend with confidence.

Mona Awad can do no wrong in my book! ROUGE was so captivating (it had me hooked from the description, I have to be honest). I can't to read more from this incredible author!

Loved this. Weird and creepy, it has to have the right reader but if you’ve read bunny you’ll love this. Loved the tie in of fairy tales and mythology too!

I loved the concept for Rouge, the mind altering and obsessive qualities that the beauty industry can instill in our young women. It was written in a very non-linear way, which broke the story up for me in a way that made it a bit confusing and took me out of the story.

Genre: Literary Fiction/Horror

Format: Audio/E-book

4.5🌟 - I really liked it!

Okay, I feel like this book might not be for everyone but it is for me! If you’re interested in commentary on beauty culture, books that feel like a fever dream, and enjoy literary horror I think you’ll like this book!

Mona’s writing is razor sharp! I am obsessed with her prose and the interesting characters and worlds she creates.

I’ve been wanting to read more by Mona Awad since I loved Bunny two years ago! I need to read her whole backlist now.

Thank you to S&S and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I knew Mona Awad went places with her writing that would never occur to me -- after reading her entire catalog, this one took it even further. I think it worked but at the same time, I felt like the narrative was unmoored. I felt like I was lost more than the main character was, which made me not really care about the consequences of her actions and the things being done to her. I would have liked a little more attachment from her.

3 stars.

This book was so unique and weird and I LOVED it! Other books have tried to tackle criticism on the beauty industry, but nothing has come close to Rouge in my opinion. It was strange and twisty and like a fever dream, and I could not put it down!

4 stars.

"Rouge" by Mona Awad is my first book by this critically acclaimed author. I found this book to be slow to start, but it eventually becomes a moody, creepy horror read full of anxiety-inducing happenings and a razor-sharp commentary about aging and femininity and the beauty industry. This story is disturbing and weird, which I guess is Awad's entire personality based on the descriptions for her other novels. It can be surprisingly funny in and amongst the creepiness and twists and turns. I can't wait to read more of her work!

Thank you to NetGalley, Mona Awad, Simon Element, and Marysue Rucci Books for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Not sure what I just read… but I liked it! I enjoyed the discussion of motherhood, generational trauma, beauty standards and the overall idea of women aging. This book was an amazing start to spooky season, and I will definitely be recommending this to people.