Oh, God, this book was stunning! A gothic, horror, fairy tale. A meditation on grief. A study of the bonds between a mother and daughter.

From Amazon:
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.

The imagery in this book alone was astounding. I loved the juxtaposition between light and dark. It's got elements of Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Eyes Wide Shut, Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid. It is dark and disturbing and just what I expect when reading Mona Awad. Funny, with social commentary on the price of beauty and aging. And actually very grounded and poignant. My favorite of the hers so far, and also her best yet.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon&Shuster and Marysue Rucci Books for the advanced reader copy. The novel will be published Tuesday, September 12, 2023. Definitely hit that pre-order button. This one will stay with me for a while.

A re-envisioning of Snow White for the modern audience; Mona Awad tackles the familiar genre in her signature and one-of-a-kind style.

Belle has grown up in the shadow of her beautiful, old-Hollywood glamorous mother. Deeply insecure of her looks which more closely resemble her Egyptian father, Belle has a complicated relationship with mirrors and a deep obsession with skin care.

When Belle’s mother dies unexpectedly, she flies to California to take care of the estate and is lured into the mysterious spa her mother used to frequent.

But poison comes in the form of a red face cream jar, and things start to devolve as Belle accepts the free treatments and begins confronting repressed memories of euro-centric beauty standards, mother-envy and Tom Cruise (yes, you read that right).

Rouge offers commentary on the systemic racism within the beauty industry and the stories we consume. With dark humor, it pokes fun at the cult-like obsession with youth in Hollywood. It doesn’t shy away from confronting the complexities of multi-racial family dynamics. Awad has attempted to say a lot, and has said it all masterfully.

Awad’s writing in this one is steeped in visual, auditory and even olfactory descriptions. Color acts almost as its own character, as we see red, black and white reappear. The story perfectly propels itself, and Awad unrolls new information at just the right time.

I whole-heartedly endorse this one. Just be prepared, this fable will cause you to see things differently when you look into the looking glass.

absolute queen of the unhinged/unreliable female narrator with outstanding commentary on modern beauty standards & generational body dysmorphia

mona awad, the absolute queen that you are!
Rouge is another fever dream of an entry into her exquisite catalogue. there have been a few horror-tinged books based on the beauty industry recently, and it’s a subject i find very interesting and relatable in seeing its characters become obsessed with beauty standards. this combines Awad’s signature surrealist imagery with fairy tale motifs and a black sense of humor to create a truly unforgettable story.

The messages in here are very in your face. This book gives decent commentary on beauty industry and beauty standards, while also hitting on the beauty and toxicity of mother daughter relationships. While I enjoyed that, I was sadly a little bored reading this.

Maybe my boredom stemmed from the fact that I couldn’t handle hearing Tom Cruise a million times in the span of the time it took me to read this. Ugh!!

I enjoyed the messages this book is trying to make, but didn’t much care for the in between. It was like a fever dream of fairytale tidbits scrambled up. I felt like I could have loved this. I sure as hell wanted to. But there were way too many times I found myself counting how many pages I had left.

True to form, Mona Awad writes a dark and devilishly disturbing novel that takes the horror genre and flips it on its head. Part magical realism and part horror, Rouge is sure to test the limits of your brain. An appearance focused Belle is struggling with the loss of her mother and follows a path her mother went down right before her death. How far will Belle go to achieve society's idea of perfect beauty?
Rouge is a timely novel with the way society focuses on influencers, filters, plastic surgery/ enhancenents, and social media, we have set some unattainable standards, and the beauty industry just keeps collecting are debts.
Awad writes with such uniqueness that it can be tough to follow the story at times, and I always feel I've missed some insights, but overall, I really like her books.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

Genre: Magical Realism
Publisher: Simon Element
Pub Date: September 12, 2023

“Rouge” is one strange novel. I am unsure if I have the words to review what I read. This does not mean it is a bad novel, but for someone who is not used to magical realism, I was often lost. Mirabelle, who goes by Belle —take note of her name—is our protagonist. Belle has been obsessed with her skin and skincare videos for as long as she can remember, probably because her mother, Noelle, was a classic French beauty who never seemed to age. Red is a predominant color in the story. There is an evil red jellyfish, which may or may not be Belle’s mother. Belle has no control over her red shoes, which have a mind of their own and carry her wherever they please. Additionally, red flowers everywhere symbolize that death is about to happen. One scene that terrified me is when Belle has a “spa” experience. In the “facial room," frozen faces are peeking out of its walls. Ponder a Tim Burton film with a strong dose of “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?”

Between the horrifying surreal imagery, you will find that this is a dark tale about the unrealistic beauty standards placed on women that simultaneously explores the mother-daughter relationship. In this case, it is a rivalry. Adult Belle has long moved away from her French-speaking California neighborhood. She returns for her mother’s funeral and discovers that Noelle was deep in debt. Belle learns her mother’s money all went into a cult-like beauty spa. Here, she understands the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with their facial appearances. The story is not linear, and I confess it took me a while to figure out this was the novel’s story. Most of the time, I thought Belle was on a bad acid trip. Think of an evil version of “Alice In Wonderland” that takes place in the infamous Moulin Rouge.

In this fever dream of a tale, an evil being in a Tom Cruise disguise—
I’m thinking as a nod to “Eyes Wide Shut”—frequently kisses our Belle to encourage her to join the other women dressed in red at the spa that promises endless youth. In a way, this is also a mystery novel since Belle is looking for the cause of her mother’s mysterious death. You will enjoy the book as long as you go in knowing that Belle jumps around in time without any explanation of how she got from one place to another. Since I am not a fan of this type of read, the novel wasn’t for me. Still, I can think of many who would thoroughly enjoy this twisted fairytale.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book.

Trigger warnings: loss of loved one, cult-like atmosphere, Body Dysmorphic Disorder/harmful beauty standards.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads).

This novel follows a woman named Mirabelle (AKA Mira, Belle) and looks at her struggles with unrealistic beauty standards and her self-image throughout her life and how grief following her mother's death impacts those feelings/behaviors. In an attempt to learn more about her mother's state-of-mind prior to her death, to process her own grief, and to understand the complicated relationship she and her mother had, Mirabelle returns to California and begins to go through her mother's belongings and repair her home. While in California, Mirabelle happens upon a cult-like spa, called Rouge, in a cliff-side mansion. Here, she begins to undergo mysterious treatments that have a strange effect on her life and memory.

This novel was like a fever dream. Awad created a very captivating (and at times very uncomfortable) atmosphere, and was able to capture Mirabelle's state of confusion and make the reader feel similarly. However, I did find that sometimes that confusion took me out of the story and I ended the novel with so many questions unanswered. I put down the book and immediately said "what did I just read?!" Rouge was such a strange story and I commend Awad for creating such an immersive atmosphere within its pages.

The copy that I read did have some strange formatting/editing issues. However, I am not sure if that was due to the platform I used to read the ebook, or if those will be present in the final versions of the book.

All-in-all I would recommend this novel to fans of strange, atmospheric stories. Just be aware of of the trigger warnings before beginning!

In iconic and signature Mona Award style, Rouge is trippy horror at its finest! While the first 1/3 of the book is relatively slow and building, I relished it and sank into the twisty and dynamic plot - it truly left me feeling like I was falling through the fever dream right along with Belle.

I loved the incorporation and representation of the jellyfish, watching the complicated relationship develop between Belle and Rouge, as well as between Belle and her deceased mother. Awad tackles themes of grief, whiteness, and the "skinfluencer" phenomena in a dynamic way that made me feel immersed in the story while also taking away larger messages.

This is literary horror at its core and I will always be excitedly anticipating whatever Mona Awad graces us with next!

4.5 stars

I knew that the newest release by the author of Bunny was going to be a wild ride, but I think that might be an understatement. This is perhaps the weirdest book I've read all year, and I dug it. I hated our main character in a love-to-hate-them kind of way. The narration style was wild and unreliable and I enjoyed it for the most part. I appreciated the slow burn and dive into madness, but it ended up pretty absurd at the end regardless. There was some particular imagery at the end that I think is really going to stick with me. Also, the inclusion of Tom Cruise? Cracked.

I do feel like the plot meandered a little bit and got slightly repetitive and nonsensical. I think some of the relationships some of the secondary characters felt unnecessary and stilted as well.

Overall, Mona Awad girlies are going to absolutely eat this one up. Probably my favorite from her so far.

content warnings: death of parent, grief

This book was weird, and absolutely wonderful. Everything you hope for from Mona Awad. An unsettling story that had me hooked the entire time, and wonderfully written. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, I don’t think I could have waited much longer!

Mona Awad has done it again!
I don’t think I have the words to explain what I’ve read exactly, which is a given from Mona Awad

The way her mind works is truly insane and I’m quite obsessed with this new novel, Rogue, despite not being entirely sure what I just read. From start to end, this book captures and demands your attention.

Thank you NetGalley and for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange of my honest opinions.

I was sos elated to be given early access to this book via netgalley & the publisher.

Mona Awad comes at us with this Beauty and the Beast style re-telling with a heavy look at how we view the beauty community, beauty standards, and what it is like to be a woman. Holy freaking cow! This was strange, but like in the best possible way?! I have read Awad’s other books and they definitely fit into this strange genre-bending situation. I just adored the commentary, the writing style, and everything about this book. I highly recommend checking it out, even if you have not been a fan of her other books.

Fans of Mona Awad will absolutely love Rouge. This is a dark, gorgeous, literary novel about Belle, who loses her mother, and when she travels back to Southern California to deal with her debts and her home, finds herself falling in with a very interesting crowd.

I think this is best gone into blind, but wow what a wild ride. At times I felt it was a bit too slow - with pages and pages of weird, surreal ramblings and observations, though in the end I felt like this was necessary to pull you into the story. The elements of the very complicated relationship Belle had with her mother were beautiful, and the ending made me cry quite a few times!

This book is going to be huge - it really is excellent.

Phenomenal storytelling. Our character's personality is completely transformed into a glowing shell of herself, obsessing over beauty in a way that is unlike her old rituals. The lyrical prose makes it easy to go on this journey with her, following skincare and beauty to their "most magnificent" depths. Awad brilliantly lets each chapter linger, switching her focus to a different element of Rouge or Belle's journey which keeps the book moving at a fast pace. For most of the book I asked myself if I was genuinely enjoying being perpetually confused, and the answer every time was a resounding yes!

There are jellyfish(?), extractions, roses, shoes with a mind of their own, deathly rocks, French-speaking Californians, an unexpected amount of kissing, and TOM CRUISE. The book is described as a cross between Eyes Wide Shut and Snow White. I'd also add in quite a bit of Comfort Me With Apples with that superficial, confused variation of femininity. But a gorgeous, gorgeous book with an ironically dark take on beauty itself.  Tim Burton, take note. 

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon Element, and Marysuer Rucci Books for an advance copy.

Mona Awad has an unmatched ability as an author to make me feel like I am losing my mind in some sort of otherworldly void every time I read one of her novels. I loved this in both All’s Well and Bunny and I loved it in Rouge.
Mirabelle’s obsessive skincare routines and her grieving the loss of her mother spiral into chaos with a culty spa, roses, mirrors, jellyfish, etc. Very feverish and dizzying, highly recommended for fans of her previous work.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books for the e-ARC!

This is my third Mona Awad book, having read both Bunny and All's Well. I didn't love All's Well, but I really liked Bunny. I think this one falls somewhere in between for me. This book explored themes of beauty and just how far we'll go to get it, as well as how beauty and the pursuit of beauty affects mother-daughter relationships. I really loved the idea behind this book, and it started off really strong– super engaging; it hooks you right away, and you're immediately invested in the story and how it will unfold.

However, the pacing starts to get frustrating as more and more keeps happening, though you're not really learning anything about the main character or the people she's involved with. Said another way, it doesn't become more apparent what the outcome will be; there aren't a lot of plot developments despite lots and lots of pages. It got sort of repetitive to me at times and slightly heavy-handed. A round of editing to cut back redundancies and sharpen transitions would have made this more impactful.

That said, there are some really incredible moments in this as well. Some scenes are truly written expertly and described so viscerally that I certainly will not forget them anytime soon. I think this is probably Awad's best book and her strongest writing.

Ultimately, magical realism might not really be my thing. It's a fun and dark book that I'd def recommend to readers of Awad and magical realism, but for lit-fic purists, I'd skip it.

I showed up for Mona Awad's twisted, unhinged writing and I was not disappointed. <i>Rouge</i> is a creeping, crawling descent into the madness of unattainable beauty standards, toxic familial relationships, grief, and trauma all rolled into one. It leaves you feeling disoriented, unsure of what's happening at times. And it would be so easy for a story like this to be chaotic, but this is written with such obvious intent. Chef's kiss.

However, the first 50-60% of this story did feel a bit slow and repetitive for me. I was dying for some action, reveals, information—anything! But once I hit the back half of the book, I flew through it so quickly. Once the action gets going, it truly does not stop until the end.

This is my third Mona Awad, and I can't get enough of her writing. She is the queen of deranged women and I'm here for it. Would entirely recommend if you're up for a weird time!

This is the best fucking thing I’ve read all year.

I laughed. I cried. I was (very) disturbed.

This is weird, and ambiguous, and never attempts to explain itself and maybe it’s just because the primary theme is grief but the whole thing just works.

I need to process for a bit. But promise to come back and write a proper review.

…

Okay I’m back. I’m leaving my initial thoughts because I think they summed up my feelings nicely. In Awad’s latest book, we follow Belle, a woman who has a complicated relationship with her mother. She is in California to lay her mother to rest and handle her mother’s affairs after she dies suddenly. They both have complicated relationships with beauty and the beauty industry.

It is, on the surface, a scathing critique of the beauty industry, in the way that it preys on the low self esteem of others while also holding up impossible to meet standards, and othering anyone who doesn’t fit the traditional white/blonde/thin mold.

But I think primarily it’s a story about grief and the effects thereof.

The writing is a 10/10. I absolutely loved not only the commentary but also what Awad was doing with some of the language later on in this fever dream of a book. There were entire paragraphs I highlighted so I could keep them in my kindle. Awad manages to match rhythm and pacing of sentences to the feeling and tone of specific chapters. As the protagonist veers further off rails so too does the writing.

I don’t know if the premise is more bonkers than Bunny, but it’s definitely out there. For a book about grief, I found myself laughing at so many parts. I will never see Tom Cruise’s face again and not think of Rouge. (Also, for those of you wondering about Seth, Seth is an Egyptian god of chaos...)

But then when I got to the end, and this sad strange tale lays all its cards on the table, I had a good long cry through the last couple chapters. Because it’s a book about mothers and daughters, and how sometimes we’re messy but the love is still there.

As both a mother of a daughter and a daughter myself it hit me right in the feels. And I think that’s where this book succeeds where Bunny had let me down a little bit. I know parts of Bunny went right over my head. I was never an Ivy Leaguer. Didn’t go to college when I was supposed to. Bunny is an experience I couldn’t relate to, but this- I got it. The craziness didn’t feel hollow. I wasn’t standing around scratching my head asking what the heck just happened.

It’s a slower paced novel, and I can see where it might feel like a drag for some, so just a heads up if that’s not your thing. But the book kept me guessing so often that I couldn’t not turn the page to see how it would all end and I thought the ending paid off in a big way.

I already have All’s Well sitting on my shelf and I absolutely can’t wait to pick it up. Rouge will be a day one buy and I’m already looking forward to re-reading and annotating it to hell.

If you have enjoyed Awad’s writing in the past, or can relate to any of themes I’ve mentioned here, this is one you can’t miss.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

Unfortunately I’m going to have to DNF this book. I’ve never read Mona Awad before but I’m not sure I want to anymore. She is definitely not for me.

This book follows a woman as she grieves the death of her mother. She is obsessed with beauty and discovers a weird spa her mother attends. This book is a dark fairy tale retelling.

The writing of this book was so repetitive and so whimsical (which I don’t tend to like). I got 35% in and just couldn’t do it anymore.

I think people who like fairy tales will like this one but it was not for me. Thanks so much to netgalley and Simon Element for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.