Rouge: A Novel
A National Bestseller
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Electric Literature, Tor, and Literary Hub
From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a “Grimm Brothers fairy tale for the modern age” (Good Housekeeping) and “darkly funny horror novel” (NYLON) about a lonely young woman who’s drawn to a cult-like spa in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death. “Surreal, scary and deeply moving—like all the best fairy tales” (People).
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Time, Vogue, The Guardian, Goodreads, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, Tor, Good Housekeeping, and more!
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.
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Electric Literature, Tor, and Literary Hub
From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a “Grimm Brothers fairy tale for the modern age” (Good Housekeeping) and “darkly funny horror novel” (NYLON) about a lonely young woman who’s drawn to a cult-like spa in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death. “Surreal, scary and deeply moving—like all the best fairy tales” (People).
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Time, Vogue, The Guardian, Goodreads, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, Tor, Good Housekeeping, and more!
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.
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Community Reviews
As always Mona’s books are a fever dream and a roller coaster to read, this one is the same! However I found the ending to be touching but also leaving a lot to be desired. I had hoped to get more things answered but I’m left full of questions… I guess that’s half of the Mona Awad effect
Merged review:
As always Mona’s books are a fever dream and a roller coaster to read, this one is the same! However I found the ending to be touching but also leaving a lot to be desired. I had hoped to get more things answered but I’m left full of questions… I guess that’s half of the Mona Awad effect
Merged review:
As always Mona’s books are a fever dream and a roller coaster to read, this one is the same! However I found the ending to be touching but also leaving a lot to be desired. I had hoped to get more things answered but I’m left full of questions… I guess that’s half of the Mona Awad effect
Merged review:
As always Mona’s books are a fever dream and a roller coaster to read, this one is the same! However I found the ending to be touching but also leaving a lot to be desired. I had hoped to get more things answered but I’m left full of questions… I guess that’s half of the Mona Awad effect
Merged review:
As always Mona’s books are a fever dream and a roller coaster to read, this one is the same! However I found the ending to be touching but also leaving a lot to be desired. I had hoped to get more things answered but I’m left full of questions… I guess that’s half of the Mona Awad effect
a hauntingly melancholic recounting of grief, fear of aging, and trauma
I was a big fan of the social commentary on beauty, especially as I’ve been contemplating the idea of the beauty of aging rather than fearing it or “having to succumb” to age and the societal value of “aging gracefully” (like is that not just an excuse to critique old people no matter what decisions they make around aesthetics)
I did thing that it could’ve been a little shorter as there were some parts that felt like it was dragging
I’ll be thinking about this book for a while
I was a big fan of the social commentary on beauty, especially as I’ve been contemplating the idea of the beauty of aging rather than fearing it or “having to succumb” to age and the societal value of “aging gracefully” (like is that not just an excuse to critique old people no matter what decisions they make around aesthetics)
I did thing that it could’ve been a little shorter as there were some parts that felt like it was dragging
I’ll be thinking about this book for a while
"The moon is nothing," Tom snaps. For a moment he looks angry. The universe goes red. Then he smiles again. "Without the sun, what's the moon? Just a rock in the outer dark. Its illumination just a trick. Just a trick from the sun's light, which it steals. And that's what Beauty is too."
Yet another WTF did I just read book. Explores some interesting themes of self-loathing, obsession, delusion, desire, perfectionism, and envy. The author also calls out the down side of social media and constant access to (questionable) information. People have said this is a cross between Eyes Wide Shut and a retelling of Snow White. You really need to focus to get what the author is communicating.
Idk what it is about her books but I just eat them up even when they are slightly (insanely) improbable
I was curious so I had to finish it. It was good but not great. Triggers for body dismorphia, blood, and cannibalism.
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