Rouge
£13.20£16.10 (-18%)
Can she escape her mother’s fate and find a connection that is more than skin deep?
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 in The Guardian, i newspaper, The New York Times, Time, Globe and Mail, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, TOR, Good Housekeeping, Our Culture Mag, and more!
‘You think, “She’s not going to go there…yes, she is.’ Margaret Atwood
‘The trancelike, rhapsodic language and deepening atmosphere of unreality make for a narrative that oozes with unease.’ The Guardian
‘Rouge is a must-read for anyone who has found themselves obsessively, and even dangerously, fixated on self-improvement. […] Dreamline, hypnotic and enchanting in its language, Rouge proves Awad is a huge talent’ Stylist, Book of the Month
‘A tale of insidious damage of envy and our preoccupation with appearances. Anyone maintaining a ten-step Korean skincare regimen may feel seen. […] Awad ramps up the grand guignol hysteria rather splendidly, chucking in some film noir tropes for good measure as we hurtle towards a demonic denouement’ The Times
‘Rouge is a story in which dreams become nightmares and vice versa. Desire and danger walk hand-in-hand and Awad skilfully manipulates the vertiginous tension between them. The beauty industry is ripe for Awad’s signature treatment: gothic satire, bloody but beautifully done. Much of it is darkly hilarious. […] If you like your fairy tales dark and for adults only, then stick along for the wild ride.’ Daily Telegraph
‘[D]ark and seductive.’ i newspaper
‘An edgy fable on the perils of our modern fascination with beauty.’ Vogue
‘Awad is a genius, preternaturally gifted at creating vicious, hilarious tales about the depravity inside us.’ Vulture
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 brilliant, biting critique of western beauty standards as well as a soaring, phantasmagoric, Angela Carter-esque fairy tale about trauma and the loss of self. Rouge is deeply unsettling, funny, obsessive, and unlike anything I’ve read. A truly mesmerizing read.’ Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
‘Rouge is a fever dream—a brilliant, intense, unforgettable horror story about a beauty cult with a deeply moving mother-daughter story at its core. Mona Awad’s signature and singular imagination and black humor and empathy are on full display here, and her wild-ride of a tale is masterfully grounded in the emotional devastation of childhood and grief. I loved every word of this.’ Laura Zigman, author of Small World
‘There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands—rings and all—into the viscera of story and discover an unsettling beauty within. ROUGE is her most magnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss.’ Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
‘Unsettling, whimsical, and moving, Rouge is an authentic, innovative kind of narrative magic that’s both surreal and absolute. A striking novel of incandescence and heart.’ Iain Reid, author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things
‘Awad’s latest is a dreamy (or perhaps nightmarish) gothic fairy tale about a mother, a daughter, and their shared obsession with their own beauty. Like all of Awad’s novels, it reels you in, shakes your brain until you’re not sure what you’re seeing, and then floats off cackling on a cloud of smoke. Metaphorically, that is. I’d forgive you for not being sure.’ Lit Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2023)
‘Mona Awad, I will read everything you ever write. She is a writer of unbelievable talent.’ Tor.com
‘[A] hypnotic tour de force… Awad approaches the increasingly well-trod ground of sinister wellness gurus with aplomb, creating an atmosphere of creeping discomfort and surreality right from the start. This is the stuff of fairy tales—red shoes, ballrooms, mirrors, and thorns but also sincerity, poignancy, and terror.’ Kirkus (Starred Review)
‘[A] delightfully twisted fairy tale… The author’s acerbic wit radiates in this excoriating story of beauty’s ugly side.’ Publisher’s Weekly
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Additional information
| Publisher | Scribner UK (14 Sept. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 384 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1398504939 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1398504936 |
| Dimensions | 13.5 x 2.7 x 21.6 cm |
by JONNO WILSON
I enjoyed this story a lot, the intrigue and the way Awad controlled my opinions of the characters was fun. The exposition of the backstory was well paced and while it didn’t reach a creschendo of tension, the story arc was engaging throughout.
by Kindig Blog
Rouge is one of those books that is a full experience to read and is genuinely quite hard to describe. It reads almost as a fever dream and the narration style gets more and more unhinged the further you read. I felt gripped from the first page and was compelled to keep reading, devouring it in just a few sittings.
Belle has always felt like she is in her mother’s shadow when it comes to her beauty. When her mum passes away, a pair of red shoes leads her to a luxury, secret spa that who seem very keen on passing out free beauty treatments.
Belle is a fascinating character as even before the plot develops – she is shallow and very concerned with her skin, taking part in elaborate beauty routines with various creams and serums and watching endless Youtube videos for guidance. The book is a great commentary on the beauty and wellness industry and uses inspiration from Snow White and Fairytales to tell the story. It passes into the sci-fi and horror territories at times as well as touching on mother/daughter relationships, jealousy and grief.
I did feel that the ending was a little unsatisfying – I was expecting perhaps a final twist and some ends are not completely tied up but that felt very in-keeping with its style – it’s a book that you will think about long after you turn the final page. I highly recommend it – it’s the perfect Halloween read and a Kindig Gem for 2023.
by Ashrae
There seems to be a bit of a trend for re-imaginings of classic stories and this one is a retelling of a couple of familiar stories – with a bit of a gothic horror bent to them.
We start with Mirabelle (AKA Belle or Mira) as she travels back to San Diego from her new home in Montreal as her mother, Noelle, has just died. Belle is obsessed – and I mean that in the strongest sense – with skincare – regime and products and she is forever watching skincare videos online in the hopes of chasing beauty perfection.
It is at the funeral where she meets a stranger in a red dress. Who goes on to tease her both about her mother’s death and also a spa her mother attended. And it is at this spa, when Belle attends it, that she starts to realise where her mother’s (and in turn her) obsession with mirrors and beauty came from.
This book is many layered and can be read on several levels depending on how heavy you want to go into things. It is a cracking story in itself but it can also contain commentary on the ins and outs of the beauty industry and judging people by appearances. It is also about the relationships between mothers an daughters, specifically that of Belle and Noelle which is complex to say the least.
But it’s also quite funny in places, with some rather dark humour thrown in too. As already mentioned, there is a lot which is thought provoking and would definitely make for a cracking book club, or buddy read. I know that I wish I had someone in real life to discuss certain things after I finished and I will definitely be recommending it to my local book club.
All in all, a poignant book, often heavy, but with enough light relief to get through. I am definitely putting this author on my watchlist. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
by @book_a_holic_17
It’s hard to really know what to write about this without giving away any spoilers at all….so proceed with caution…
Now, it might sound strange for me to say that I literally do not know what I’ve just read! But it’s exactly how I feel about this book.
There were passages where I formed a judgement/opinion and decided that this was a beautifully written stuffed with a dreamlike plot that was stuffed with meaning and metaphors.
But there were far too many points where I really had to question that. If it’s all a dream/in the mind, then how do we explain this particular event?
I still can’t decide and I still can’t explain certain events or work out what meaning they hold.
What I do know was that this absolutely had me gripped from the first page to the last.
It was creepy and dark, psychologically twisted and heartbreakingly moving.
Belle was a strange character to connect with but I was totally captivated and invested in her journey.
The rest of the cast were equally strange, but played their parts in the story perfectly.
The writing weaved together so many sides to the plot that I couldn’t pin this down to just one genre.
There was some romance, mother-daughter relationships, mystery, gothic fairytale, paranormal, friendships, psychological thriller and so much more all weaved so well together and as odd as that sounds, it flowed brilliantly and worked like a dream!
I feel as though I need to dive right back in there to read again, just to see if earlier sections make more sense or throw up any other clues that I may have missed the first time around.
A brilliant read and something I don’t think I’d have normally picked up – I adore finding gems like this in places I wouldn’t normally look.
by June.Reads
This was my first Mona Awad book and I might try another one…. because this one was not what I expected, is a book not really for me? As in the style of writing and describing things.
Grief is a theme I know too well (I have been an orphan since 2008) and whereas I do emphasise and understand the way of describing grief in a somehow mythical way, it wasn’t really for me.