Belle’s mother, who was very into beauty products, has just passed so she travels to her mothers apartment to close her estate. When she arrives she meets some of her mothers acquaintances and starts trying out her mothers beauty regimes. Things go downhill from there!

This was my first Mona awad book. It was less classical thriller than I expected and more magical/fantasy thriller. Dark, but not in that classical gruesome way. A little bit sad and says a lot about beauty standards in between the lines. I’m not sure the style was right for me but is probably for some people, and could be a good spooky season read!

Belle has always been obsessed with skincare videos and her skin's appearance. When her estranged mother, Noelle, dies, Belle returns to Southern California to face her mother's debts and unanswered questions about her death. At the funeral, a mysterious woman in red offers a clue about Noelle's death, followed by a puzzling video about a transformative spa. Tempted by red shoes, Belle enters La Maison de Méduse, the same spa her mother loved, and discovers its eerie secret connected to mirrors. Mona Awad combines magical realism and dark fairytales, delving into the dark side of beauty, grief, and the complex mother-daughter bond. Through dark humor and chilling horror, Rouge examines the cult-like beauty industry and its ruthless standards. With a backdrop of California's brightness and red rose petals, the novel challenges our relationship with appearance, mortality, and hidden desires.

There were multiple times within the book where I had no idea what was going on...but in kind of a good way? I did find that the story was lagging a bit at the start however by the end it really picked up. I feel like there were a lot of themes and metaphors throughout the novel that might have been lost on me at the first read, however by the end things started to come together. I will say that the writing was impeccable and I loved the eerie and horror elements to the book. I definitely need to read all of Mona Awad's backlog now!
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House and the author for providing me with a digital arc in return for an honest review. "Rouge" comes out September 12th!
3.5/5

Rouge is another strong offering from Awad, and to me it is most akin to Bunny. Mirabelle, daughter to a White French-Canadian mother and Egyptian father, becomes a client at Rouge, an exclusive, mysterious skin-care spa in a mansion on the California coast.

Cue the amazing imagery of an Awad novel, the deep exploration of fairytale and myth, the longing to escape oneself and be something else–or someone else, or something perfect and untouchable–and free from this world of pain and angst. The novel is bathed in red, white and black, and infused with fairytale references, most notably Snow White. Mirrors, mirrors everywhere. It teems with the pain of being othered, brown-skinned in a world that values whiteness, and never being able to attain the unconditional positive regard of one’s mother.

As I write this, the words come so easily, because the novel is rich and invites deep interpretation and thought. There’s so much to get lost in, and I suspect this will appeal to many readers. What will be exciting to some is where I got tripped up with the novel: in the reading experience. I wish my experience reading it was as fantastic as the themes it presented, as fascinating as the red, bloody beating heart of it could have been. Some parts were gripping, but I slogged through the middle third. There were too many words and a bit of repetition that I didn’t need; this slightly bloated quality slowed the novel down too much for me. The dreamy quality worked at first, then became excessively dreamy for my taste. I wanted to push the narrative forward. I craved more precision from the prose to keep my attention and make the themes hit harder for me. Can there be too many themes and fairy-tale references? Perhaps yes, because for me the overall message got a bit lost. I needed Awad to wield a fine brush at times rather than use a splatter-paint technique.

The ending really picked up and finished strong, and I was left wondering if I could identify an overarching theme here. Awad gave me a clue near the end that put the novel in more perspective. Mirabelle is talking to handyman Tad, who loved her mother:

“Grief is a journey,” he says. “And everyone has their own way, you know?”

Rouge is so deep that one could write pages and pages of literary interpretation. In the end I think it may be about mothers and daughters and the inevitable disconnect. Mirabelle was probably grieving the loss of her mother in different ways throughout her whole life, always seeing herself as a reflection of her unattainable mother. The spa at Rouge was a critical working through. Mirabelle’s journey was fraught, but I didn’t really understand it until the end, and perhaps I still don’t.

I’m glad I read Rouge, as it truly is a remarkable book. I think it will appeal to many, and I’m glad I read it, but I would have enjoyed my own journey through the book more if there had been a clearer pathway.

I'd like to give this book 3.5 stars here if I could.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advanced copy!

Mona Awad's Rouge feels like a fever dream in the best way possible.

One of the strengths of Rouge lies in Awad's ability to seamlessly blend what feels like the supernatural with the mundane. And although there is no explicit horror or thrilling moments, the author creates an atmosphere of unease that lingers long after the final page is turned. The pacing is slow but steady, though I didn't mind this. Everything in Rouge, and I mean everything, is deliberate. Miss Mona Awad, you waste no space at all and it shows. I especially loved the word swapping that was implemented in conjunction with Belle's treatments at Rouge. It was clever and added a dark humour to the story.

As this is a LitFic novel, the narrative is rife with symbolism and metaphor about beauty, obsession, and the depth of our desires. For me personally, this metaphor was a little too on the nose. If you read Rouge, you'll know what I mean by the final page. While I think vanity - and all that accompanies it - is a great theme to explore, the parallels between Belle and her mother were a little too evident for my taste.

Ultimately, I think Rouge is a captivating journey that explores the darkest aspects of human desire, vanity, and the sinister allure of transformation. If you don't like LitFic, maybe skip this read, as the novel's best attributes are its character development and the writing itself.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of Rouge by Mona Awad to review. All thoughts are my own and are not influenced by any third party. #Rouge #NetGalley

Strangely, often the time we get to know our parents best is when they age, or die, and we are left in charge of their belongings, affairs, and carefully squirrelled away darkest secrets.
In Mona Awad’s “Rouge”, we see this careful unpacking of who a mother has been to Belle. We see the impacts of her words and actions, but also the acidic punishment of her inactions.
“Rouge” explores beauty in a mad funhouse kind of way. The reader might find themselves asking, “am I in a dream now?” but really everything is quite real. This is the darkest fairy tale real-life traipse through a department store beauty section you’ll ever read and yet I still found myriad opportunities to laugh. Awad is brilliant at sneaking in lines that let the reader know she’s with us. She’s tugging at your sleeve, saying, “That body image disorder you might have? I get it. Let’s look at it from all of the angles. Come on a wild ride with me!”
I’ve truly never read an author who does such a great job at showcasing the complexities of mother/child and woman/friend relationships. She’s brilliant at showing the insecurities many of us have even with the people we think adore us the most. I felt this in her “Bunny” and also “All’s Well”.
Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” meets “Black Swan” meets just oh you know, every sleepover you had as a young person plus the body criticisms that you have collected-invisible scars on flesh on your journey to adulthood.

Belle returns to her hometown when her mother dies to set affairs in order. Belle has an addiction to skin products having an extreme routine both morning and evening. As she goes to the cliff where her mother was found dead at the bottom she sees an old house where a mysterious woman in red beckons her in.

This is my first read of Awad's and I now want to read all of her books. This book has so many themes going on at once such as the beauty industry, feeling uncomfortable with one's own skin, cults, and sanity. The writing is stark and the plot terrifying. I'd mostly call the book magical realism which descends into horror by the end. One of my favourite tropes of a woman's descent into madness is one of the main themes. This is a slow burn which switches from the present to the past without warning. Not a book for everyone but if you like surrealism you'll definitely want to give this a go.

When I say this book caused me discomfort when reading it, I mean that in the best possible way - each turn of the page forces the reader to reflect on assumptions of beauty & race, self-worth, and the destructive inner narratives we cling to.

"Rouge" by Mona Awad is a hypnotic, horror-tinged story that follows protagonist Belle (Mira or Mirabelle) down a twisty rabbit hole into the clutches of a beauty cult with nefarious intentions. Drifting in a fog of grief and self-sabotage, Belle navigates the complex past of her relationship with her mother and the secrets they hold. Everything about this modern fable feels distorted, abstract, and twisted, and "Rouge" offers a surrealist interpretation of how memories and subconscious desires impact our grasp on reality.

I would 100% recommend "Rouge" to anyone who likes a read with a nightmarish atmosphere, a Lynchian aesthetic, and a brilliant and unhinged plot.

Mona awad does it again! The way she writes magical realism horror stories is unmatched.
Rouge is about Mira going back to California after her estranged mother dies. Once she arrives, she starts to unravel all of the weird, mysterious things her mother was participating in.
The beginning was a bit slow, but once you get into the story, you're hooked.
The story deals with grief, complex mother-daughter relationships and the toxic aspects of the beauty industry.
Highly recommend!

I gotta be honest...I have no idea what happened in this book, but I also couldn't put it down....so....here I am with a 3 star?

if you want the feeling of neon demon, infinity pool and suspiria (‘72) you should read rouge.

rouge by mona awad follows mirabelle, a skincare obsessed retail-worker w mommy issues. belle is dealing with her mom’s estate after her passing when she discovers the culty skincare group she was involved in.

i loved the fever dream feeling of this. the visuals were really pleasing. overall it dragged on for me and i even fell asleep face down in the middle of reading it. maybe that’s because this feels SO close to my own dreams?

i thought the commentary on whiteness and its relation to beauty was important as mirabelle is half egyptian who loves a “brightening”treatment.

overall i think this was a wild read that a lot of people will enjoy. thank you @netgalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my review. rouge is out sept 12, 2023!

As usual with all of Awad’s work, I am awed and engaged by the story the entire time. I love that she always has eerie and weirdo themes in her books because that’s the kind of spooky stuff I want to consume!!

rouge is a dark fairytale horror full of magical realism. strange, surreal and satirical. if you like weird stories that leave you thinking “what the f*** did i just read?!” this one is for you. reading rouge was a twisted wild ride and i loved every second of it.

rouge explores intense dynamics of strained mother-daughter relationships, themes of
race, grief, and the toxicity of obsession with vanity.

mesmerizing and horrifying. i can’t wait for everyone to read this one.

I was so excited to be approved for an ARC on Netgally for this book. My first by Mona Awad and definitely will not be my last. Beautifully written. Weird. Thought-provoking.

This book is like a gothic fairytale and shines a light on our society's obsession with beauty and youth and what we are willing to give up to obtain it.

It also dives into the complexity of mother daughter relationships. There are some passages close to the end of the book that had me sobbing (I NEVER cry in books) I will be back to post them once my copy of the book comes in.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgally for giving me the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

I came expecting a critique of the beauty industry and fairy tale allegories. I left with a haunting and touching story centred on a complicated mother/daughter relationship with a vivid and surreal atmosphere. Mona Awad is so good at creating fantastical surroundings and deftly weaving themes of grief and beauty with references to mythology and fairy tales. I admire how well she uses the English language and while I can't write like that it's such a treat to be able to read it.

Woah - that was an interesting dream-like slow-burn gothic wtf did I just read? A unique take on a fiction story with a female lead.

I am interested in reading another Mona Awad.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC

thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC.


Belle, do you ever look in the mirror and hate? she asked me once on the phone.
Hate? I stared at the silhouette of my reflection in the dark. Yes, I thought. Of course. All the fucking time. But I said, Hate what, Mother?
I could picture her sitting alone in the dark like I was, staring at herself in the mirror.
Ce que tu vois, Mother whispered.


this book was a rollercoaster. i went through every possible emotion reading this: sadness, anger, happiness, shock, and i didn't expect myself to tear up at the end, that's for sure!

Rouge by Mona Awad centers on the relatable character of a skincare-obsessed, insecure, and acquiescent Mirabelle Nour. throughout the novel, in addition to the present story we are shown particular memories from her childhood that each contribute a significant amount to her character and change how the reader sees her as a character. from her childhood, 'Belle' was a self-conscious little girl who craved validation, but most of all, beauty. the beauty her mostly emotionally-absent mother had, in particular. Belle's mother, Noelle Desjardins is described as a beautiful pale redhead who seemed to have an unnatural beauty found in the stars of classic films. she always had the montgomery clift or tom cruise-type man on her arm and dreamed to be an actress. she was rarely at home in Belle's childhood. unlike her mother, Belle was darker in skin tone (acquired from her absent Egyptian father), with coarse, thick, dark hair and a mark on her forehead which always took away from her confidence.

now, i can't say much else about her character because i don't want to spoil it but what i can say is that although she is far from perfect, Belle possesses qualities that i believe every woman can identify with. she is envious of the people she sees more beautiful than her and she feels that in order to feel confident she must incorporate many creams, toners, and acids into her daily routine. she was very attention-deprived as a child, with her mother rarely being at home and her father absent from her life which, in my opinion, made her both very vulnerable and a perfect candidate of the mysterious 'Rouge' group, in the first place. this factor also made her quite malleable for someone to make her do what they pleased.

the only criticism i would give this book is that it dragged a little in the middle, and could have been shorter. i did feel myself getting bored at this point and putting my kindle down quite often. the climax though? that certainly made up for it. it did not lack and i would not have it go any other way.

this was my second Mona Awad novel (after Bunny), and i can definitely see how uniquely gorgeous her writing style is. the description of Rouge promised Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut, and it truly delivered these vibes. it did come for the beauty industry, as well, having shown that powerful groups take advantage of weak and insecure girls who want to feel beautiful, but only end up being "corrupted". even while reading the first chapter of the book, i fell in love with this world and its atmosphere. i found that the introduction was very enthralling. i'm excited to see more from miss Awad and would recommend this book to the girlies who like twisted, cultish, gothic fairytale-style stories about imperfect girls on the journey toward self-acceptance.

Mona Awad is one of my favourite authors of all time. She introduced me surrealism in novels and she is the perfect writer for this genre. The way she writes makes it so easy to immerse yourself in the delerium of her stories. I was so excited (and honoured) to receive an earc of her newest book, Rouge.

Rouge was like a weird nightmarish fairytale. A very loose Snow White adaption, with some very strong commentary on beauty standards and self esteem. It had some painful but beautiful commentary on mother-daughter relationships. It also had weird cults, red jellyfish, and Tom Cruise.

What is it actually about? A woman named Belle who is completely obsessed with skincare and beauty. Her mother dies suddenly and when Belle goes to take care of things, she discovers her mother was a member of some kind of mysterious spa. The spa keeps offering Belle free treatments and they work amazingly, but they come at a steep cost.

If you've read any of Awads previous novels, you know that it's impossible to really describe the plot. You just have to dive in and find your way through. I expect that people will take a lot of different things from Rouge and your interpretation could be completely different from mind. I mean mine.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

I really enjoyed this story and the homage Awad pays to the form of classic fairytales. Overall, I felt the structure of the narrative was built expertly and the way the story ended allowed for a full circle moment for our heroine Mirabelle. I was thrilled to see her reconcile with her mother at the end as I believe that this is the only way Belle would ever be able to find peace and move through the grieving process. I wish we got more insight into the history of Rogue and the nature of their powers (I’m assuming demonic). I was taken aback by the sheer individuality of this story as I truly have never experienced anything similar to it before. Well done!

Beauty horror and dystopia is having a real moment right now (Aesthetica, Natural Beauty), and Mona Awad plunges us into a surreal, strange world where the price of beauty is unimaginable.

The biracial child of an Egyptian father and French Canadian mother, Mirabelle "Belle" Nour grew up feeling shame and self-loathing about the "swarthy" complexion she inherited from her father. Reinforced by her mother and grandmother, Belle is envious of and yearns to embody the Eurocentric beauty ideal. As an adult, Belle is obsessed with the pursuit of beauty and youth, religiously following online skincare gurus and adhering to a multi-step facial regime. After her mother's death, Belle embarks on a twisted "beauty journey", entering a dizzying world of mysterious skincare treatments with strange and horrifying side effects.

Like all of Mona Awad's other novels, this one explores complex societal norms through a dark, grotesque, and hallucinatory mirror (see what I did there?) The way racist, colorist, Eurocentric beauty ideals are reinforced and replicated, and internalized by young women of colour. The way mothers express their fear and jealousy of their daughters' youth; the way daughters yearn for their mothers' approval.

There is also an extended surreal fever dream sequence where a young Belle encounters a man resembling Tom Cruise through her mirror, a man who calls himself Seth, to disastrous end. While these memories have been largely tucked away, the ensuing trauma lasts well into Belle's adulthood. Whether supernatural or a suppressed memory, it's a clear reflection on how adult men manipulate young girls and prey on their vulnerability. Overall, another winner from Mona Awad.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that I have read every book Mona Awad has published, as well as a short story of hers that I stumbled upon in an issue of Ploughshares. I would consider myself a fan of her work: I enjoyed 13 Ways, I loved, loved, loved Bunny and am constantly recommending it to people, All’s Well was pretty good… but this one, Rouge, I just couldn’t get into. The plot wasn’t my cup of tea (skincare-obsessed woman discovers an eerie, exclusive “spa” that her late mother was a member at), and the writing wasn’t where I’d hope it would be, style-wise (repetitive imagery, even a bit cliché at times). I did enjoy the childhood flashback scenes, however—especially the long one where Belle meets a person who looks like a certain someone (trying to avoid a spoiler). I also loved that the characters, like Awad, hail from Montreal (MTL represent!). I heard that this is going to be adapted into a movie eventually; I’m curious to see how Awad’s signature magical realism will translate onscreen.