The Facts

• Published: September 12, 2023
• Original language: English
• Genre: Psychological thriller, fantasy, horror
• Number of pages: 369

The Gist

*spoiler alert*

“You were such a lonely little girl, weren't you? Whispering to grass. Befriending sticks. Dreaming yourself into movies and books. Every screen, every page, like a door to another world, remember?”

book blurb:

‍"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."

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“If I had beauty, I decided then, I would never throw it away. I would never give it up.”

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This book explores the dark side of the beauty industry, and the complicated love that exists between mothers and daughters. Filled with dark humor, decadence and surreal times at the spa, Rouge explores the cultish culture behind our skincare routines, as well as the danger of internalizing the cruel and superficial messages fueling the industry. This novel is a distorted mirror; it reflects the worst of our insecure generation. What makes it different from other horror novels is Awad's ability to mix the supernatural with everyday/mundane experiences. Absolutely everything in this book feels unsettling, from the first page the reader’s caught between a dream and a nightmare.

“Envy is when you hate someone because they have something you want, she said simply”

‍The Themes

• Beauty industry
• Expectations
• Insufficiency
• Motherhood
• Perfection
• Jealousy
• Identity
• Self-Worth

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The Author

Mona Awad is a Canadian author known for her distinctive contributions to contemporary literature, particularly in the genres of fiction and horror. Her debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl (2016), explores themes of body image and self-identity through a series of interconnected stories about a young woman's experiences with her weight. The novel received critical acclaim for its incisive and often darkly humorous take on these issues.

Awad's second novel, Bunny (2019), is a satirical and surreal exploration of friendship and the art world, blending elements of horror and dark comedy. The story follows a graduate student who becomes entangled with a group of wealthy and enigmatic classmates, leading to increasingly bizarre and unsettling events.

If you like this, read this:

• Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
• Death Valley by Melissa Border
• Bunny by Mona Awad
• Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh