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Rouge

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Rouge

By: Mona Awad
Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
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About this listen

 "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

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 her mother 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.©2023 Mona Awad (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, UK Coming of Age Crime Fiction Dark Humour Dystopian Genre Fiction Gothic Horror Humorous Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Magical Realism Metaphysical & Visionary Psychological Satire Science Fiction Small Town & Rural Supernatural Thriller & Suspense United States Women's Fiction World Literature Comedy Fiction Witty Scary

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Critic reviews

"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 and A Head Full of Ghosts)
"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)
All stars
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I started getting bored by the second half, although i found it grappled with grief in a more relatable way than the first half. Still a great listen

Great first half, second half dragged

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Loved everything about this brilliantly weird novel. The narrator was brilliant. The dream like prose entranced me throughout. I couldn’t imagine how it could possibly end, but it was perfect. What an imagination Awad has! I envy!

Perfect

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Such a different, dark, and weird sort of adult fairytale. Well worth listening to, and the narration was perfect! One of my favourite books. A twist on vanity!

Chilling and suspenseful!

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Incredible visual atmosphere created by Mona Awad and wonderful use of time and space. It's both surreal in its imagery whilst being grounded in the core of the human experience, touching on our deepest emotions and the complexity of relationships; both with others and ones self. A must read for anyone who loves thrillers with a supernatural twist.

An all encompassing read

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The same story could have been told in half the words. One conversation which was essentially “do i look beautiful?” - “yes” took 20 minutes to get through.
I loved ‘Bunny’ so I was really looking forward to this but it just didn’t grip or hold me the way i wanted unfortunately. Good ending just sooooo slow took too long to get there.

Also, Mona , how many times do you need to use “wink” as a descriptor

The same story could have been told with half the words

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I really enjoyed this book but it wasn’t as trippy as Bunny which I was hoping for!

A surreal death becomes her

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couldn't get on with the writing style. I appreciate the metaphor but found the style so irritating and the plot so abstract that I didn't enjoy it.

didn't enjoy this.. sorry!

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