Sarah O'Connor

“Of course that’s you, the jars seem to whisper. Who else would it be?” (Awad 230).

Mirabelle Nour’s mother is dead. Travelling from Montreal to Southern California, Mira needs to get her mother’s estate in order, find a way to pay off her mother’s astronomical debt, all while maintaining her skincare routine. But when she’s invited to the mysteries La Maison de Méduse, where her mother was a member, Mira finds herself transformed. People are calling her Belle again, which hasn’t happened since she was a child, and she finds herself glowing. Belle is thrilled to find she’s been identified as a Perfect Candidate by the red-haired woman at the spa, whatever that means. Aside from the fog blurring her thoughts and words becoming lost, Belle is excited to go on her journey to become her most beautiful self.

I. LOVE. MONA. AWAD! I adored Bunny and All’s Well and have been excited for her newest Rouge since I heard of it’s release. Imagine my surprise when I went to hear her speak with Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman a few weeks ago and Rouge was available before it’s official release, and it didn’t disappoint!

Rouge is an excellent Gothic novel. Having heard Awad talk about the Gothic genre and her influences from Shirley Jackson to fairytales, it’s clear this book was written with great care and that she put a lot of thought into it. She creates such a masterful dread of Belle’s journey discovering La Maison de Méduse and the subtle changes that occurs once she goes inside. I loved the use of repetition throughout, as well as word slips Awad uses so expertly to continue that slow dread that permeates the novel.

Awad’s newest book offers a look at beauty standards, race, self-image and what people are willing to put themselves through in order to achieve beauty. It’s a sad and scary look at what many people will put themselves through (though maybe not this way) in order to maintain or become an image that they believe is desirable. At the same time, Awad shows this through a mother-daughter relationship that highlights that highs, lows, complexities, and intergenerational beliefs that can be passed down from parent to child.

And Awad’s use of a famous culty celebrity with the culty spa? Hilarious and genius! I literally laughed out loud when this celebrity was first mentioned, but it’s such a layered inclusion that I loved so much. I didn’t expect to laugh while reading a horror novel, but after hearing Awad speak the line between horror and comedy does run thin (Jordan Peele started out in comedy and look where he is now).

Surreal, scary, and surprisingly funny, Mona Awad does it again in Rouge. I will literally read anything she writes and can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with next!

Publication: September 12th 2023
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Pages: 384 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Owned
Genre: Fiction, Horror, Gothic, Canadian
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:

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.