Summary

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 he can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with 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. 

Why I chose to read this book
I loved All’s Well and Bunny by Awad so when her new book Rouge came out, I jumped on it!

Thoughts & Opinions

Red red red red red. Everything is excessively red. What else was I expecting with a title like Rouge (which, if you haven’t guessed, means red in French)? You will read the word “red” about a million times in this book. 

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard about 58-step skincare routines all over social media. Many young girls and women alike are obsessed with skincare these days. I’ve seen it all over Reddit on r/SkincareAddiction. I’m glad my routine consists of makeup remover, water, and moisturizer. 3 steps and no complaints here. 

On the contrary, for Belle, skincare is life. She and Patrick Bateman could have talked for days about creams, lotions, and toners. You see, Belle, who has a darker complexion, is envious of her Mother Noelle’s porcelain skin. Armed with daily viewings of skincare videos, she obsesses over her skin. And everyone else’s skin for that matter; she diagnoses everyone’s skin issues as she meets them (dehydrated or needs sunscreen, and recommends a thorough regimen). 

Belle has to leave Montreal for California to deal with her Mother’s death. I don’t blame her Mother for moving to California; Montreal winters are rough. Grief overtakes Belle and the ramifications are significant. As she learns more about her Mother through the aftermath of her death, the lines become blurred. What is real and what is fantasy? How did her Mother have such beautiful skin? 

As Belle meets some of Noelle’s acquaintances, she becomes trapped in a mysterious spa’s beauty treatment tentacles. The more she attends these special treatments, the more we learn about Belle’s past and her relationship with Noelle. At one point, Belle seems to be in a constant foggy, dream-like, lost, and confused state. Her speech becomes delirious. I felt claustrophobic and wanted to escape the fog just as much as she desperately needed to.