Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Rouge by Mona Awad

65 reviews

caroisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I've fallen deep for Mona Awad's writing. Darkly funny, beautiful, masterful. I'm still trying to absorb what I've just read, through stupefied tears.

"Rouge" is much more than horror, or magical realism, even absurdism. This is a reflective, heartbreaking story about a daughter and mother, a metaphorical lens on grief and childhood trauma. It's wrapped in something familiar to us, borrowing every reference from Grimms fairytales, and is just as disturbing as the originals. 

For me, this book has an exciting start, a more dense and repetitive middle, and the most perfect ending chapters I've ever read. Chapter 30, specifically, is creative and emotional genius, and I'll never forget about it. 

Without giving too much away, the Tom Cruise reference is incredible in giving the exact visual we didn't know we needed, the smiling mask covering something else. 

Please give this a read if you need another mother-daughter story to heal from, like dark twisting plots, unreliable narrators, and have survived the YouTube Beauty world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Grief, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

kaywhiteley's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Truly a wild one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

cappuccinodahlia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death

sp00ky_girl28's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, and Body shaming

Minor: Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Gore

poisonlizzie's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Body horror

bookb1itch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So. Weird. Creepy and sexy and literary. Something that could be read over and over, with new interpretations.  Gorgeous descriptions, with the repeated themes of red, roses, silk, water.  When Belle starts "forgetting" words, some of her substitutes are really telling: eg "sin" instead of "skin"; "derange" instead of "arrange".  There's a real madness there, in amongst the Tom Cruise and 80s music references.  I waited months for this from the public library and it was so worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

valeriedittrich's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

i never wanna see tom cruise again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Body horror, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Grief

makeintoall's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Gore, Death, Cursing, Cannibalism, Murder, and Blood

sydresnik's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Dysphoria, Dementia, Death of parent, and Grief

applejuiceinabox's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness