Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Rouge by Mona Awad

6 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

ariep's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was a weird book. I really like the writing, i found it to be a very compelling read. It was challenging though, to be in that mindset of such strong self loathing and envy. It was especially challenging to read about wanting to have lighter skin; it brought me right back into the mindset I had when I was younger, wishing I wasn’t a brown girl. It was very interesting and emotional. I don’t know that I liked it, or that I’d recommend it, but it did evoke a lot of strong emotions in me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Dysphoria, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Death, and Body shaming

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Body horror, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

suchallie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Generally I liked this. I felt like the lore was clearer/stronger than All’s Well and Bunny. I didn’t get as lost or skip over the dream/magic nonsense sequences like I did in those. I was worried the skincare trope would be overly ick but it transitioned out of that quickly after it was established. I wanted more from the ending though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Gore, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual content, Bullying, Cursing, Racism, Alcohol, and Cultural appropriation

theliteraryhooker's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

As expected, this was a very strange read. However, Awad's writing is so weird and haunting and effective that it absolutely carried my attention through the entire bizarre plot. Do I fully understand what I just read? Not at all. But I've accepted that Awad's books are all about the weird, creepy, ambiguous journey and less about the destination. I found this one to be a bit too repetitive at times, which made it less hard hitting for me than Bunny, but still a good read. The fact that there's a Tom Cruise facsimile at the heart of a skincare cult situation is also just *chef's kiss* perfection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Abandonment

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Death of parent

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, and Cursing