Reviews with content warning for Racism - Rouge

initially liked this book, the bizarre, fever dream prose that mona awad excels in is gorgeous. But it’s gotten incredibly tiresome and annoying to sit through the protagonist’s voice as the story went on. she’s also quite one-dimensional and boring, to the point where i couldn’t really care less whether she made it out of the cult or not.

only reason i forced myself to finish this is due to people saying that the ending was a saving grace. honestly this is one of the few times that i wish a book was shorter.

Content Warnings

emily_schlegel's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

4.5

this book felt like a fever dream (tw derealization). belle is relatable, infuriating, lost, unreliable as a narrator and full of grief. i loved the fairytale turned nightmare trope (though aren't all fairytales actually nightmares?), the skincare obsession, the language surrounding it. the mirror that this story held up to the reader. how far are you willing to go for the perfect glow?
this book is for people with mommy issues, everyone who has a skincare routine and fans of books like “my year of rest and relaxation” by ottessa moshfegh.

Content Warnings

chaotic_tumbleweed's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I honestly don't know if this book was for me I don't know if I would have enjoyed it more if I read it over the audio version. I really love the beginning and the end the middle was pretty slow. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it as a lot of the book is internal dialogue of the main character.

Content Warnings

aseel_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

So I liked the overall plot, it's wack made sense, I can see the parallels of snow white, while also being subverted

daughter being envious of the mother

, the skin care stuff was so intense and stressed me out

and I am confused about Seth... Did he actually visit her room???????? And I did a big gasp when her mum was like "im allergic to roses" after Bel was going to get some... It was a full (⁠・⁠o⁠・⁠) moment. Her being half Egyptian and not Christian till her grandmother did something about it was an interesting choice by the author, it would have been cool to see skin tone explained much more, like I know it came up but more when she was a child, not as an adult

but generally, this was an eerie read that will stick with me for a while

Content Warnings

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

katie0528's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

After the death of her mother, Mirabelle flies to California to settle her estate. But almost immediately, strange things began to happen. People describe Mira's mother in ways that is totally unrecognizable to her, and Mira, who has always found herself obsessing over her skincare, finds herself drawn over and over again to a bizzare spa with dubious treatments that leave her memories fuzzy.

The book was solid overall, I'm just not a huge horror fan. But this could be a great pick for someone searching for a female, POC-led thriller!

Content Warnings

anneliseew's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

maziodynes's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

Read this one for book club!

I really enjoyed Ms. Awad's writing style paired with her unreliable narrator. This was a surreal story centering around a mixed race woman and her relationship to her white mother and the beauty industry. Over the course of the book, it spirals down into a warning of a metaphor about grief and owning our traumas to heal (rather than escape)

Belle has this ritualistic obsession with skincare and a society that fetishizes differences while trying to sell a fantasy of being perfect and uniform (young, beautiful, white) even though this is impossible. The cult in this book preys on people like her by GIVING them the fantasy - however, to do this, they

take away something that makes us who we are, that makes us human. They say this is what makes you "ugly."

I absolutely loved this concept and thought it was executed well. The ending was beautiful.

My biggest complain was the pacing. Her writing style is so good, so readable, there were just too many words for the story she wanted to tell. It could have been more concise.

Content Warnings

More...