Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Rouge by Mona Awad

11 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Belle is a stylist obsessed with beauty and skin. When she finds out her mother died in an accident, she flies to LA to face her past and confront the mysteries of her mothers odd, rich, skincare obsessed friends. This book is weird. Like no better way to say it: weird. Belle is basically so obsessed with being beautiful like her mother that when she finds the skincare "cult" her mother was a part of she immediately joins hoping to be as beautiful as her. This is a book of envy, vanity, madness, and manipulation. It is veryyy slow but it's just weird enough to be original and pretty good. I think my main complaints are with pacing and lack of explanation or a thoughtful ending. Like we never find out pretty much anything about Rouge and Hud Hudson or his brother. If you liked A Certain Hunger you'd probably like this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Stalking, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Toxic friendship, Classism, Medical content, Mental illness, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Cursing, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Gore

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

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

avokaitotoast's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

Another hit from Mona. 

I was worried after reading and loving Bunny that this would disappoint or be too similar and feel like a reach to hold on to the hit that Bunny was. Thank god it wasn’t.

One thing I‘ll say — Mona Awad writes horror in an atypical way, so don’t expect crazy gore or shock horror or crazy suspense. She has a very elegant way of making beautiful things grotesque and absurd.

Another thing — this is marketed as a fairy tale re-telling. Don’t go into this book looking for that. There are elements of fairy tales but it’s so subtle (which imo is the best way to do a re-telling).

Go into this book thinking about mother-daughter relationships and how grief can drastically warp your sense of self and change how you think and feel about the people you thought you knew.

It did take me a while to get into the book (Awads writing style is veryyyyy slow burn), but once I was a few chapters in I couldn’t put it down.

Can’t wait to read her other books, and I’ll look forward to whatever she writes next!

Content Warnings Explained 
Trafficking:

Plot involves people joining an exclusive skin care cult, some members seek it out themselves and some are recruited. Members are essentially brainwashed and it’s revealed that they are meant to be pseudo-cannibalised (if you read it you’ll get it) by the cult leaders

Psychosis:

Main character has massive memory gaps but slowly remembers through out the novel. She hallucinates heavily and is violent because of these hallucinations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Minor: Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Trafficking

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

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Mental illness, Bullying, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Murder

quotecj's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Body shaming, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Racism

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug use, Dysphoria, Violence, Abandonment, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

bdingz's review against another edition

dark tense 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

This one took me longer to finish because the depiction of body dysmorphia, especially at the beginning, hit me really hard. 

Mona Awad writes like a fever dream every time and I love her for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Racism and Body shaming

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, and Violence

Graphic CW for body dysmorphia

gracekatreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

A little slow and characters feel weak, but the idea is interesting and beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Grief

Grooming is a really prominent part of the book.