Reviews tagging 'Death'

Rouge by Mona Awad

20 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

_cararichardson's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

4.5

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It was so engaging and I read it over a few days. This book sets a really eerie vibe and fits the gothic genre well. It took a little getting used to the style of writing in this book but it was instrumental to the plot (it kind of reminded me of “Uglies” or “Unwind”). It was definitely heavy handed with the metaphors, imagery and themes , but I honestly didn’t mind it in this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

cappuccinodahlia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death

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

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

siobhanward's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

This was a bit of a disappointment for me unfortunately. I liked the idea of this book, but couldn't put my finger on why it felt so familiar until another reviewer pointed out how similar it is to Awad's <i> All's Well </i>. There was just so much overlap in the feeling of the plot (even if the plots themselves were different) and in particular, the protagonists. While this book might have been ok with a compelling plot that moved quickly, unfortunately it felt like Awad wasn't sure what direction she was going in for some of the book, which meant that things moved in circles for a lot of the book. By the time I got to the end, I just didn't care anymore and wanted it to be over, which is never a good way to end a book. 

Awad definitely appeals to my love of weird books, so I'll definitely continue to read what she writes, and I hope it'll be uphill from this point!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

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

linneak's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gaslighting, Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Body shaming

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

ashlesschaps7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Body shaming, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Body horror, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Dysphoria, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Eating disorder

Minor: Racial slurs