Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Rouge by Mona Awad

10 reviews

makeintoall's review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

savvylit's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Rouge is yet another Awad book that felt like entering a fugue state. The main character doesn't know what the hell is happening and neither does the reader. In Rouge, Awad has created some of the trippiest and most menacing scenes that will linger with me long after reading. I have consistently loved Awad's gothic writing style and Rouge was no exception. I also really appreciated the way that Rouge critiqued both beauty norms/culture and difficult mother-daughter relationships.

That being said, I finished the book a bit frustrated. So, like Awad herself, Mirabelle is half-Egyptian. This comes into play with the critiques of Western beauty standards but also with some of the ...entities that Mirabelle interacts with such as Seth (Set) and Horus. However, I felt like those two entities, while clearly connected to the central cult, were never explained as well as I would have liked. How did Horus know that Seth would be after Mirabelle? And what was Noelle's relationship to Horus and Seth? (If you've read the book and have answers/theories, help me out).

Thank you to @netgalley and @marysueruccibooks for the advanced reader copy of Rouge in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own

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Content Warnings

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