Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Rouge by Mona Awad

28 reviews

kendal_reads's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, and Death of parent

bookb1itch's review

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

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

applejuiceinabox's review

challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

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

kittkat's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Mona Awad hat mich mal wieder absolut verzaubert. Die letzten 2 Tage des Lesens waren wie ein Fiebertraum, aber ich konnte das Buch einfach nicht weglegen.

Marva tells us self-care is telling yourself you matter every morning in the mirror. You should talk to it. Become friends with what you see there.

Belle ist süchtig nach Skincare, weil sie schon seit ihrer Kindheit sehr unsicher war und eifersüchtig auf alle die schöner waren. Ihr größter Komplex war ihre wunderschöne Mutter, mit der sie seit eines Unfalls keinen Kontakt mehr hatte und die nun tot aufgefunden wurde. Wie ihre Mutter vor ihrem Tod wird jetzt auch Belle in eine unheimliche Spa-Sekte hineingezogen. Sie bieten ihr eine kostenlose Behandlung an, aber sie nehmen mehr von ihr als sie geben 🫣.

I envy 🌹.

Wie bei Bunny ging es in dieser Geschichte um so viel mehr als im Blurb angeteasert wurde. 

• Die toxische aber vielfältige Mutter-Tochter-Beziehung. 
• Erwachsenwerden. 
• Erwachsenwerden ohne Vater und als Minderheit sogar im eigenen Haus. 
• Der Schaden, den Neid alleine anrichten kann. 
• Whitewashing und internalisierter Rassismus.

Dazu hat die Autorin noch so einen hypnotisierenden, humorvollen Schreibstil, der einen komplett in die Welt des Geschehens zieht. Auch wenn die Geschichte etwas zu lang gezogen wurde und man zwischendurch den roten Faden verliert, sehe ich das Buch irgendwie als ein Kunstwerk, das reine Interpretationssache ist.

Bonus: Mona Awad hat es wirklich geschafft so viele klassische Märchen (und sogar bisschen ägyptische Mythologie) auf die eine oder andere Art einzubauen: Dornröschen, Schneewittchen, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Der Zauberer von Oz, Ariel, … + sehr überraschend Tom Cruise, ich meine Seth, den Mann werde ich definitiv in meinen Alpträumen sehen 😭!!

„Oh my god, is it really you?“ - „It is really me,“ Tom Cruise whispers. Tom Cruise. Standing in Mother‘s mirror. Tom Cruise, in the flesh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gaslighting, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Gore, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Confinement, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Body shaming and Gore

danielleeejames's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

A deeply unsettling and altogether unique reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

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

cara_anne'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship, Gore, and Death of parent

There’s a veiled, magical realism metaphor for child sexual abuse that becomes more and more clear as the theme continues.

dehahs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

1.5

I loved the idea of this book, and the prologue immediately drew me in. Belle was such a compelling character at the start — the fact that she was obsessive and single minded interestingly gave her character a lot of depth. However, about a third of the way through, I started to lose interested and contemplated DNFing this. What kept me reading was a spoiler (

Egyptian mythology

) which in reality wasn’t there. It became extremely repetitive and boring; They could have cut out the 5-7 hours in the middle and it wouldn’t have mattered much. I ended up putting this on 2x just so I could get through it.

I liked the wordplay in the latter chapters (

eucalyptus / apocalypse, vanity / insanity, serve / sever

); The writing was otherwise fine, if at times repetitive. The pacing was also very weird. The start was fine, the middle was slow and drawn out, and the ending felt rushed.

Besides Belle in the first third, I didn’t like any of the characters nor was I invested in any of them — except, maybe oddly, her dad.

I wish we found out more about him or explored Belle’s Egyptian heritage more. Also, if you’re going to hint at Egyptian mythology, do *something* with it.

Otherwise, the characters were quite flat. This was probably deliberate for everyone associated with the spa, but it would have been more impactful if the book was shorter. I’m not sure the narration helped; I found some of the accents quite grating.

While I apprciate the message this is trying to convey, I really, really wish the rampant racism/colourism which Belle has also internalised was confronted head on. Instead, all we get is a sense at the end that

Belle is starting to move on

. This is what the book should have spent more time on, rather than the aforementioned repetitive middle section. I get that not every book has to explicitly say racism is bad, etc., but there was so much happening that I don’t think this point was adequately conveyed as is.

Overall, I feel like the book focused too much on being an absurd horror story at the detriment of being a biting critique of the beauty industry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Pedophilia, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Body shaming

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Islamophobia, and Sexual content