A review by anisyrah
Rouge by Mona Awad

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book’s premise was incredibly promising: taking the societal concept of “cult of beauty” and transforming it into a physical beauty cult. The novel also incorporated in some very interesting and layered mother-daughter relationship complexities that did have me in tears at several points. Lots of very good things going on, especially in the first third and the last third of this book. 

The middle, however, was convoluted. It ran rather long and really could have been condensed in several areas, as it took away from the building suspense in the beginning and truly delayed the resolution longer than necessary. 

Overall, willing to give this author another swing but this one isn’t one I’d really recommend.