hello_lovely13 's review for:

Rouge by Mona Awad
3.5
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
This was okay. I prefer my horror to feel a little more timeless, and it is kind of weird and a bit hard to take seriously when the Belle names the antagonist in her head
"Tom Cruise"
. I liked the motif of fairy tales (mostly Snow White) to depict the beauty industry and the corruption of the cult. I also like how abandonment and racism in the beauty industry is discussed and depicted. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the complicated relationship Belle has with her mother and how, in the end, some of her misguided, selfish actions were also a perverse version of maternal protection by displaying the benefits and consequences to succumbing to beauty standards. I didn't personally like that Belle was obsessed with beauty and skincare from the beginning because it sort of muddled, and didn't make the contrast as stark, the point in which she has fully succumbed to the cult's influence (the contrast that I think was done so well in Bunny because of how disturbing the contrast was). An interesting read, but not as unsettling or provocative to me as Bunny.
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