A review by avokaitotoast
Rouge by Mona Awad

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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