"No one knows what's inside grief." (p. 361)
Born to an Egyptian father and a French-Canadian mother Mirabelle Nour was raised in Quebec, Canada. At fourteen, she joined her mother in California, USA. She grew up believing that her father's dark features had made her ugly while her mother's red hair and delicate features made her mother beautiful.
When Mirabelle's sixty-something mother Noelle Des Jardins unexpectedly dies, thirty-something Mirabelle must fly from her home in the Plateau area of Montreal to her mother's home in La Jolla, California and deal with her grief and her mother's legacy (all those many bottles and jars of beauty products).
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall/Who in this land is fairest of all"
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Little Snow-White
"'Beauty...is a mystery... Here one day, then poof. Gone. Smoke and mirrors.'"
Mona Awad, Rouge
(literary fiction, fantasy, horror)
an imprint of Penguin Canada
a division of Penguin Random House Canada
2023
369 pages
Rouge by Mona Awad is a many-layered novel.
Rouge is literary fiction...
In Rouge, Mona Awad explains women's reliance on beauty products. To gain social status, women must meet society's standards for beauty. When a woman falls short of these standards, she must hide her flaws with beauty products. To maintain social status, aging women must rely on beauty products.
Rouge is horror...
Did Noelle fall from the cliff to the beach below, or was she pushed? And if she was pushed by who and why? Did something, someone, take possession of her in those final hours? If so, is Mirabelle in danger?
Rouge has elements of magical realism...
Mysterious shiny red shoes take control of those who wear them.
Giant red jellyfish that...
Mirrors that...
No, I have to stop. There are no spoilers in this review.
Rouge is an attractive, captivating read--from the fairy-tale-like prologue to the enchanting last paragraph.
Reviews of other books by Mona Awad...
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
On this Blog in October...
