Welcome to Litsy!

Cannot remember when I requested this one from NetGalley, but it sounds pretty fab! Getting stuck in ASAP!

“Rouge” was available on Libby, so I read it again as an audiobook this time! Enjoyed it just as much as the first time around! (Picture is a screenshot of my original review!) 🎧 🥀 🪼

Did I need this much Tom Cruise? No. (But it was pretty fascinating)
I loved the metaphor &dark fairytale elements. It took a while to set up where it was going &got by on creepy vibes for a while but the 2nd half was great.

Oh no. This 360ish book is about 150 pages too long. I was immediately hooked on page one and this is my third Award book so I was ready for weird but this was just long. Much too long. I enjoyed the trippy criticism of the beauty industry (one of my favorite topics) and I liked the characters, I even liked the random obsession with Tom Cruise. I think it could have been much stronger with a good edit.

I have been listening to Rouge this week and it is totally fitting that Top Gun was on TV last night, I don't have cable at home so only in hotels do I get random movies

Awad's main character in this is obsessed with Tom Cruise. When I was a kid I was obsessed with Top Gun, but I liked Goose and Iceman 😂

This one caught my attention for the first half as I was curious and intrigued as to where the story was going, until it began to drag, only to finish with an underwhelming ending. It‘s a weird one, but after reading Bunny, I knew I was in for something strange.

7-7-24: My 21st finished book of 2024! What a bizarre story. When Belle learns her mother has passed she flies to California from her home in Montreal to take care of her mother, Noelle‘s, home and business. Noelle has left a lot for Belle to uncover. One thing being the spa like mansion on the cliff that sold Noelle all the jars of creams lining her walls. It‘s a story about mothers and daughters but also about the price of beauty.

3.5⭐️/5⭐️

I think this author just isn‘t for me because I‘ve bailed on both books I‘ve tried. Oh well. #LitsyTOB24

I probably should have “Panned” this, but it had me intrigued for a while. I became less and less enamored and felt the ending meandered around, trying to find its way. You warned me, @BarbaraBB !
#LitsyToB24

Sometimes you avoid an author because you are sure their books aren‘t for you and then you give one a try anyway and find out you were totally right.
#litsytob24

Ugh. Awad is NOT for me. And I really wanted it to work. I lost the narrative in the constant weirdness. SO repetitive.
Now for what I liked:
-the portrayal of being lost in surreal grief
-the horror of skincare routines and the beauty industry
-the mother-daughter overwhelming love and admiration but also jealousy and complex emotions
-the jellyfish
I mean, I think, but maybe none of that even happened. #litsytob24

Finished this last night & it was a trip. This is a red and black dreamscape, maybe the nightmare version, and evokes a mid-eighties vibe. Like I feel like this is best enjoyed in a black bathtub overflowing with bubbles while cackling into a glass of champagne. Which is to say, I loved it.

A story about grief, mother/daughter relationships, and the cult like beauty and skincare business.

A fantasy about what grief after a parent's death is like when the relationship was complicated: they hurt you, you blame them for things, but you also regret some of your actions. So you cycle between exploring painful memories and shutting them out. Maybe you indulge in things you know are bad for you, or sometimes you just walk around in a fog. Belle cycles between these reactions in a dark alternate reality teaming with fairy tale imagery 👇

The book was too long and I got bored. I was happily following along until about a third in, and I wasn‘t sensing any critical arc coming anytime soon, so I skimmed through to read the last few chapters or so. 💄🌹🥀😆 Red frame to Copper‘s frank expression.

#LitsyToB24 #DogsofLitsy #CopperBopper #WHPG

⭐️⭐️ This one just wasn‘t for me. It ended up kind of getting somewhere related to issues of vanity, jealousy, and mother/daughter relationships, but the destination wasn‘t worth the journey. I have a hard time connecting with descent into madness POVs, and even at her best I found the MC dopey. This would have been a bail if not for #LitsyToB24

This #LitsyToB24 book is driving me batty. Listening to it is like being the only sober person out with a group of drunk friends who aren‘t making sense and can‘t keep up with what people are saying. Half of the dialogue is the main character repeating what someone else just said but in the form of a question. “The debts have been paid off.” “Paid off?” “I was under a different impression.” “Different impression?” 🤦‍♀️

I had to stop reading Fourth Wing and read this one because it needs to go back to the library before it turns into a pumpkin. Arghhh! I didn‘t get the spa scenes at all, but I plugged along because I wanted to know how it would end. I doubt I‘ll be running out to read her backlist. 🤣🤣🤣
#listytob24

This one really hit the spot for me. I firmly believe that often the bizarre and symbolic are the best ways to explain complex emotional experiences, especially relationships. The intensity is imparted through these weird, over-the-top scenes and situations that, when done well, feel more emotionally honest and resonant to me than words alone would be (part of why A Little Life didn't work for me). Awad does this exceptionally well.

"Houses on the side of the cliff, nested deep into the greenery. Not houses, mansions, really. Glowing with money and architecture."

We refer to these houses perched on the crumbling bluffs as the world's most expensive temporary housing.

Enjoying some warm spiced cider and some reading while the teens slowly get ready to open presents.

The weird of this one is really appealing to me so far. Aside from the warm evening breezes (seriously, it's cold in the evening in La Jolla, even in summer), Awad has caught the somewhat rundown, not-quite-what-it-promises-to-be, catering-to-tourists-and-those-for-whom-surface-is-everything feel of the village well.

So boring! Homegirl was definitely obsessed with her skin care and by page 30ish, I got sick of hearing about it. Had to move on.

#LitsyToB24

There‘s not much I can add to other Littens‘ fabulous reviews on this book. I went into it expecting to dislike it, as I really didn‘t ‘get‘ Bunny.

I did prefer Rouge but, each time I thought I understood an analogy or a metaphor, something even more absurd happened that just didn‘t make sense to me. I just don‘t think that excessive absurdity works for me.

Unfortunately this is my least favourite so far on our Turkey short list.

The in itself interesting storyline of a mother and a daughter who envy each other‘s beauty is overshadowed by Mona Awad being Mona Awad.
Jellyfish, roses, scars, spa treatments, mannequins, Rouge and of course Tom Cruise: it was just too much for me. Finished it because of the #LitsyToB24, otherwise I think I wouldn‘t have bothered.

Absolutely bonkers modern day fairy tale in the vein of Awad‘s Bunny. This book explores the cult-like world of the skincare/anti-aging industry from the perspective of a mixed race woman who is obsessed with her own skincare routine to the point of bordering on self-harm. It‘s also a book that digs into themes of mother-daughter relationships, body dysmorphia, and grief. Heavily inspired by Snow White; magic mirrors are a repeated motif.

After her mother's death, Mirabelle, known sometimes as Mira, sometimes as Belle, leaves Montreal for La Jolla. As questions arise about how her mother died, Belle is drawn to a mysterious house where patrons are promised they'll be taken on a beauty journey, each transformed into their Most Magnificent Self. A darkly enthralling fairy tale that questions the damaging, seductive quest for beauty at any cost, passed down from mother to daughter.

Another insane novel from Mona Awad. This dark fairy tale centers in on the dangers of the beauty industry.
#GhostsOfXmas #WinterGames
#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks #Adventathon @BookmarkTavern #20In4 @Andrew65 #Rushathon @GHABI4ROSES @DieAReader #AToZ @Texreader ##LittenListen @aperfectmjk

While parts were good and exactly what I expect from Awad, overall I was disappointed, but my expectations were probably impossibly high having loved her previous work. Rouge was overly long and there was no gradual slippage into the cray-cray à la Black Swan. Instead it starts in the fantastical and keeps doubling down until the rather saccharine ending. This story of obsession with beauty and perfection was mostly too on the nose for me. #ToB24

Today‘s Feature Friday on YouTube is talking Mona Awad‘s Rouge ft. Noelle‘s second best red—and my first.

Defying my expectations yet again as an exploration of, yes, beauty culture but also intergenerational trauma and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. Perfect for readers who also enjoyed Natural Beauty and the Glow this year.

Further thoughts on YouTube —>
https://youtu.be/142SbWfASYU

This is an unpopular opinion, but in contrast to Bunny which I loved, this one fell short. Awad's writing is mostly beautiful: lush, baroque, & frequently funny in the way it mines the slippages of language & the unconscious. But the novel is overlong, baggy, & convoluted, almost creaking under its own weight of heavy symbolism & myriad references to fairy tales & pop culture. Awad is best when her story is anchored in realism. From the middle 🔽

holiday reading

I‘m not quite done with it, but I‘m calling Rouge my favorite of the new #toblonglist titles that I‘ve read! I guess I am just a sucker for Awad‘s prose and this twisted fairy tale is *chef‘s kiss.* However, I‘ve only read 9 haha, so maybe someone will dethrone Awad?

Book covers are arranged with my favorite reads at the top - but this doesn‘t mean I didn‘t like the books on the bottom row! They just didn‘t impress me quite as much as the others…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A sinister fairy tale steeped in grief and envy; an evisceration of the beauty industry like only Mona Awad could do! She is such a singular talent. I really loved the vivid imagery and the clever wordplay, which still haunts my mind when I look at my insanity - I mean, my vanity. I was hypnotized by every page. #Aardvark #AardvarkBookClub

Mona Adwad‘s Rouge is INCREDIBLE; dark, funny, and feverishly strange. She addresses deep societal problems including but not limited to racism; narcissism; addiction; impossible beauty standards; consumer culture; and the inexplicable magnetism of Tom Cruise.

If Rouge weren‘t immediately pitted against Bicycling with Butterflies, it would have fared much, much better.

Dykman‘s memoir is the one to beat. 🖤🧡

What a crazy wild ride this was!

Underneath the beauty cult/gothic fairytale storyline was a tragic look into a problematic mother-daughter relationship, and the pressures put upon women to be "beautiful."

I love how this author weaves a story with so much substance into a trippy fever dream that leaves you feeling unsettled, yet unable to stop reading.

Another great read by a favorite author.

#Scarathlon #SpookyGhostClub @Clwojick

One of Lit Hub‘s “Most Anticipated Books of 2023
From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother's unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother‘s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

#aardvarkbookbox #aardvarkbooks #rouge #monaawad #horror #thriller #gothicfiction #fantasy

I cannot overstate how much I love it when Mona Awad leans into the weird. Her writing reminds me of when I was young and ‘discovered‘ Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, and Tori Amos all around the same time. It has that same primal / archetypal urgency.

I read Bunny & *adored* it but worried it might be kind-of niche, too pretentious for some readers. Come to find out, plenty of people loved it! It‘s been optioned for film by JJ Abrams‘ production company & caused Margaret Atwood to name Awad her “literary heir apparent.” With Rouge, I have *no* such hesitation. I‘ll recommend freely! She‘s now an auto-buy author for me. So delightfully weird. Such attention to linguistic detail. I‘m floored. 🤩

This is more coherent than Bunny but still a little bit of a fever dream. I can‘t put it down: I keep reading to see what kind of cult this beauty spa really is.

Today's airport paperback new fiction choices... Suitable beach reads I hope

I wouldn‘t have expected anything less trippy from Awad. It was an interesting way to explore both a problematic mother-daughter relationship and the slavish devotion beauty rituals can require.

Belle is living in Montreal spending her days watching skincare videos when she gets word that her estranged mother has died in LA. When she goes to tie up loose ends, she becomes enraptured by a beauty cult her mother was involved in.

I really like the way Awad‘s books comment on social pressures faced by (mostly) women by depicting them through dark humor, horror and the supernatural. Her latest is no exception and I loved it. Perhaps the most sinister of her books I‘ve read. 🌹

Excited about both BOTM and #Aardvark picks this month!! I‘ve been waiting for Rouge! 😍🥀 I had never heard of Starter Villain, but couldn‘t resist the cover and fun premise 😆🐱

It was a good week for #RecentAcquisitions! A few library books, and I‘ve already started Rouge. The Last Election is fiction by Andrew Yang, which sounds interesting and is about a rogue 3rd party candidate (no surprise there)!

My 2NC was doing a 25% off promotion, and I used it to pick up several paperbacks plus a short story collection and Hot Milk, which I may have already read, in hardcover. 🤔🤔 I have some poor record keeping years!

My local bookshop hosted this reading last night from Mona Awad and Laura Sims: Sims read from 'How Can I Help You' which I still need to read and Awad from her latest Rouge, which I only found out about last week after finishing her previous novel. Apparently, the two authors have been friends since 2018, which came through as they posed questions to each other about their work. A fun night of reflections on serial killers and dark fairy tales 😈

This one started off decent enough…but then it got boring. I feel like some of it could‘ve been cut out to make it shorter. It was almost a DNF ⭐️ ⭐️

I‘m not vibing with the writing style and I‘m also bored.

Yup! It‘s #BONKERS
Totally 🍌👖 ❣️
I really enjoyed this one but I think it could have been whittled down 😍
I‘m not gonna say more…
Best to just step into Belle‘s red shoes and plunge into the beauty journey with her. Audio narration was FAB