"I like Mona Awad in general, but this one bored me. There wasn’t anything subtle or clever. It was all over the place and simultaneously nowhere. (This will make sense if you choose to read it, but I think you are better off not knowing what that means because you’ll be better off saving that time towards a better book.)"

"my relationship with awad's works seems to be very much one step forward and two steps back. while this did not frustrate me as much as bunny it was just...boring...lacklustre. a lot of scenes and exchanges were too reminiscent of all's well. the first chapter sees a woman of the
not-feeling-too-good variety giving Patrick-Bateman-lusting-after-business-cards energy as she is hiding away watching a video promising wellness or a better improved happier self all the while someone is calling her name.

anyway, rouge felt like a short-story stretched out into novel form that amounts to a series of not particularly shocking or interesting dream(y) sequences that might appeal to fans of, i don't know, mulholland drive (love lynch but, at the risk of incurring the wrath of cinephiles, that film was not it). i found the commentary on beauty and ageing terribly on the nose and not particularly clever or subversive (that a character references 'eyes wide shut'...subtle). the 'french' elements embodied by the mc's mother, were laughable. the dynamic between the mc & her mother, seemed reminiscent of shirley jackson's work (her 'mother/mother' refrain was very much giving The Haunting of Hill House).
the novel reveals little and, worst still, failed to entertain me the way the author's previous novel at least managed to. murky scene after murky scene, in which we are meant to question our mc's sanity. maybe if awad hadn't immediately blurred the line between reality and fantasy, maybe then i would have felt some unease at whatever was going on, but i didn't.
i felt bored by awad's writing which often relies on the same stylistic 'tricks': the use of 'you', repeating words, the avoidance of a subject matter, 'fragmented' yoda-like sentences, and tumblr-esque phrases ("You nodded. An ache opening up inside you. Deep, deep." / "Cynical smile of the beautiful who know they're on the downhill slope." / "Don't know why I came here. Can't afford this place, not at all" / "She's brimming with it: a longing for delusion." / "A friend of a co-worker. Lonely. We both were." / "Shake her lovely head." / "I lean in and kill him on the lips and he kills me right back."...i mean this last one is truly giving dark fantasy ya). and sure, these choices can be effective, if used sparingly or increasingly to reflect the mc's delusional state of mind, but that's not the case here. reading a page felt like wading through molasses, and i soon felt mired by awad's laboured prose. whereas all's well managed to provide a few diverting plot-points and scenes, i felt nothing while reading rouge.

as per usual, the opinions above are very much based on my very subjective personal taste and i would recommend my fellow readers to check out some different and more positive reviews out."

"Rouge was one of my most anticipated new releases for the second half of the year. Mona Awad must've been high off of her mother’s Dior perfume fumes when she wrote this book because this was wild. Rouge is an acid-trippy psychological novel that explores the topics of strained mother-daughter relationships, grappling with identity as a multi-ethnic person, American beauty standards, and toxic obsession with the beauty industry. Rouge had the recipe for a masterpiece, but it was half-baked. I'm all for weird, but the weirdness isn't my gripe with this book. The problem is it was way too repetitive. We get it Mona, you have an affinity for red rose petals, jellyfish, and Tom Cruise. I felt like I was trapped in a never-ending episode of Black Mirror, but in the worst way possible. The same thing was repeated over and over again to the point where when the story was finally coming to a head, I just didn't care anymore because I was so drained. And then, that ending? It was unnecessary and lackluster. I think this story would've been a lot more effective and engaging if it were a short story or novella. The topic of beauty standards and society's obsession with youth and beauty products is nothing new and, in my opinion, a little played out, and Rouge didn't give us anything revolutionary about the topic.

Thank you Netgalley, Simon Element/Simon & Schuster, and Mona Awad for the eARC.

Expected Publication Date: Sept. 12, 2023"