Mona Awad’s Rouge has crawled, slithered and slimed its way under my skin and inside me, where it will now be living in my brain rent-free for an indefinite period of time.

Dark twisted fairy tale vibes? Check. Extensive mythological references and allusions to Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology? Check. Did we even get a tiny little Tom and Jerry reference in here and somehow it totally worked? You bet we did, because Mona Awad. And that’s all mixed in with repeated imagery from and references to Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, all the Disney princesses, and most likely dozens of other allusions that I might have missed. Oh yeah, and we can’t forget about Tom Cruise, of course.

But if all that sounds like a little bit of a clusterf**k… somehow, it’s absolutely not. Fever dream vibes throughout? Yes. (It is Awad, after all.) But it all works together, in a way that blends modern reality with the all-too-human archetypes of stories, myths, and fairy tales throughout time and across cultures. Mona Awad skillfully uses these references and allusions not just to show off how much she knows (or maybe she does, but if so, let her!) - No, in my opinion, she uses all these different layers and layers to craft a truly compelling story that examines important themes of womanhood.

From the first page, Rouge immediately presents us with a complex mother-daughter relationship that isn’t afraid to shy away from the ways in which a mother can fall short, while maintaining a delicate balance of love and caring across generations. Usually, I’m not a fan of modern media tropes that paint mothers as flat villains, so I was nervous when I started this book, but rather than a flat villain, we get a truly nuanced (and at times heartbreaking) exploration of mother-daughter relationships and the archetype of the Maiden-Mother-Crone energy across three generations of women who navigate pain, love, and sometimes lack thereof.

This is also a book about skincare as an elaborate self-care ritual, and the extents to which women will go and the prices they will pay to avoid the wrinkles of aging and the burn of the sun. The parasocial relationship of social media user and skincare influencer is touched on, the screens a different kind of magic mirror that we all stare into every day now, knowing in our minds that we can never live up to the airbrushed, filtered, perfectly-staged faces that we see online…while some part of us longs for it and is made to feel inferior because of how impossible it is.

Also, literally every single time I thought that some skincare routine sounded too extreme to be real, I’d do a Google search and find that it was indeed very real. Yes, jellyfish is apparently really great for collagen. 🪼

And if you’re here for the horror, it’s here: when one of the plot’s major climactic turning points happens, it’s absolutely visceral in how it tears you apart.

Rouge is for readers who want a book that’s far, far more than meets the eye: a book with endless opportunities and rabbit holes to dive into, a true descent into the underworld of womanhood with a beautiful emergence afterwards, a book that will linger on in your mind and soul, if you let it.

I checked this out from my public library, like I do with most books I read (woohoo go libraries!), but it instantly feels like one that I will want to get for my own personal collection to re-read and treasure again in the future. It’s one I know I’ll be able to get more out of with each fresh read. Even as I write this review, days after finishing, I’m flipping through the pages at random and every page feels like a gem of elegant, atmospheric prose with something more to discover and uncover from The Depths.

TLDR: Please read Rouge and let it sweep you away with its haunting beauty!