Rouge by Mona Awad

Rouge has it all…it’s a psychological mind blower, with a bit of sorcery thrown in. Then add an unstable mother and daughter with serious facial dysmorphia, a treatment center dedicated to everlasting beauty, and you will not be able to look away!

When Belle’s mother dies suddenly, she must go back to Malibu from Canada where she lives now to bury her mother as well as settle her estate. Although they were not very close, they talked on the phone some.

What Belle had not realized was while sometimes speaking with her mother Noelle on the phone, she would not seem to be one hundred percent present in the conversation. She just chalked it up to her age and being lonely or busy with the clothes shop she co-owned. Her mother had always been a bit eccentric and secretive.

One thing her mother did teach her was how to stay young looking. From Belle’s earliest memory her mother was always watching treatment videos and putting layer upon layer of serums on her face. And of course, Belle herself began to follow the routine with her mother making sure she had a daily skin care routine which could last a few hours. Something she has always continued.

But when Belle returns to her mother’s condo, she discovers all the mirrors broken. She also finds out her mother was in serious debt. How could she have not known any of this was going on? As she unpacks some boxes her mother had stored, she finds a pair of her mother’s red shoes. She decides to put them on. But something happens to Belle, something she doesn’t understand. Soon she finds herself at a treatment spa called La Maison de Meduse where she is promised experimental treatments which will keep her face young.

Not really understanding what is truly happening to her, she discovers the secrets behind the mirrors, the looking glass. It is frightening and confusing, but she begins to fall victim to the treatments, it seems, just like her mother. But her mother died. Will she die? But suddenly that doesn’t matter, she is lured away from reality.

Rouge is a very complicated story filled with love and hate of each other and of oneself. It touches upon mother-daughter relationships, the good, the bad and the ugly. It mocks what some will do to keep young no matter what the consequences. One must learn to step away from the mirror because you could truly get sucked in and shatter your life.

Thank you #NetGalley #Simon&Schuster/MarySueRicciBooks #Rouge #MonaAwad for the advanced copy.