Rouge

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? A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 in The Guardian, i newspaper, TheNew York Times,Time , Globe and Mail,Bustle , The Millions ,LitHub, TOR , Good Housekeeping , Our Culture Mag , and more! ' You think, “She’s not going to go there…yes, she is.' Margaret Atwood 'The trancelike, rhapsodic language and deepening atmosphere of unreality make for a narrative that oozes with unease.' The Guardian ‘ Rouge is a must-read for anyone who has found themselves obsessively, and even dangerously, fixated on self-improvement. [...] Dreamline, hypnotic and enchanting in its language, Rouge proves Awad is a huge talent’ Stylist, Book of the Month For as long as she can remember, Belle has been obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse , the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

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? A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 in The Guardian, i newspaper, The New York Times, Time , Globe and Mail, Bustle , The Millions , LitHub, TOR , Good Housekeeping , Our Culture Mag , and more! ' You think, “She’s not going to go there…yes, she is.' Margaret Atwood 'The trancelike, rhapsodic language and deepening atmosphere of unreality make for a narrative that oozes with unease.' The Guardian ‘ Rouge is a must-read for anyone who has found themselves obsessively, and even dangerously, fixated on self-improvement. [...] Dreamline, hypnotic and enchanting in its language, Rouge proves Awad is a huge talent’ Stylist, Book of the Month For as long as she can remember, Belle has been obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse , the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

" Rouge is a fever dream—a brilliant, intense, unforgettable horror story about a beauty cult with a deeply moving mother-daughter story at its core. Mona Awad’s signature and singular imagination and black humor and empathy are on full display here, and her wild-ride of a tale is masterfully grounded in the emotional devastation of childhood and grief. I loved every word of this." —Laura Zigman, author of Small World "There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands—rings and all—into the viscera of story and discover an unsettling beauty within. ROUGE is her most magnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun "A brilliant, biting critique of western beauty standards as well as a soaring, phantasmagoric, Angela Carter-esque fairy tale about trauma and the loss of self. Rouge is deeply unsettling, funny, obsessive, and unlike anything I've read. A truly mesmerizing read." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts "Unsettling, whimsical, and moving, Rouge is an authentic, innovative kind of narrative magic that's both surreal and absolute. A striking novel of incandescence and heart." —Iain Reid, author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things 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? For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse , the same lavish, culty spa her mother to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, ROUGE explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, ROUGE holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

" Rouge is a fever dream—a brilliant, intense, unforgettable horror story about a beauty cult with adeeply moving mother-daughter story at its core. MonaAwad’ssignature and singular imagination and black humor and empathy are on full display here, and herwild-rideof a tale is masterfully grounded in the emotional devastation of childhood and grief. I loved every word of this." —LauraZigman, author of Small World "There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands—rings and all—into the viscera of storyand discover an unsettling beauty within. ROUGE is her mostmagnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun "A brilliant, biting critique of western beauty standards as well as a soaring, phantasmagoric, Angela Carter-esque fairy tale about trauma and the loss of self. Rouge is deeply unsettling, funny, obsessive, and unlike anything I've read. A truly mesmerizing read." —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts "Unsettling, whimsical, and moving, Rouge is an authentic, innovative kind of narrative magic that's both surreal and absolute. A striking novel ofincandescence and heart." —Iain Reid, author of I'm Thinking of Ending Things From the critically acclaimed author ofBunnycomes 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? For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse , the same lavish, culty spa her mother to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, ROUGE explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, ROUGE holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.

A dark billionaire romance with a secret society twist and a happy ever after. The Garde values four ideals: The Truth we twist. The Beauty we flaunt. The Freedom we grant. The Power we take. I believed their lies until Lacey O'Shea. She's the only daughter of the Garde's leading family, and she was meant to be mine. But her father stole her from me to sell to another. So I stole her back. But there's more to the conspiracy that kept us apart, and we have to keep our relationship secret from her former fiancé, the Baron, to find the truth. He wants to lock her away, but she's a bird desperate to flee her gilded cage. I'll fight the Baron, the Garde, and the whole damn world to free her. ROUGE is a spicy story set in modern-day Las Vegas and a complete STANDALONE in the Tattered Curtain series. Guaranteed HEA. Author's Note: This is not a retelling. The Tattered Curtain series transforms classic tragic plays, such asRomeo & Juliet, La Dame aux Camélias, and Orpheus and Eurydice, into dark and twisty HEAs. All CWs/TWs can be found in the front of the book, the author's website, or on Goodreads. Mature readers only.

A dark billionaire romance with a secret society twist and a happy ever after. The Garde values four ideals: The Truth we twist. The Beauty we flaunt. The Freedom we grant. The Power we take. I believed their lies until Lacey O'Shea. She's the only daughter of the Garde's leading family, and she was meant to be mine. But her father stole her from me to sell to another. So I stole her back. But there's more to the conspiracy that kept us apart, and we have to keep our relationship secret from her former fiancé, the Baron, to find the truth. He wants to lock her away, but she's a bird desperate to flee her gilded cage. I'll fight the Baron, the Garde, and the whole damn world to free her. ROUGE is a spicy story set in modern-day Las Vegas and a complete STANDALONE in the Tattered Curtain series. Guaranteed HEA. Author's Note: This is not a retelling. The Tattered Curtain series transforms classic tragic plays, such as Romeo & Juliet, La Dame aux Camélias, and Orpheus and Eurydice, into dark and twisty HEAs. All CWs/TWs can be found in the front of the book, the author's website, or on Goodreads. Mature readers only.