Rouge: A Novel

  • Author: Mona Awad
  • Narrator: Sophie Amoss
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 14:42:09
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Synopsis

A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Time, Vogue, The Guardian, Goodreads, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, Tor, Good Housekeeping, PureWow, Our Culture Mag, and more!

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 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.

Chapters

  • 021 Rouge Chapter17

    Duration: 16min
  • 022 Rouge Chapter18

    Duration: 55min
  • 023 Rouge Part4 Chapter19

    Duration: 22min
  • 024 Rouge Chapter20

    Duration: 21min
  • 025 Rouge Chapter21

    Duration: 32min
  • 026 Rouge Chapter22

    Duration: 35min
  • 027 Rouge Part5 Chapter23

    Duration: 55min
  • 028 Rouge Chapter24

    Duration: 05min
  • 029 Rouge Chapter25

    Duration: 35min
  • 030 Rouge Part6 Chapter26

    Duration: 07min
  • 031 Rouge Chapter27

    Duration: 15min
  • 032 Rouge Chapter28

    Duration: 07min
  • 033 Rouge Chapter29

    Duration: 06min
  • 034 Rouge Chapter30

    Duration: 57min
  • 035 Rouge Chapter31

    Duration: 08min
  • 036 Rouge Chapter32

    Duration: 04min
  • 037 Rouge Chapter33

    Duration: 18min
  • 038 Rouge Chapter34

    Duration: 17min
  • 039 Rouge Credits

    Duration: 33s
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