Book Club’s next read is ‘Rouge’ by Mona Awad

Book Club

Join the live author discussion on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.

For Boston.com Book Club’s first pick of the year, we’re reading a modern-day gothic fairy tale, perfect for the dark days of January. 

Start your year of reading with “Rouge” by Mona Awad, the latest from an author well-known for her darkly comic fiction. In this new book, protagonist Belle is led into a beauty cult after her mother’s sudden death fuels her obsession with retaining her youth. Belle discovers La Maison de Méduse, a “lavish, culty” spa where her mother spent much of her time, and discovers the frightening secret behind their shared fixation with their own beauty.

Described as “Snow White” meets “Eyes Wide Shut,” this novel is a “surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters.” 

With so many of us focused on trying to create the best versions of ourselves this time of year, “Rouge” asks how far we’ll go to achieve our most superficial desires. 

The novel, released in late 2023, was on the bestseller list of USA Today, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star, and was a New York Times editor’s choice. The novel was also named one of last year’s most anticipated releases by Time, Vogue, Bustle, and The Guardian, to name a few. 

Awad has earned herself a reputation for being able to seamlessly pull the humor out of the horrific while holding a microscope to our deepest insecurities. Her previous novel, “Bunny,” about twisted games at a prestigious MFA program, was praised by critics and devoured by readers in horror communities on TikTok and Goodreads.

The Canadian-born writer has honed her craft through four novels, and short stories, plus a master’s in literature, an MFA, and a doctorate in creative writing. She has taught creative writing at a number of colleges and universities, including several in New England, including Brown University, Framingham State, Tufts, and in the MFA program at UMass Amherst as a visiting scholar.

She currently lives in Boston and is a professor at Syracuse University on top of publishing short stories and articles in New York Times Magazine, McSweeney’s, Vice, and more. 

Her talents are well-recognized by her peers, who’ve heaped praise on her latest work. Iain Reid, author of “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” called the book “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.”

And Laura Zigman, author of a previous Book Club pick, “Small World,” had nothing but compliments for Awad’s storytelling and writing. 

“‘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,” she said, “I loved every word of this.”

We can’t wait to dive into this twisted story with Awad and Wendy Dodson, who will join us as the moderator of this month’s Book Club discussion. Dodson is a true lover of books, who founded Hummingbird Books, along with local partners Andrea Chiang and Rachel Walerius.

A Boston area native, Dodson opened the bookstore in Chestnut Hill to bring her passions closer to home. She also owns a shop in Jackson, Wyoming, but told GBH a year after Hummingbird’s opening that she could see that this area could use another bookstore. 

The store is still relatively new, but it is already beloved by its customers, particularly families with young children because of the extensive middle-grade books collection and their signature Great Oak Tree. Inside the giant display is a reading room for kids to get cozy with a book.

“I really wanted to build and have a community convening space,” Dodson said. “That was my vision and my hope and my dream. And that’s what we’re doing.”

Join Mona Awad and Wendy Dodson as they discuss her new book “Rouge” on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.

Buy “Rouge” from Hummingbird Books: In-store pick-up | Shipping

---