Get Weird Book Club: "Rouge" by Mona Awad

Get Weird Book Club: "Rouge" by Mona Awad

Meeting virtually every month to read and discuss all things strange, surreal, unconventional and unexpected.

By Austin Public Library

Date and time

Thursday, March 27 · 4 - 5pm PDT

Location

Online

About this event

  • Event lasts 1 hour

Join us Wednesday, March 27th to discuss "Rouge" by Mona Awad!

Recommended for ages 18 and up.

Please register on Eventbrite to attend. On the day of the event, your book club moderator will use your registration info to email you a reminder and a Microsoft Teams meeting link.

Book Synopsis: 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.


Frequently asked questions

What are the content warnings for this title?

GRAPHIC: Death of a parent, Grief, Blood MODERATE: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming MINOR: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry (from thestorygraph.com)

Do I have to sign up through Eventbrite to attend?

Yes. Your book club moderator will use the email you provide in your registration to send you the Microsoft Teams meeting link on the day of the event.

The event is full and I can’t register through Eventbrite. Can I still attend?

Yes. Contact your book club moderator at jaimie.pitts@austintexas.gov to be added to the mailing list for this meeting.

Can I attend this event in person?

As of now, this book club is entirely virtual and meetings are held entirely through Microsoft Teams. There is not currently an in-person option for this book club.

I have a question about something else.

For all other inquiries, you may contact your book club moderator at jaimie.pitts@austintexas.gov