By Anna Ji ’27 & Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Staff Writer | Managing Editor of Layout
With confidence and vivid imagery, author Mona Awad read a passage from her latest book, “Rouge,” to an audience of enthralled listeners.
The Odyssey Bookshop hosted her in conversation with Mount Holyoke College English Professor T Kira Madden on Oct. 24. Students and community members sat in the audience, many having just purchased copies of the book.
Awad has previously written three other books: “Bunny,” “All’s Well” and “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl.” “Bunny” was named the Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue and the New York Public Library. At the beginning of the event, an Odyssey employee described “Rouge” as “a gothic fairy tale about beauty, envy and youth” before introducing Awad and Madden.
“Rouge” delves into the horrors of the beauty industry and its cult-like nature. Returning to Southern California after her mother’s death, protagonist Belle finds herself saddled with her mother’s debts and unsure how to proceed. Soon, Belle’s obsession with beauty and the mirror pulls her towards “La Maison de Méduse,” the same “lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted.”
“Rouge is outrageously creepy, campy, spellbinding and brilliant. It’s deeply in conversation with her other work, in that it’s haunted, funny, and wisely critical,” Madden said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. “And like all her work, I couldn’t put it down.”
Awad and Madden both showed admiration toward each others’ literary attainments. “She is a brilliant writer and obviously a fantastic teacher. I appreciate how generous she is with what she shares of her process and expertise,” Madden said in an interview with the Mount Holyoke News. The two writers have known each other for roughly 10 years.
In discussing the surrealist nature of the novel, Madden, quoting Awad, asked, “Why can’t we trust the imagined as much as we trust the truth?” Awad explained that she believes there is no line between the imagined and the truth. To her, the surreal is part of the character’s experience of the world, which is why she brings it into the novel’s actual landscape.
As a kid, Awad adored dark-edged comedy — especially “Absolutely Fabulous,” a British sitcom that she referred to as “incredibly dark.” She began to appreciate gothic subculture as a teen, finding beauty in its melancholy.
Her interest in horror grew while writing “Bunny,” as she knew her writing was beginning to converse with horror. This is reflected in her latest book. Embracing a gothic horror style, Awad’s writing in “Rouge” deals with envy, youth, cults, the collision of real and unreal and the beauty empire.
“For horror to really work, it has to be grounded in the real; it has to operate on a very literal level where the monster is a very real thing that can come and get you,” Awad said. “You have to believe in the visceral reality of the monster, but it also has to work on these other metaphorical levels at the same time.”
Halle Wyatt ’25, who was present at the event, has read both “Bunny” and “All’s Well” and appreciates the darkness present in Awad’s writing. “Neither [“Bunny” nor “All’s Well”] ... could [be] describe[d] as pleasant reading experiences but [are] definitely worthwhile ones. Her books take you on whirling, psychological thrill rides where you’re not so sure what’s real for her protagonists and what’s imagined,” Wyatt said.
Awad delved deep into the writer’s craft as she explained her thought process in constructing words and sentences. For “Rouge” specifically, it was “the immersion into the character’s consciousness that then dictates the speech patterns and the cadence.”
While writing, Awad tries to capture the character’s actual experience of being in the world and is drawn to writers who do the same. “[I love those] very intimate sort[s] of storytelling style[s]. [It] is really appealing to me because I feel like I’m actually brought into the character’s experience, and I love altered states of consciousness,” Awad said.
Many audience members laughed when Awad confessed her addiction to skincare videos. “When it came to ‘Rouge,’ it was very literal at first. I mean, I was addicted to skincare videos, and I started seeing a relationship between the beauty and the abyss … and it felt very real to me … but I started seeing that it had these other metaphorical deeper layers, and that’s what made me want to write a novel about it,” Awad said.
More laughter followed as Madden pointed out that the background of Awad’s phone screen was Tom Cruise. Attendees chuckled as Awad confessed her use of Tom Cruise as a symbol in “Rouge.” “Tom Cruise was a total accident. He just showed up, as he likes to do, and I just decided to keep him,” Awad said.
Aside from Tom Cruise, Awad made other allusions in “Rouge,” pulling from “Snow White,” “The Wizard of Oz” and Persephone from Greek mythology. Madden noted that she “was just in awe of how many connections [Awad] w[as] able to make with this referential material.”
Wyatt also made note of the detail-oriented writing style and reflected on hearing Awad speak at Amherst College last fall at an event for “All’s Well.” At this event, Awad read the prologue to “Rouge.” Thinking back to that reading, Wyatt praised the “care and attention” paid to small details. Wyatt recognized that “Rouge” would critique the whiteness of the beauty industry and was pleased to learn, from hearing Awad talk at the Odyssey, that this would be a central theme of the book.
“She described the book exploring whiteness as a center of the beauty industry, and many of the [character’s] names reflect this centering,” Wyatt said. “I was really happy to learn more about how much of the book seems to be about that ingrained racism in beauty, which I definitely gathered from that initial snippet, but the event definitely clarified its scope and importance.”
In discussing her sensory experience of the reading, Wyatt explained that her perception of the event tied into themes present within “Rouge.”
“An important element of the novel Awad talked about was the mirror … and because of how the Odyssey [was] set up and [because] I was sitting in the back, I couldn’t actually see her for the majority of the event, the heads of other attendees [were] blocking my view,” Wyatt said. “So instead, I watched [Awad] through the security mirror in the corner by the ceiling, her figure somewhat distorted, which to me seemed somewhat symbolic or meaningful to the essence of the book.”
Furthermore, Wyatt made a connection between the themes present in Awad’s writing — specifically the critique of the beauty industry — and writer Jessica Defino’s substack, “The Unpunishable.”
“[Defino] really harshly discusses the harms and horrors of the beauty industry, whether that’s on our physical and mental health or its effects on the environment,” Wyatt said. “On many of her newsletters, she signs off, ‘You’re going to die someday no matter how young you look,’ which I find hilarious and much needed in our culture today. I have no idea if Mona Awad was influenced by Defino’s writing, but I think if anyone is interested in ‘Rouge’ as this kind of critique, would find Defino’s work intriguing to check out as well.”
At the end of the conversation, Awad took questions from the audience and signed copies of “Rouge.” The answers to the audience members’ questions made Wyatt “really excited to read the book.”