Caitlin's Reviews > Rouge

mother bunny mona awad’s mastery of the written word… oh, i envy! the perfect conclusion to what mona has called her "fairy tale trilogy".

much like bunny and all's well, the magic happens when they, and their protagonists, descend into the madness of the mind. many describe her novels as fever-dream-trips and while this is true, i feel it can sometimes be reductive. yes, there is an obvious blurring of the real and the imagined, but there is also endless substance within what some read as nonsensical, and perhaps unenjoyable, journeys and conclusions. these works exist for the readers who thrive in experiencing the unknown, and who don't want or need clearcut, black and white storytelling.

a story about girls who call each other bunny is not a critique of them, but of a society that admonishes women for loving each other and vocalising that love. a shakespearean medley about a woman living with chronic illness is a comment on how often our pain is unseen and unacknowledged, until we lose ourselves in it. a reimagining of snow white is a cry against the immortalised and impossible standards of beauty we must seek to maintain under patriarchy, and how that fruitless fight impacts our connections with each other.

bunny = women's relationship to other women and art. all's well = women's relationship to pain and trauma. rouge = women's relationship to beauty and expectation. it's all there, and once you start exploring and questioning everything on her pages, you'll never stop. for me, that is the brilliance of her voice. she always surprises me, even if i've read it before.