Rouge by Mona Awad

A large part of the book shows us how disturbingly cultish the beauty industry can be. It’s not a straightforward portrayal but surreal. Someone said it has a David Lynchian atmosphere and I agree.

The narrator Belle has been obsessed with much of her life. Now in the present she is addicted to Dr. Marva’s skin treatment videos. She returns to California after her mother dies from a fall from a cliff into the sea. She is barely hanging on as she tries to make sense of her mother’s and how she racked up so much debt. And what are all these red jars in her condo?

A woman in red is at the funeral and later Belle receives a mysterious video on her phone from ROUGE asking “Is grief affecting your skin barrier?”. The same woman from the funeral is in the video. Days later Belle is at her mother’s place and finds herself in one of her mothers dresses and wearing her mother’s red shoes.which seem to lead her along the cliffs to the gates of a huge manor, La Maison Meduse.

There she is apparently expected and welcomed as a special guest. Within the mansion is a tank passing below and through the upper floors in which jellyfish-like creatures swim. ROUGE promotes beauty treatments. Later Belle is offered a free treatment which makes her the target of envy among paying guests. Oddly, Belle is asked to select a jellyfish which is with her during the treatment. Afterwards, Belle's perceptions are confused, there are gaps in her memory, she mixes up words. But the treatments are giving her an unearthly beauty that stuns people.

After the treatments start, the story enters into David Lynch territory. The reader can’t help but be drawn into the dreamlike, surreal state along with Belle.

Lots of questions. What are the treatments and what is happening to her? Why is “her”jellyfish with her during the treatment? What was her mother’s connection with Rouge and why do the embrace her as her mother’s daughter? What is ROGUE's real goal and is it really to help you achieve your best self?

The ending is both stunning and imaginative and shows the true horror within La Maison Meduse. I loved and now need to read the author’s Bunny.

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

Natural Beauty is Huang’s first novel and this body horror is a banger of a start.

The first person narrator, daughter of Chinese immigrants who fled the Cultural Revolution, was once a promising pianist but a traumatic family event left her psychologically unable to play. While working as a dishwasher, a woman who saw her play invites her to come to a high end beauty and wellness clinic named Holistic. There she is offered a job. Working at HolistiK isn’t just a job, it’s a commitment to a way of life. The employees use the products  and are given regular tune-ups. The narrator is told “We don’t sell products. We’re selling a lifestyle. Desire.The possibility for them to become us.”

The exotic products and treatments are an exaggerated parody of what you can find celebrities promoting. For example, one treatment involves remora eels and crabs. Even as the narrator finds herself drawn deeper into the Holistic culture, she finds that the products and treatments she receives are having an effect. They aren’t merely cosmetic, skin deep as it were, but are gradually altering her body.

The narrator is recruited into a special program which deepens the mystery of what Holistik really is and is the start of the full on body horror she experiences in the second part of the book. The horror Huang portrays is nicely done and leaves the reader both repulsed feeling sympathy for those who succumbed to the lure of finding beauty.

Natural beauty touches upon self-worth, race and identity, and consumerism where Holistik creates a demand for their products and treatments with the employees serving as living advertisements to clients who desire the “natural” beauty they see. The more outlandish the treatment the more people with the means will embrace it.

I hope to read more from this author.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

 If you enjoy an excellent, character driven novel that immerses you in a different culture giving the reader a vivid sense of place then this might be the book for you. It was for me.

You can approach it as a crime story but it is so much more than that.

The setting is contemporary in a small village in India where having a refrigerator and indoor bathroom are luxuries. Geeta is the main character. The villagers believe she “disappeared” her husband. Though innocent, letting people believe she murdered her husband has benefits. No one messes with her. Her hero is the bandit queen Phoolan Devi, a real person of the Dalit caste (i.e. untouchable), who exacted bloody revenge on the men who horrifically abused and tortured her.

Geeta is part of a female loan group that has taken out a small business loan. They meet monthly to make a payment to the loan officer. Her relationship to the other women is not at all friendly given her reputation, it’s strictly business. One of the group, Farah, often has difficulty making her payment due to her husband who bleeds her dress making business dry to fuel his alcoholism. This jeopardizes the loan which doesn’t make the other women happy. She approaches Geeta for help in disposing of her husband. Geeta isn’t a killer but finds herself reluctantly helping Farah plan the murder. When another woman sees Farah’s success, she looks to Geeta for her expertise.

The core of the story is the relationship that builds among the women. They find strength together in a culture of systemic misogyny and abuse. Geeta loses her aloofness as the women bond. The dialog is smoothly realistic and frequently wry, sly, witty, snarky, and funny, just what I enjoy. There are also scenes of thrilling danger and extreme peril but even there Shroff finds a way to inject humor.

Around this story of female empowerment and friendship is the structure of embedded misogyny and the caste system which is still in the culture particularly in small villages. I've never had a book pull me into a culture like this one does. The issue of caste is shown by through character Khushi, a Dalit widow who has a cremation business. We see her in public and the strictures under which she and her children have to conduct themselves. It both appalls and sparks empathy in the reader. But in her home, away from the higher castes, Khushi is a strong, assertive woman who isn't shy about putting Geeta in her place when she tries to "help".

I loved and cared about the characters and what happened to them. I enthusiastically recommended this book.