Literary Kitten

I had quite the time reading these two novels back-to-back. Rouge and Natural Beauty touch on many of the same topics and themes: societal beauty standards, the predatory nature of beauty companies, and how women experience self-care and self-worth. The similarities have led people to compare these books to one another. Not only do they touch on the same themes, but both of them were released in 2023 within a few months of each other.

I have seen several influencers make statements along the lines of, “If you liked ____, then you NEED to read _____” and “_____ does this better than ______”. Naturally, this made me VERY intrigued and I wanted to form some of my own opinions! Right off the bat, let me tell you a few of my thoughts:

♥ Rouge has more of a supernatural vibe than Natural Beauty

♥ Rouge is more “fever-dreamesque”

♥ Natural Beauty goes further with body horror

♥ Natural Beauty feels more based in reality

♥ Both are satirical

♥ Both focus heavily on parental relationships, with Natural Beauty depicting a more positive relationship than Rouge

Those are just a few basic observations. I want to state: I love both books. They’re both amazing studies on the beauty industry, they both prompt excellent questions and discussions. Let’s go ahead and dive into what I think of each book.

Rouge by Mona Awad

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5 stars)

Rouge is about a skin-care obsessed girl named Mirabelle aka Belle, who is processing the bizarre death of her mother, Noelle, and has to go back to Southern California. While there, she retraces the steps of her mother’s life which leads her to a culty-spa place called Rouge. Things get pretty crazy from there as Belle struggles with self-worth, what it means to be beautiful, and how far she would go to obtain beauty.

I read Rouge first. I am a fan of Awad’s writing and that’s no secret. I have read Bunny and All’s Well; I enjoyed both, with Bunny still being one of my all time favorite books. Although Awad’s books are for me, I can understand why they’re not for everyone. Rouge, like her previous work, is dreamy, horrific, psychological; it elicited a “what the hell is happening?” reaction from me throughout most of the book.

Awad does a fantastic job at highlighting how obsessed Belle is with beauty and all the products she uses to feel beautiful. For example, what is Mushroom Mist?! And why does she need it so bad?! It’s satirical and sad at the same time. Our main character would seemingly go to the ends of the earth to meet unrealistic, Eurocentric beauty standards.

A theme in this book I appreciated were the clear references to how whiteness is appreciated more in the industry. The cult in this book, much like the beauty industry, promotes whiteness as being a superior feature, and therefore will sell treatments to make the skin paler. Slight spoiler alert: Belle eats all these products up.

“There is a whiteness, isn’t there? I whispered. Brightness, I meant to say. Not a whiteness, I told myself, call it a Brightness.”

Additionally, something I love about Rouge is how Awad wrote about intergenerational trauma; how we inherit many of our physical insecurities at a young age. The environment in which we are raised, the people we look up to; how they see themselves can alter how we see ourselves. Belle grew up feeling different, feeling like her mother was superior to her in looks. There’s a lot of nuance in Belle and her mother’s relationship; there’s encouragement… but there’s also envy, another recurring theme in this story.

“Didn’t you envy? Didn’t you want? A mirror is only a mirror, Belle. It only ever reflects back what we desire and long for.”

Rouge has a lush and dark atmosphere. Like every other Mona Awad book, the imagery and descriptions make the reader feel like they are watching a movie. I deeply love this. All the vibrant reds, the jellyfish, the roses, all of it is such a treat for my reader brain.

“I’m wearing a dread of liquid gold that burns like the sun. I’m wearing shoes of reddest blood. The mirrors are cracking all around me. The waves are saying, entree, entree… I’m going the way of the roses, Belle”

I won’t dive too deep because I don’t want to give away too much but the bottom line is I love the writing, the nuanced relationship between the mother and daughter, the discussions of the predatory beauty industry, the theme of intergenerational trauma, and the imagery and atmosphere.

Downsides: too much Tom Cruise, drags out a bit too much, weird pacing sometimes.

Overall, Rouge is most definitely worth the read and successfully takes on the giant task of critiquing the beauty industry!

Song: The Flower Duet (Lakmé)

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Natural Beauty is about an unnamed girl who is a former pianist prodigy until she is forced to leave her musical life behind in exchange for working at a beauty company called Holistik. At Holistik, she discovers how insanely inhumane and toxic beauty companies can be.

The hype I’ve been seeing this book receive online has been pretty decent! It prompted me to do this blog and to read this debut novel by Huang. Many people were saying they preferred Natural Beauty over Rouge, as they say it touched on many of the same things and did it better.

Here’s my opinion: They are similar yes… but they are so different!

Huang really took it to another level when it comes to beauty products and the beauty industry. When I read about the treatments and procedures in this book, I was deeply disturbed and disgusted. When I got to the body horror in this book, I was frozen in shock, eyes wide, jaw dropped. She really went there. Natural Beauty GOES THERE!!!

Holistik markets themselves as being revolutionary, life-changing, all about health and wellness; this is what women deserve! But there’s evil underneath. There’s a lot of it. Holisitik preys on our main character and the public by feeding on insecurities, how can you grow taller? How can you stop aging? How can you become paler? How can you lighten your natural hair which is so, so dark? How can you fit in?

“Caution becomes paranoia and eventually, fear. Is there anything more comforting in life than knowing what to fear? At Holistik, they teach me what I need to be afraid of to become beautiful.”

Huang hits the nail on the head with her book. The way Holisitik is described and portrayed is truly horrific.

In addition to how incredible the themes surrounding beauty are portrayed in this book, I really enjoyed how Huang writes about music in connection with beauty. Being a musician myself, I could relate to the main character in some ways. I understood. She uses music as a way of just being, she can be herself and not feel the need to gel-in with the people who want to exclude her.

“No matter how dark everything else might have seemed, the music in my mind was a glowing orb. It was my way out of language, out of the societal structures used by others to exclude me. No one could tell from my music how much I did or didn’t have, where I was from, or what I looked like. All I wanted to do for the rest of my life was to sit at the piano and urge wood and ivory to speak.”

As you can see, class and race are also discussed in this book. Our main character is the child of immigrants. She grew up not having things other people had and witnessed the hard work of her parents trying to support her in America. Because she looked different from others growing up and was extremely talented, she was bullied. This directly influences the perception she has of herself later in life; being singled out has a big impact on how we view the world and our lives.

“Maybe youth, I think to myself, is also something only the privileged can afford. I play a game of trying to photoshop myself into their memories, but even in my make-believe, something is off: I don’t have the correct shoes, or I can’t get my hair to lie right.”

And once again, I love the relationship between the main character and her parents. You can really feel the love on the pages; the author was definitely inspired by the love she has for her parents.

“I am the throat by which my parents are sung and sustained.”

I want to wrap up this section by stating that Natural Beauty is beautifully written. An excellent debut that tackles its themes extremely well. The only complaints I have about it are that the ending is a bit rushed in my opinion. The notes hit but sometimes could’ve hit harder. Some themes aren’t expanded on enough. However, that being said, how far Huang takes it with all the things I’ve mentioned above, make this book extraordinary

Song: PrettyGirlz by Willow

To conclude, both books are worth the read. The two books touch on similar topics but have very different tones. If you like psychological, mind-bending stories that are dreamy and horrific, prioritize Rouge! If you like something a bit more straight to the point and terrifyingly based in reality, not shying away from body horror, then prioritize Natural Beauty! I highly recommend both books.

Thanks for reading if you made it here and I hope you enjoy Literary Kitten!

originally posted on: January 24, 2024 (on previous site)