Description: For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with 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 Meduse, the same lavish, cultish 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 which lurk on the other side of the glass.
Brief description: Mona Awad is the bestselling author of the novels Rouge, All's Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. She is a three-time finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award, the recipient of an Amazon Best First Novel Award, and she was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Bunny was a finalist for a New England Book Award and was named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film with Bad Robot Productions. Rouge is being adapted for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. Margaret Atwood named Awad her "literary heir" in The New York Times's T Magazine. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.
Review Quotes: "Mona Awad's seductive fourth novel looks at the complicated relationships between mothers, daughters, and their mirrors...[a] surreal gothic tale."
--Time, "36 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023"
--Nylon "Weaving in allusions to famous fairy tales, Awad takes us on a journey through the darkest parts of the beauty industry and the standards that are set... If you like social commentary packaged as a deep dive into a creepy cult, complete with a questionable treatment plan, a fraught mother and daughter relationship, and a demon in the mirror wearing Tom Cruise's face, this book is for you."
--USA Today