I have thoughts!! while I love Mona Awad’s writing style and the way she utilizes magical realism to make real-world critiques, this felt a bit formulaic. especially following “alls well,” this novel was another tale of “lonely-tragic woman stumbles upon something fucked up and barely escapes.” This novel did feel a bit more personal with the mother-daughter relationship, but when I finished reading it I felt unsatisfied. When examining the main character closely, it seems she exists in a vacuum, with little depth outside of her mother-daughter relationship and obsession with beauty. We only see her in California as an adult and Montreal as a child - everything in between is blank. I would’ve liked to see her as a more fully fleshed character (especially with the word count of this novel, there’s room to do so!!).

There were too many questions still lingering -  why was Tom Cruise/Seth there? did he visit other insecure children? what happened to the other Rouge members? For such a long novel, the tender ending seemed out of place and a bit rushed. 

I did like the critique of Western beauty standards and the beauty industry as a whole, but honestly it had kind of the opposite effect on me. now I just want to invest in a skincare routine lol. 

Overall I liked but did not love this novel. I want to see her take more risks with her writing and try just once at an unhappy ending. For an author whose hit novel leans so much upon the concept of “killing your darlings,” she has yet to do so with any of her protagonists.