"For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her 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 Méduse, the same lavish, culty 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) that lurk on the other side of the glass."
Review:
Alright this one, was a hard one to digest. I wanted to like it more than I did, if I'm honest. This is a fever dream reimagining (I guess?) of Snow White, but it's through the lense of grief, but also a critique of beauty standards, and the beauty industry, but also kind of like Alice in Wonderland, where we're falling down a rabbit hole (or maybe a k-hole, I don't know), and there's also an enchanted mirror (the looking glass?). I'm spinning now, just trying to explain it.
I think the first half started off really strong. We have the sudden death of her mother, her unusual obsession with skincare, there's the lady in red and the opulent spa, and there's a handsome mysterious man following us around. The first "treatment" and the affects our FMC experiences immediately following was awesome. It was scary how deeply (one might say cerebrally?) Mirabelle was changed by the treatment, I thought it would be a more gradual escalation but pretty much straight away, she went full looney tunes. It was so interesting to see her lose her mind...
...Then we get to the back half of this. Firstly, her aftereffects after each of her s0-called treatments, got pretty repetitive. It's like the author got out all the crazy in the first go and then lost all imagination for the rest. I got bored a bit, I won't lie. And while I see what we were going for in the end, I liked the execution of this in Bunny (see below), but here... I felt like I didn't get it. I really did not understand the jellyfish part. I got the "reveal" or whatever, that wasn't hard to figure out, but what was it all supposed to mean???
The biggest conundrum of this whole story was Tom fucking Cruise. I am so sorry, never in my life did I think I'd be reading a demon person disguised as Tom Cruise trying to seduce(?) a 10-year-old girl. It was just fucking weird. Couldn't Mona choose like a nondescript vague idea of Prince Charming for this part? I really could not focus on anything other than "I'm supposed to be imagining Tom Cruise right now."
IT'S SO WEIRD!!!!! THIS NOT WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID I WANTED A BOOK TO SCARE ME!!!!!!
Overall, I will say this story did have a lot going for it, and despite it's kookiness, I did enjoy it. I really wish we had more Hud Hudson if I'm completely honest, he turned out to be a much more interesting character than I originally thought! Was all that kookiness worth it? Still up for debate, but let me know your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments, and I'll catch ya on the next one!
Want more of Mona Awad? Check out Bunny!
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