
Rouge
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $22.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sophie Amoss
-
By:
-
Mona Awad
About this listen
A National Bestseller
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Electric Literature, Tor, and Literary Hub
From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a “Grimm Brothers fairy tale for the modern age” (Good Housekeeping) and “darkly funny horror novel” (NYLON) about a lonely young woman who’s drawn to a cult-like spa in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death. “Surreal, scary and deeply moving—like all the best fairy tales” (People).
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Time, Vogue, The Guardian, Goodreads, Bustle, The Millions, LitHub, Tor, Good Housekeeping, and more!
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.
Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
Bright Young Women
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Knoll
- Narrated by: Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Masterfully blending elements of psychological suspense and true crime, Jessica Knoll—bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the writer behind the Netflix adaptation starring Mila Kunis—delivers an “unflinching and evocative” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) thriller in Bright Young Women. The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including a sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed.
-
-
Perfectly executed historical fiction
- By Louie Z on 12-03-23
By: Jessica Knoll
-
All's Well
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
-
-
Mixed bag but excellent performance
- By stuffbuyer on 09-22-21
By: Mona Awad
-
The September House
- By: Carissa Orlando
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. Margaret is not most people. Margaret is staying.
-
-
Insufferable.
- By Jeremy Brandon on 09-23-23
By: Carissa Orlando
-
Land of Milk and Honey
- A Novel
- By: C Pam Zhang
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.
-
-
Started strong
- By Quinn on 09-29-23
By: C Pam Zhang
-
Mister Magic
- A Novel
- By: Kiersten White
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Kiersten White
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
-
-
pleasantly surprised
- By Garland on 04-02-24
By: Kiersten White
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
Bright Young Women
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Knoll
- Narrated by: Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Masterfully blending elements of psychological suspense and true crime, Jessica Knoll—bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the writer behind the Netflix adaptation starring Mila Kunis—delivers an “unflinching and evocative” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) thriller in Bright Young Women. The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including a sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed.
-
-
Perfectly executed historical fiction
- By Louie Z on 12-03-23
By: Jessica Knoll
-
All's Well
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
-
-
Mixed bag but excellent performance
- By stuffbuyer on 09-22-21
By: Mona Awad
-
The September House
- By: Carissa Orlando
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. Margaret is not most people. Margaret is staying.
-
-
Insufferable.
- By Jeremy Brandon on 09-23-23
By: Carissa Orlando
-
Land of Milk and Honey
- A Novel
- By: C Pam Zhang
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.
-
-
Started strong
- By Quinn on 09-29-23
By: C Pam Zhang
-
Mister Magic
- A Novel
- By: Kiersten White
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Kiersten White
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
-
-
pleasantly surprised
- By Garland on 04-02-24
By: Kiersten White
-
Bluebeard's Castle
- A Novel
- By: Anna Biller
- Narrated by: Samantha Hydeson
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the successful British mystery writer Judith Moore meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, at a birthday party on the Cornish coast, his love transforms her from a bitter, lonely young woman into a romance heroine overnight. After a whirlwind honeymoon in Paris, he whisks her away to a secluded Gothic castle. But soon she finds herself trapped in a nightmare, as her husband’s mysterious nature and his alternation between charm and violence become increasingly frightening.
-
-
Ms Biller Creates Yet Another Cult Classic
- By kathleen a ashe on 10-22-23
By: Anna Biller
-
Natural Beauty
- A Novel
- By: Ling Ling Huang
- Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
-
-
unlikable characters, but crazy ass plot
- By Miranda Vonn Graves on 03-26-25
By: Ling Ling Huang
-
Wellness
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
-
-
you have to believe it'll work
- By Alex halladay on 09-22-23
By: Nathan Hill
-
All-Night Pharmacy
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Madievsky
- Narrated by: Moniqua Plante
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.
-
-
Good enough listen but not quite there
- By Caroline on 09-02-23
By: Ruth Madievsky
-
Starling House
- A Reese's Book Club Pick
- By: Alix E. Harrow
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Opal is a lot of things—orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier—but above all, she's a determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago. All she left behind were dark rumors—and her home. Everyone agrees that it’s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway.
-
-
A great spooky atmosphere captured well in audio
- By downtown on 10-09-23
By: Alix E. Harrow
-
Maeve Fly
- By: CJ Leede
- Narrated by: Sosie Bacon
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green—her best friend’s brother—moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona.
-
-
femme fatale meets psycho killer
- By Vivian on 07-24-23
By: CJ Leede
-
My Husband
- A Novel
- By: Maud Ventura, Emma Ramadan - translator
- Narrated by: Kiiri Sandy
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband, whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.
-
-
Mind numbingly boring and shallow.
- By GAYANE TOROSYAN on 10-27-23
By: Maud Ventura, and others
-
Nestlings
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Nat Cassidy
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ana and Reid needed a lucky break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling: with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear—affordable housing lottery. They've won an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan's most revered buildings. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York—people are odd—but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby.
-
-
One of my favorite new authors
- By Jess A. on 04-01-24
By: Nat Cassidy
-
Camp Damascus
- By: Chuck Tingle
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy. And they’ll scare you straight to hell.
-
-
A Horror That Hits Home
- By P Parker on 11-09-23
By: Chuck Tingle
-
Black River Orchard
- A Novel
- By: Chuck Wendig
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Brittany Pressley, Sean Patrick Hopkins, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there. Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black. Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.
-
-
Points for originality but…
- By kisa on 11-09-23
By: Chuck Wendig
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
Awful Main Character made the book almost unbearable
- By C Johnson on 07-13-23
By: Eliza Clark
-
Vampires of El Norte
- By: Isabel Cañas
- Narrated by: Jose Nateras, Krysta Gonzales
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead.
-
-
Blame it on the edit
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-23
By: Isabel Cañas
Critic reviews
"In a dreamy and mesmerizing delivery, Sophie Amoss describes how Belle detests her Egyptian complexion, inherited from her father. All her life she's been in the shadow of her French mother's flawless beauty and obsessive hunt for youth.... Amoss does a remarkable job escorting listeners through Belle's bizarre metamorphosis as she falls prey to the very spa trance experienced by her mother. Amoss transfixes listeners with her delivery of the escalating horror as Belle shifts from normalcy to a frightening shell of her former self. Who can save her? Amoss masterfully delivers French phrases, adding charm to a gripping listening experience." (AudioFile)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
All's Well
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
-
-
Mixed bag but excellent performance
- By stuffbuyer on 09-22-21
By: Mona Awad
-
We Love You, Bunny
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samatha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences.
By: Mona Awad
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
I'm a Fan
- By: Sheena Patel
- Narrated by: Sheena Patel
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheena Patel’s incandescent first novel begins with the unnamed narrator describing her involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship. With a clear and unforgiving eye, she dissects the behavior of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world. I’m a Fan offers a devastating critique of class, social media, patriarchy’s hold on us, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.
-
-
chaotic, cringe inducing
- By Uviinaa on 02-11-24
By: Sheena Patel
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
Awful Main Character made the book almost unbearable
- By C Johnson on 07-13-23
By: Eliza Clark
-
youthjuice
- By: E.K. Sathue
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Sophia Bannion’s first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE, a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood, it’s clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty, has plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knockoffs and doesn’t care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence—and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE’s charismatic founder and CEO.
-
-
Recording is so rough
- By Emily Bell on 11-08-24
By: E.K. Sathue
-
All's Well
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
-
-
Mixed bag but excellent performance
- By stuffbuyer on 09-22-21
By: Mona Awad
-
We Love You, Bunny
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samatha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences.
By: Mona Awad
-
Black Sheep
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.
-
-
Satanism
- By Martowski on 11-05-23
By: Rachel Harrison
-
I'm a Fan
- By: Sheena Patel
- Narrated by: Sheena Patel
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheena Patel’s incandescent first novel begins with the unnamed narrator describing her involvement in a seemingly unequal romantic relationship. With a clear and unforgiving eye, she dissects the behavior of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world. I’m a Fan offers a devastating critique of class, social media, patriarchy’s hold on us, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.
-
-
chaotic, cringe inducing
- By Uviinaa on 02-11-24
By: Sheena Patel
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
Awful Main Character made the book almost unbearable
- By C Johnson on 07-13-23
By: Eliza Clark
-
youthjuice
- By: E.K. Sathue
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Sophia Bannion’s first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE, a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York’s trendy SoHo neighborhood, it’s clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty, has plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knockoffs and doesn’t care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence—and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE’s charismatic founder and CEO.
-
-
Recording is so rough
- By Emily Bell on 11-08-24
By: E.K. Sathue
-
Bunny
- By: Mona Awad, Chiara Brovelli - traduttore
- Narrated by: Giulia Greco
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Samantha Heather Mackey è un'assoluta outsider alla Warren University dove frequenta un corso iperselettivo di scrittura creativa. La fantasia di Samantha è molto più cupa di quella della maggior parte degli studenti del suo anno, tanto più quando si tratta del gruppetto di ragazze ricche e vestite di colori pastello che incontra sempre a lezione.
By: Mona Awad, and others
-
Pizza Girl
- A Novel
- By: Jean Kyoung Frazier
- Narrated by: Jeena Yi
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial. She's grieving the death of her father, avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.
-
-
Writing
- By Tobyizme on 07-11-20
-
Play Nice
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Alex Finke, Natasha Soudek
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
By: Rachel Harrison
-
Land of Milk and Honey
- A Novel
- By: C Pam Zhang
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.
-
-
Started strong
- By Quinn on 09-29-23
By: C Pam Zhang
-
Rise and Shine
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Carol Monda
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's Monday morning when Meghan Fitzmaurice blows her perfect life to bits. The host of Rise and Shine, the country's highest-rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break, but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike. It's the end of an era, not only for Meghan, a household face who is not equipped to deal with disgrace, but for her younger sister Bridget, a social worker in the Bronx who has always lived in Meghan's long shadow.
-
-
Not her best
- By Yorkshire Exile on 11-12-06
By: Anna Quindlen
-
Bear
- A Novel
- By: Julia Phillips
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.
-
-
Depressing drudgery
- By Catherine on 08-09-24
By: Julia Phillips
-
Paradise Rot
- A Novel
- By: Jenny Hval, Marjam Idriss - translator
- Narrated by: Brie Jackman
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jo is in a strange new country for university and having a more peculiar time than most. In a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no boundaries, she finds her strange home coming to life in unimaginable ways. Jo's sensitivity and all her senses become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh.
-
-
Wrong Voice
- By Orville on 08-18-24
By: Jenny Hval, and others
-
Ripe
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Rose Etter
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets.
-
-
EG, Sorry to say it doesn't get any better
- By Alexis_Vandew on 08-18-23
By: Sarah Rose Etter
-
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
- Stories
- By: Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell - translator
- Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.
-
-
Just not my style?
- By Nate on 01-04-22
By: Mariana Enriquez, and others
-
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
- By: Jeanette Winterson
- Narrated by: Jeanette Winterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have established her as a major figure in world literature. This memoir is the chronicle of a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser drawer; about growing up in a north England industrial town in the 1960s and 1970s; and about the universe as a cosmic dustbin.
-
-
The Title Says It All
- By Pamela Harvey on 03-20-12
-
Motherthing
- By: Ainslie Hogarth
- Narrated by: Adina Verson
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.
-
-
A great story with horrible narration
- By Calliope on 09-18-23
By: Ainslie Hogarth
-
The Days of Abandonment
- By: Elena Ferrante
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An IndiBound best seller, The Days of Abandonment shocked and captivated its Italian public when first published. It is the gripping story of a woman's descent into devastating emptiness after being abandoned by her husband, with two young children to care for. When she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.
-
-
D.I.V.O.R.C.E.
- By Margaret M. Cranston on 01-18-16
By: Elena Ferrante
Beautiful imagery
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have another by her as a current favorite
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
“Rouge” opens with Belle learning that her mother, Noelle, has died. She hasn’t seen her mother in a long time, but her memories of her mother involve skin care routines and fashion obsessions. Belle flies to California to settle her mother’s estate. Once there, she learns that her mother sold her dress shop and was in deep financial debt. On what did she spend her money? Why is she so in debt?
I listened to the audio narrated perfectly by Sophia Amoss. Noelle is French and Amoss switches seamlessly from a French accented English to “California-accented” English. The beginning of the story is hysterical. Belle starts speaking those “Freudian slips” when she arrives at her mother’s apartment. She awakes and begins her morning ridicule, I mean ritual. She sits at the insanity, I mean vanity. A Spa contacts her and she ponders their usual severings, I mean services. It’s clever.
Awad examines at what price beauty. Beauty relies on insecurity, and Belle, as a grieving daughter is the perfect mark.
My complaint is that it is far too lengthy. It becomes some gothic-type tale that goes far to OTT for me. It’s nearly a 15-hour audio, and I got frustrated midway through. It seemed not to be progressing with the story. And then it got very ridiculous and I wanted to stop, but I was already 9 hours invested!
Do I recommend? Yes, borrow, don’t buy. The beginning is worth getting the book or listening to the audio. It is fun and witty. Did it accomplish that smack upside my head? Yes it did, although I most likely will always be concerned about my skin texture 🤣 Sadly it ventured far too “Alice in Wonderland” down the rabbit hole for me.
What a fun romp!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
rouge
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Awad never disappoints
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very captivating
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The weirdness of the situation and the societal commentary on beauty age and mother/daughter dynamics
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well, that was fun
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good story, poor execution
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’ll take you on a journey, an unraveling of the mind. A perfect combination of gothic horror, vivid storytelling, and wit (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do my skincare routine again without whispering to myself that it’s an “overcoat for the skin”, or look at Tom Cruise the same way, haha).
Her word choices never stop cracking me up, and I was brought to tears in moments of sadness and loss, as well.
Well done!
Masterful combination of grief, horror and humor that only Mona Awad seems to capture
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.