Rouge: A Novel

Gothic literature was popularized in the 18th century by authors including Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, and Matthew Lewis. Gothic fiction tends to focus on actual or potential supernatural events, fear, darkness, and transgression. Fairy tales originate in legend or folklore and typically feature magic. They are more likely to have happy endings than Gothic stories, but many classic fairytales have gruesome and dark components like the cannibalism of “Hansel and Gretel,” rape in “Sleeping Beauty,” or suicide in “The Little Mermaid.”

Despite the differences, some critics suggest that Gothic and fairy tales are similar, if not synonymous: “[F]airy-tale and the gothic mode are not binaries but as related forms on a gradating curve of common features—the fantastic, the unreal, fear and […] desire” (Hirst, Holly. “Gothic Fairy-Tales and Deleuzian Desire.” Palgrave Communications, vol. 4, 2018). Feminist literature often experiments with both genres to explore socialization into girlhood and womanhood and the horrors of patriarchal society; for example, works by Angela Carter, particularly The Bloody Chamber (1979), are considered exemplar texts of the Gothic fairy tale genre.

Similarly, Awad uses fairy tale and Gothic tropes to critique 21st-century beauty expectations, particularly as they relate to racist beauty standards. Mirabelle has an Egyptian father and is darker than her mother, Noelle, and their differing ethnicities are a point of tension in the novel. Seth is a Gothic villain, a character who is often a powerful older man who preys on a younger woman. The novel also includes supernatural elements such as Seth coming through the mirror, the process of extracting human souls, and Noelle’s red shoes leading Mira’s feet to La Maison de Méduse (an allusion to “The Red Shoes,” a fairy tale in which a vain girl buys red shoes that make her dance nonstop until she begs a woodsman to amputate her feet). Alongside “The Red Shoes,” Awad includes allusions to other fairy tales like “Snow White”. These elements produce suspense about what Noelle was involved in and what will happen to Mira.

In addition to functioning as a Gothic fairy tale, Awad includes elements of horror in Rouge. Horror as a literary genre is often characterized as either psychological or supernatural and focuses on exploring its themes through by provoking fear or revulsion. Awad creates horror in Rouge through suspenseful plotting and visceral descriptions of the extractions and consumption of souls. These elements develop the novel’s critique of the beauty industry and beauty standards, though the fairy tale elements help give Mira a happy ending rather than condemning her to a horrific fate.