mood music: Possede – emma peters
I really enjoyed this book. It was a strange combination of Snow White meets Alice in Wonderland meets Eyes Wide Shut. The nonlinear structure of the story works well due to Awad’s ability to bring the reader into the dream-like experience happening to the protagonist, rather than feeling like an observer of a very confusing situation.
Plot synopsis-wise, I’ll be brief because this book is a little hard to describe if you haven’t already read it. The story follows a woman named Mirabelle who returns to La Jolla after her mother’s passing. At the time of her mother’s death, they were semi-estranged, with Mirabelle living in their hometown of Montreal. When she arrives at her mother’s home, she notices that her mother has been living differently than she remembered, with broken mirrors littered around the home and the arrival of a handsome stranger who was seemingly her mother’s errand boy/ lover.
Mirabelle, obsessed with her appearance due to her jealousy of her mother’s beauty, is a skincare fanatic. She notices jars of skincare around her mother’s home and seeks out the spa, La Maison de Méduse, where her mom procured these products. But there is something very strange about this spa and the people who are members. Everyone seems to be in a trance, disconnected a little bit from what is happening around them. But Mirabelle ignores all these red flags as she is there seeking out the one thing she truly desires, which is eternal beauty.
