Rouge: A Novel

The narrator speaks to Mirabelle Nour in the second person, describing a childhood memory of Mira’s mother coming into her room to tell her a favorite bedtime story about a beautiful maiden. The mother is beautiful and vain, and the daughter is jealous, having inherited darker features and coarser hair from her father. The story is a version of “Snow White,” in which the mirror tells the viewer “Something terrible […] Something inevitable. Something true” (7). The protagonist sees a spectral male figure in the vanity mirror.

Mira has returned to California from Montreal for her mother’s funeral. Noelle was found dead, having ostensibly fallen off a cliff during a walk at night. Mira remembers receiving the phone call from the police, which she received while working in a dress store in Montreal. She packs “seven ziplock bags full of skin products” (16), many of which are lauded by her favorite online skincare guru, Marva, but forgets to bring a dress for the funeral. Sylvia, who ran a dress shop with Noelle, loans her one and annoys Mira with her intrusive sympathy.

At the funeral, Sylvia tells Mira to come to the dress shop before returning home because they have some things to discuss.