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Blood Rouge
Josef Dietrick lives with his self-absorbed mother, abusive step-father, and bullying step-brother, Marteen, in 1930s Berlin, Germany. When a brutal sexual attack at the hands of Marteen’s friend, Tielo, sends Josef homeless into the streets, he is taken in by the kind-hearted Lucas and his sister Anke.
Over time, gender-fluid Josef transforms into die blaue blume, the blue flower of Schöneberg, at one of the last underground cabarets for gay men and their entertainers, known as dolls.
A raid on the Rote Schwein leads to the capture of both Josef and Lucas who are violently carted off to Dachau, the notorious death camp. Here Josef is forced to choose between his lover Lucas or his now-Nazi childhood assaulter, Tielo. Forced into a form of slavery, Josef hatches a desperate plan to save both Lucas and himself forever.
Will Josef choose self-preservation or to live authentically? Can he do both?
contains sexual assault.
Over time, gender-fluid Josef transforms into die blaue blume, the blue flower of Schöneberg, at one of the last underground cabarets for gay men and their entertainers, known as dolls.
A raid on the Rote Schwein leads to the capture of both Josef and Lucas who are violently carted off to Dachau, the notorious death camp. Here Josef is forced to choose between his lover Lucas or his now-Nazi childhood assaulter, Tielo. Forced into a form of slavery, Josef hatches a desperate plan to save both Lucas and himself forever.
Will Josef choose self-preservation or to live authentically? Can he do both?
contains sexual assault.
239 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2024
2 people are currently reading
2397 people want to read
About the author
Jeza Belle
5 books37 followersJeza Belle is a drag queen, comedian, producer, and award-winning author. Jeza's books include the longstanding hit trashy cookbook, "The Harlot's Guide to Classy Cocktails," and the much-lauded, "Jeza's Jesus Juice: A Drag Queen's Christian Devotional," which broke boundaries—and the internet—as the first Christian book written by a drag queen. In addition, Jeza Belle is the author of "The Presence Collection"—four standalone historical fiction novels that feature LGBTQ+ characters in settings where their existence has been minimized or ignored. Book One, "Blood Rouge," and Book Two, "The Freedom to Love," have been released to great reviews and numerous accolades. Jeza Belle has contributed to numerous publications around the world, from The Huffington Post to The Advocate, and had her own column in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
It is clear from her romping comedic live performances everywhere from Broadway to Barcelona, to her highly charged political opinions, to her edge-of-the-seat writing, that Jeza is a force to be reckoned with across all forms of media.
Follow Jeza on Instagram @iamjezabelle
It is clear from her romping comedic live performances everywhere from Broadway to Barcelona, to her highly charged political opinions, to her edge-of-the-seat writing, that Jeza is a force to be reckoned with across all forms of media.
Follow Jeza on Instagram @iamjezabelle
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 31, 2025
I have to admit, I was not prepared for the emotions that awaited me in Blood Rouge. This is some of the best writing I’ve read in a long time. Josef is genderfluid and with no support from family and no friends; Josef is soon on the streets of Berlin. He comes across Lucas who saves him in more ways than one. A new life, love and beauty are discovered as Josef transforms into die Blaue Blume, or the blue flower. But the beauty soon fades as a raid takes them to none other than the Dachau concentration camp. Together they must survive and be true to themselves. This story is cruel, unjust, heartwarming and heartbreaking and while a work of fiction, I’m sure similar to so many untold stories. It saddens me to see so many similarities to how things are in our world today but these are also the stories we cannot forget and must be read. I cannot recommend this story enough, however please check your trigger warnings. This is a tragic, beautifully written story that left me in tears.
My favorite line: “First you cower, then you flower, until at last you claim your power.”
I highly recommend reading this one friends, prepare for many tears. Thank you so much Jezabelle for giving me the opportunity to read this, I can tell you enough how much this touched me.
My favorite line: “First you cower, then you flower, until at last you claim your power.”
I highly recommend reading this one friends, prepare for many tears. Thank you so much Jezabelle for giving me the opportunity to read this, I can tell you enough how much this touched me.
August 2, 2025
Abused, assaulted, and thrown out by his mother, Josef finds himself alone on the streets of 1930s Berlin. By chance, he meets Lucas and his sister Anke. Being used to cruelty from others, he’s hesitant about their kindness but eventually decides to accept their offer of a job and shelter. One night, Lucas, who plays piano at a cabaret bar, aka a “doll bar,” invites Josef along. There, Josef’s world is transformed when its star performer takes him under her wing. Josef discovers the person he’s always longed to be: Die blaue blume (the blue flower). But a Nazi raid shatters everything and sends both Josef and Lucas to Dachau. When Josef’s past comes back to haunt him in the death camp, the choices made for survival will risk destroying his soul. During these darkest hours in human history, can Josef protect Lucas and not lose himself while doing so?
Josef is a gender-fluid young man whose journey is sensitively explored. Josef is best described using the author’s own words: “A gentle soul that is too special to be defined by the rigidity of man.” There’s a poignant allegory about life and the application of makeup that really hits home on the difficulties of growing up, particularly as a gender nonconforming youth in a world of intolerance and violence. The book’s vivid portrayals of love contrasted with graphic acts of unchecked cruelty potently convey a soul-stirring message. This is a bittersweet melody of belonging and self-love that also serves as a poignant aria about the LGBTQ+ lives cruelly lost to the Nazis’ reign of terror. The ending is a tour de force that will simultaneously tear apart and lift your heart. Josef’s story is one that will stay with me. While I advise readers to take note of its trigger warnings, I highly recommend it.
Review originally posted via the Historical Novel Society at https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
Josef is a gender-fluid young man whose journey is sensitively explored. Josef is best described using the author’s own words: “A gentle soul that is too special to be defined by the rigidity of man.” There’s a poignant allegory about life and the application of makeup that really hits home on the difficulties of growing up, particularly as a gender nonconforming youth in a world of intolerance and violence. The book’s vivid portrayals of love contrasted with graphic acts of unchecked cruelty potently convey a soul-stirring message. This is a bittersweet melody of belonging and self-love that also serves as a poignant aria about the LGBTQ+ lives cruelly lost to the Nazis’ reign of terror. The ending is a tour de force that will simultaneously tear apart and lift your heart. Josef’s story is one that will stay with me. While I advise readers to take note of its trigger warnings, I highly recommend it.
Review originally posted via the Historical Novel Society at https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
November 16, 2024
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of books I’ve read that I haven’t been able to put down: Blood Rouge is one of them.
Josef is a teenage boy living in pre-war, Nazi Germany, who, whilst coming to terms with his sexuality, also struggles to get on with his mother, her new husband Herr Fuchs and Herr Fuchs’ son Marteen, who delights in taunting Josef because of being gay. Josef also has trouble at school; not only does he have to contend with Marteen, he also has to put up with his stepbrother’s friends, led by Tielo, a bully, who, one day, commits a shocking assault on Josef. From then on, Josef decides his future no longer lies at home and when his mother turns her back on him, he heads off for a new life away from his troubled past. He journeys to Schöneberg, a suburb of Berlin, where he meets Lucas and his sister Anke, with whom he establishes a strong bond, and it’s not long before he and Lucas become lovers. He meets Lucas’ friends at the Rote Schwein club, an underground meeting place for ‘dolls’, men, most of whom are homosexual, who like to dress up as women and perform on stage. Since homosexuality is forbidden in Nazi society, members of the club live in everyday fear of being discovered by the Nazi storm troopers.
Blood Rouge is about a young gay man trying to find his purpose in life and how he overcomes the horrific treatment of homosexuals in a regime where being different, not just Jewish, is not tolerated. Josef and Lucas’ sexual encounters are graphic, but sensitively recounted, other acts more brutally depicted, but this shows the difference between genuine love in peaceful, happier times and blatant abuse in violent times. The scenes and treatment of the inmates in Dachau concentration camp (a place I visited years ago as a tourist, leaving me very angry, distraught and anti-German; I was on a coach holiday to Austria with my parents and because they were around in wartime, they refused to go in) are very well described. The pain and pleasure of each character is deeply felt and is a tribute to Jeza Belle’s skilled writing. It is evident that the author has researched this history thoroughly; after the epilogue, there is a short paragraph about those who perished in the concentration camps.
I had a slight wobble about the price of the Kindle edition: it is quite high considering the book isn’t of great length, but I urge you not to let it put you off if you prefer Kindle to paperback as this really is a terrific, albeit harrowing, read.
Josef is a teenage boy living in pre-war, Nazi Germany, who, whilst coming to terms with his sexuality, also struggles to get on with his mother, her new husband Herr Fuchs and Herr Fuchs’ son Marteen, who delights in taunting Josef because of being gay. Josef also has trouble at school; not only does he have to contend with Marteen, he also has to put up with his stepbrother’s friends, led by Tielo, a bully, who, one day, commits a shocking assault on Josef. From then on, Josef decides his future no longer lies at home and when his mother turns her back on him, he heads off for a new life away from his troubled past. He journeys to Schöneberg, a suburb of Berlin, where he meets Lucas and his sister Anke, with whom he establishes a strong bond, and it’s not long before he and Lucas become lovers. He meets Lucas’ friends at the Rote Schwein club, an underground meeting place for ‘dolls’, men, most of whom are homosexual, who like to dress up as women and perform on stage. Since homosexuality is forbidden in Nazi society, members of the club live in everyday fear of being discovered by the Nazi storm troopers.
Blood Rouge is about a young gay man trying to find his purpose in life and how he overcomes the horrific treatment of homosexuals in a regime where being different, not just Jewish, is not tolerated. Josef and Lucas’ sexual encounters are graphic, but sensitively recounted, other acts more brutally depicted, but this shows the difference between genuine love in peaceful, happier times and blatant abuse in violent times. The scenes and treatment of the inmates in Dachau concentration camp (a place I visited years ago as a tourist, leaving me very angry, distraught and anti-German; I was on a coach holiday to Austria with my parents and because they were around in wartime, they refused to go in) are very well described. The pain and pleasure of each character is deeply felt and is a tribute to Jeza Belle’s skilled writing. It is evident that the author has researched this history thoroughly; after the epilogue, there is a short paragraph about those who perished in the concentration camps.
I had a slight wobble about the price of the Kindle edition: it is quite high considering the book isn’t of great length, but I urge you not to let it put you off if you prefer Kindle to paperback as this really is a terrific, albeit harrowing, read.
August 20, 2024
pink triangles and black nights
Jeza Bella’s Blood Rouge is a beautiful story about awful things. What begins as a bumpy ride through a broken Berlin as the Nazis began to emerge from the shadows soon becomes the story of a hell on Earth. Had we known where this ride would lead us, we might never have gotten in the car. We are familiar with bullies and family cruelty but unfamiliar with the smell of pure hatred that soon fills the darkest of nights and threatens to swallow even the purest of young lovers, Josef and Lucas, as they run from their doll bar and attempt to find a way out of this alley with no exit. Finally, we reach Dachau - the very name makes flesh crawl - where all little Jewish boys are gassed and perhaps they are the lucky ones. Dachau where the only ones treated worse than the Jews wear the pink triangle.
This book keeps delving deeper into the dark side of man’s inhumanity to man. We want to scream, stop now, we have seen it all but the answer always comes back, you have seen nothing yet. Nazi cruelty is remorseless and these are queers for God’s sake. They deserve nothing but the worst and more of it.
Somehow, Josef and Lucas stand tall through this hell. Their resilience is a wonder to behold. Josef never believes that he might find acceptance in this barren land but as his humanity shines through, he is finally accepted, perhaps even loved, by his new family of men and women. His own humanity is sometimes compromised but it sputters and sparks as he and Lucas hold tight to each other, the one playing piano while the other sings their song: New love is like the falling of fresh white snow. They will hold each other close forever and we thank them for their courage.
June 17, 2024
Emotional story of a transgender young man’s fight for love and life in WWII Germany. Well, this one brought on tears. “Blood Rouge” by Jeza Belle is a difficult, heartbreaking book to read; yet an impossible to stop reading book. “Blood Rouge” is a page-turning story about Josef Dietrick, a transgender young man living through the horrors of Nazi Germany. Already, the culture does not accept him. His mother is terrified that her second husband, Josef’s stepfather, will leave both of them because of Josef’s “sissiness.” She demands he change. But how can Josef hide who he really is? Josef finds a safe haven with the kind and loving Lucas. Through Lucas, he discovers nightclub “doll” singing. In this secret, underground realm, Josef becomes a beautiful star. But the world around him collapses as the Nazis increase their campaign against all who meet their disapproval, which includes young men like Josef and Lucas. When their fate becomes a Nazi concentration camp, Josef is faced with horrifying choices. Through it all, his love for Lucas remains strong. “Blood Rouge” is an intense story that reveals the gut-wrenching terrors of the concentration camps, and the humanity that dared to bravely survive.
February 8, 2025
A Worthwhile Tale of Horrors and Delights
Blood Rouge (by Jeza Belle) is a remarkable page-turner. As soon as readers start in on it, they will realize they’ve fallen under the spell of a truly gifted storyteller. A young man in Nazi Germany is horribly bullied and abused at home and school while growing up, but he begins a journey of liberation, self-discovery, and romance when he runs away from home and eventually finds himself starring as a drag performer at a forbidden Berlin speak-easy cabaret, but only before he and his lover are rounded up and forced to confront the horrors of a Third Reich concentration camp.
The tale abounds with well sketched characters and descriptions, plus the sure ring of authenticity throughout, which is enhanced (never confused) by a judicious sprinkling of German words, phrases, and other references. Nothing is missed, nor is anything downplayed or overdone, from the rawest degradations to the most touching and beautiful of moments. And throughout, empathy and sympathy for the protagonist and his friends abound, unless perhaps the reader is the hardest of hard-core homophobes. But even such a reader as that might see things differently after experiencing this touching story of heroic love.
Blood Rouge (by Jeza Belle) is a remarkable page-turner. As soon as readers start in on it, they will realize they’ve fallen under the spell of a truly gifted storyteller. A young man in Nazi Germany is horribly bullied and abused at home and school while growing up, but he begins a journey of liberation, self-discovery, and romance when he runs away from home and eventually finds himself starring as a drag performer at a forbidden Berlin speak-easy cabaret, but only before he and his lover are rounded up and forced to confront the horrors of a Third Reich concentration camp.
The tale abounds with well sketched characters and descriptions, plus the sure ring of authenticity throughout, which is enhanced (never confused) by a judicious sprinkling of German words, phrases, and other references. Nothing is missed, nor is anything downplayed or overdone, from the rawest degradations to the most touching and beautiful of moments. And throughout, empathy and sympathy for the protagonist and his friends abound, unless perhaps the reader is the hardest of hard-core homophobes. But even such a reader as that might see things differently after experiencing this touching story of heroic love.
September 10, 2025
A Haunting and Unforgettable Journey of Survival
Blood Rouge drops you into the chaotic and vibrant heart of 1930s Berlin, a city on the edge of darkness. The story follows Josef, a young man who escapes an abusive home life to find his identity and a new family among the city's hidden cabaret scene. As the charismatic performer known as "the blue flower," he experiences a fragile sense of freedom and love with Lucas.
But that freedom is short lived. The Nazi regime's brutal sweep of the city's underground life captures both men, sending them to the notorious Dachau death camp. Here, the narrative becomes a tense and heartbreaking struggle for existence. Josef's past collides with his grim present when he encounters his childhood abuser, now a Nazi officer. This forces him into an impossible position, having to make a choice that will determine the fate of both himself and Lucas.
The author crafts a truly powerful narrative, making you feel every moment of desperation, fear, and defiant hope. It’s an unflinching look at the strength of the human spirit. This book is a gut wrenching and essential read that stays with you long after the final page.
Blood Rouge drops you into the chaotic and vibrant heart of 1930s Berlin, a city on the edge of darkness. The story follows Josef, a young man who escapes an abusive home life to find his identity and a new family among the city's hidden cabaret scene. As the charismatic performer known as "the blue flower," he experiences a fragile sense of freedom and love with Lucas.
But that freedom is short lived. The Nazi regime's brutal sweep of the city's underground life captures both men, sending them to the notorious Dachau death camp. Here, the narrative becomes a tense and heartbreaking struggle for existence. Josef's past collides with his grim present when he encounters his childhood abuser, now a Nazi officer. This forces him into an impossible position, having to make a choice that will determine the fate of both himself and Lucas.
The author crafts a truly powerful narrative, making you feel every moment of desperation, fear, and defiant hope. It’s an unflinching look at the strength of the human spirit. This book is a gut wrenching and essential read that stays with you long after the final page.
August 10, 2024
This was such an emotional read for me, Belle's writing style has a way of tugging at your heart strings, with well-developed characters and great descriptions. Things might not be great today, but the past was even harder for those who are part of the LBTQIA+ community, and Belle did an amazing job of bringing historic Berlin to life right before the reader's eyes. Josef will quickly find his way into your heart, and it's hard not to feel angry and heartbroken over the things that have happened to him. When he meets Lucas, things change for the better...at least for a small time. I cannot recommend this enough for historical fiction lovers, but I have to warn you, keep tissues nearby, and try not to throw it across the room when the pain and injustice Josef and Lucas face gets your ire up. Excellent book all around.
June 4, 2024
Just read this novel by Jeza Belle and have to say that once again she does not disappoint! Every time something from this drag queen comes out I'm surprised at how she knocks it out of the park. The book is an LGBT story set in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. It definitely was emotional and kept me on the edge of my seat, with the horror that the main character goes through. I read elsewhere someone said this was a powerful read and they were right as we don't get a lot of stories about us like this. I can't wait to see the next book as there are supposed to be more!
June 20, 2024
The inciting incident in this book sends the main character, Josef, on a wild journey of self discovery. Along the way, he finds and loses many things. I found Blood Rouge to be hard to put down. The author writes in such a way that one cannot help but to be caught up in the story so that you get swept along. What one gets is a refreshingly new novel on a subject that’s never been approached from this point of view, and with great umpf!
July 7, 2024
Sometimes it is difficult to follow historical fiction. So many details need to be related the story can get lost. That being said, just enough information builds its own world. Fiction is most often used to 'get lost.' However, fiction can also be true to life. Lifelike is not a negative but can be more difficult to 'get lost' in. (I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.)
June 20, 2024
What a great book! Strong read with lots of emotional moments. I was impressed with how it felt like I was right there in Germany the way the author writes the scenes giving us just the right flavor of the setting. The characters seemed authentic and the story itself was deep. High praise for Blood Rouge and I recommend it to others to read this book!
June 5, 2024
The horrors and beauty of humanity. Good to see a solid read about a gender nonconforming character. I didn’t really think about how world war 2 effected different people so this provided me with a new perspective. The ending was difficult but made perfect sense.
July 9, 2024
Wow, I was horrified by the Nazis. They were worse than monsters or the devil himself. It made me sick how Jews, gays and others they deemed unhuman were treated. But I'm glad Marteen redeemed himself.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews