Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Death in Her Hands

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

9 reviews

witchintherain's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I really wouldn't recommend this book. I didn't find the story or characters compelling and had to force myself to read it all the way through. It felt as if the author was just using the book as an excuse to be incredibly fatphobic. Such a disappointing read :(

There are other books that write unlikeable characters struggling with mental health issues that subvert their reality so much better and not offensively. In my opinion, this is not one of them.

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jude333's review against another edition

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I just couldn’t deal with the writing style. The long paragraphs about seemingly nothing just couldn’t capture my interest. I understand that it’s more to show her thought process, but things like that almost every 3 pages just killed me. I can (kind of) deal with an unlikable character, but this was extensive. I need SOMETHING that keeps me wanting to continue spending my time reading about them, and everything was just so awful.

Also the fat phobia was just too much to handle. These awful view points and long rants about these “fat women” did nothing to explore the character for me. It just showed how awful she was, which I was already EXTREMELY aware of. I understand that the point of her character is that she’s completely delusional, but I can only read about delusion so much before I start to discount every word and then it feels like I’m just wasting my time.

I will say, I did have an interest in her relationship with her husband, and that might have kept me going, but there was just so much noise around it that it wasn’t enough. I was reading on a kindle, but then I switched to the audiobook (which honestly did help a little), but I found myself continuously looking at the progress bar to see how much time I had left, and I didn’t want to force myself into a reading slump because of this book.

All in all, I see how some people could carry on with it, but it’s just not for me.

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oliviah1111's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book is very very slow paced. from what i understand, it was only over the span of 2-3 days. i enjoyed it either way, but there are some weird elements i didnt like.

there was random hints of fatphobia, and what kind of felt like fetishization of foreign women. this may be because of the narrator being an older woman, but it seemed to be the writers opinion sneaking through especially with the weird comments about fat people.

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x_lola_rose_x's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I feel like I'm going to have to read this again one day with everybody's theories in mind!!

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libt11's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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hannahlouise_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

i thought i’d like this book a lot more than i did coming to it after reading my year of rest and relaxation but honestly it was slightly underwhelming? i felt that the ending only happened as a way to end it, and as much as i love a no plot just vibes read i wasn’t really connected to this book in any way

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