Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Byłam Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

54 reviews

malb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Animal death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder

czoltak's review against another edition

DNF at 25%
This book is so disgusting and weird (not it a good way). On top of that there are so many problematic things I don’t even know where to begin. I read an overview of how this ends and I want absolutely no part of this any longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Excrement, Stalking, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual assault

illgiveyouahint's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

There was one too many talks of bowel movements.
I'm sorry, but I just didn't vibe with the book. I see so many people praising it but to me it was a book where it took forever for something to start happening. The first half of the book was just so boring to me with burst of disgust whenever bowel movements were mentioned. Seriously I started to really detest the word bowels.
 I recognise that this book is just not for me and if I was not given it by my friend I would never have read it. But hey maybe a film adaptation with foxy Anne Hathaway will change my mind, who knows.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Terminal illness, Violence, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Torture, Blood, and Medical content

weepingstones's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Murder

o3tri's review against another edition

dark 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

1.5

Hollow, pointless and surface level.

Would've given it 0.5 if it wasn't for the last few pages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Fatphobia, Racism, and Classism

catfan84's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This is my favorite book of all time. It’s genuinely so well written and I love it so much I 100% reccomend it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Animal death, Medical content, and Death of parent

lilacwhisker's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Eileen is probably in last place out of the other books by Moshfegh that I’ve read. This is not to say that is was terrible, but not my favorite (which is Death In Her Hands omg loved that). It’s just one of those books where very little happens and the back of the book is kind of misleading. The main problem is really that the twist happens much later in the story than you’d think, and you end up just watching Eileen mope forever. While I was expecting a slow book, I did not expect it to be this slow. It feels like they spend 20 pages talking about the snow and nothing else at some parts. I will say that the crime was interesting and morbid and all that, but it happens in like the last 40 pages of the book!!! I did enjoy reading about Eileen being starstruck by Rebecca (they should have kissed tbh)

and Rebecca’s character cracking at the end when Eileen sort of becomes the cool one. Guess the lesson is you can only be cool when threatening and killing someone??

Anyways, fine read, and I liked her shoplifting + the little fleabag moment at the end with the deer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Abortion

majortomwaits's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.25

It took me quite a bit to get through this one, but it was well worth it. This was brilliant, maybe too sluggish at some points, but altogether an excellent and tense read with unexpected turns.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault and Vomit

Minor: Animal death

bookishbrenbren's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

I really like Ottessa Moshfegh but this book was a miss for me. I've read two others of her work but this lacked the engrossing, drawing in of the other two. In fact this book was pretty repulsive not just in that it describes a lot of gross, pitiable things, which it does, but also in that it feels like she didn't want the reader to get into Eileen's shoes, she wanted to keep the reader at older-narrating-Eileen's head, which looks back on her former self with judgment, disgust, and pity. The propulsive conclusion felt forced, although I liked Rebecca's neurotic spiral, I didn't see the need for

the mother's version of the incest rape story, I think it cheapened the story and sensationalized the rape, which I can never respect.

. All said, I enjoyed the character Eileen and the grimy, gritty inner life she leads. Ottessa has such a talent for these kinds of stories but to me the ending felt like any old paperback thriller and I was left feeling disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent

devilconcrete's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.25

Eileen is a truly abhorrent human being. Throughout the book she is almost nothing but perverted, hating, homophobic, and misguided. That behind said, I loved this book. The writing style is smooth and vivid, and both pulls you into the moment of the story yet feels like someone sitting down and recalling it for you. There are so many individual dark but beautiful lines in this. The writing really kept me going, if it was written with even a sliver less quality I would have taken this deplorable book and burned it. It has the gritty details and thoughts worth hiding that make it seem terribly terribly real. All the most prominent characters are just as terrible. But they all feel like people. 
Horrendous cast of characters with wretched thoughts and wretched actions.

Reading this book and observing these characters was like pulling entertainment from footage of a trainwreck. But I couldn't bring myself out of it. Riveting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol