Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Byłam Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

22 reviews

maryamgo9909's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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madamelacy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

3.25


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pkc's review against another edition

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

4.0

It’s weird to think that a book so profoundly dark also has some of the wittiest prose I’ve read to date, but this does. A lot of heavy lifting was done by the last 50-60 pages of this for me in terms of how it impacted the star rating, but the preceding 200-odd are a fascinating character study of the eponymous Eileen and her less-than-desirable circumstances. She put me in mind of a much (MUCH) darker Eleanor Oliphant. Please do read the trigger warnings before you read this book, just in case.

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bugcollector's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.75

At last, I'm done with this book, and it only took me 12 months! 

Eileen starts off funny and cunning. A bit suicidal, but mainly stuck in her place craving an escape:
▫️ "Icicles hung from the rafter over the front door, and I stood there imagining them cracking and darting through my breasts, slicing through the thick gristle of my shoulder like bullets or cleaving my brain into pieces."   (p. 3)
▫️ "If my daydreams from back then cane true, one day I'd have found him splayed out at the bottom of the stairs, neck broken but still breathing. 'It's about time', I'd say with the most bored affect I could master, peering over his dying body." (p. 5)
▫️ "He was a cruel character. Imagining his parents beating him as a child is the only path to forgiveness that I have found so far. It isn't perfect but it does the trick." (p. 6)
▫️ "I could be very dramatic with my self assessments." (p. 8)
▫️ "I imagined what relief I might feel if I could lie on Dr. Frye's couch just once and confess like some sort of fallen hero that my life was simply intolerable. But, in fact it was tolerable. I'd been tolerating it after all." (p. 22) 

As I read on (until about p. 50) Nothing made me want to pick this book again for a long while. I Ended up reading Moshfegh's newest book from this year, Lapnovka, and regretted it dearly, which put me off from this one even more. Determined to cut down my currently reading list before the new year, I found myself working hard to read through it this weekend. 

My problem with Eileen is that she stays stuck in the place for most of the book. Near the very end something interesting happens, but by then you have fallen asleep.
Her routine isn't unique, and there's so much you can read about her hating everything, her repeating that she's a new girl now and those things happened in the past, her saying it's the last time she went to the prison, the last time she saw her father, the last time she saw an icicle drop, yada yada yada.
Eileen ends being relatable relatively fast. She is deeply disterbing, pretty vile, and endulged with some hard topics (Moshpeg loves bringing poop and masterbation to the conversation)


I think the plot sounds promising, centering a young girl seeking an escape. 
But you won't get an escape with it, you'd end up wanting to escape from it. 



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oddreads_nicolestins's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

So much of this book was about making us understand how "perverse" or "deviant" Eileen was in her mid-20s. I couldn't really enjoy this book because everything was framed so negatively except her "love interests" and quick statements about her experience as an aged woman. Eileen was basically angry, depressed, and emotionally stunted so badly that she made bad decisions. That's usually how it goes, and there are so many stories like this- I can't  say how this is more "playful, shocking, or witty" (NYT review blurb 😂) than similar stories.

As for the writing style, it was okay. There were no major flaws that put me off. It just wasn't as good as I thought it would be- and of course the constant references to weight or food were very annoying. I had heard that her books were fatphobic and after reading just this book I can see that.

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caitlinderocker's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0


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hannahlouise_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

3.5

not my favourite moshfegh book but a dark, intense read and i was genuinely surprised at points. definitely preferred to death in her hands but nowhere near myorar at least to me 

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ahudd's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.0


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jessiebertram's review against another edition

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dark slow-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

Completely disagree with it being a called a thriller, but loved the character Eileen. What a strange, flawed, and hurting woman. I just wish I didn’t spend the whole book waiting for shit to go down, and instead just enjoyed the strange writing that I apparently love 

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zuleika's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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