Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

73 reviews

melusinedln's review

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

While this wasn’t a masterpiece of a book, it was still very nice to read (even though a bit boring sometimes). The ending made it all worth it, even though you can guess it very easily in the first pages of the book.
I appreciated the narrator’s evolution, from her initial unreliability and selfishness to her acceptance of her parent’s death allowing her to improve as a person, only to have to deal with yet another grief at the end of the book.
I also appreciated the writing style. It kept the « boring » parts nice to read.
It was pretty relaxing and nice to, for once, read a book where essentially nothing happens diegetically. This book reminds us that the story isn’t the only element that makes a book good in the sense that you do not need a complex plotline and such things to make your readers feel intense emotions, convey a message etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Misogyny, and Violence

ameliabellward's review

dark funny hopeful reflective medium-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

4.75

Brilliantly written, just wish the last two chapters hadn’t been so rushed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

poucepooffy's review

dark funny informative reflective sad tense fast-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

3.75

Got me out of my reading slump, started to read on a sunny day outside and continued to read all through the night. Very intriguing. Read like a train. 

I’ve heard people say this book was depressing, which I understand, but I did not feel sad after reading it. Really appreciated the honesty! 

Guess you either love it or hate it, I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Didn’t like that by connecting the timeline and the fact that Reva’s character got promoted to work at WTC, I already knew she would die in the end. Or maybe this was on purpose, because it made me automatically care more about her character which is fucked up in the same way as the book is.

xoxojordanisabella's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Medical content, Abortion, and Pregnancy

chickaboogawah'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

0.25

This book was horrible. The end epiphany that I expected didn't happen. The main character was still unlikeable. It was predictable and dumb. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

liz_rath's review against another edition

reflective fast-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

3.0

Could have been an e-mail.
If this had just been the last chapter I'd have given it a much higher rating, but the way it is I feel like it's just very deeply mid. Don't read this if you don't like unlikeable protagonists though or it will feel like torture.

Honestly the book seemed deeply confused about it's themes becauee unless the intended take away was "If you're unhappy with your life and suffer from depression Jus continue being a shitty person refusing to cope with your issues abouse a bunch of drugs and your attitude and life will magically fix themselves eventually" then it was lost. If that was supposed to be the take away then "Uh weird message bro, but sure". I liked the whole disaffected Millenial stick but it did not carry a whole book. At times it felt more like I was reading a character bible instead of a story. And with how it ends, her plan just working no real twists or curveballs, I was just left wondering what the point was.
Like I'm not one to demand a classic american story structure. You just had a cool quick idea and protagonist doesn't change substatially or learn anything by the end - fine by me. But we did not need so many words to tell this story (and I am using the term very liberally here) and the thing doesn't have that many words to begin with.

But whatever the prose was competent and it was a very quick read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gaslighting and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism

mariavdl's review

dark sad

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion

lillihms's review

dark reflective 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? Yes

2.25

bin beim lesen teilweise selbst in hibernation gefallen.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion

cherries_'s review

dark emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Animal death, Excrement, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Classism

mentions of 9/11 and terrorism

haileyeh's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Vomit