Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Mój rok relaksu i odpoczynku by Ottessa Moshfegh

1395 reviews

rey_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

complicated!

darkly funny. often horrible and repulsive. consistently absurd.

if you need to be able to like characters in the books you read, or believe that they are morally redeemable to enjoy a piece of writing, this isn’t for you.
you can make an argument for all of these characters being “bad people”. they aren’t nice. but they all contain this kernel of real, raw and horrible human nature. sometimes it reflects back at you.  it’s brilliant. it’s funny!

sure, i can see the argument that a lot of this book hangs on character stereotypes. i don’t think this necessarily detracts from it. if you don’t like them - congrats! isn’t that part of the point?

before reading i saw a review that said it negatively impacted their own mental health - and yeah, i probably should have paid more attention to that.
potential detrimental effects on my own wellbeing aside i really did love it. i appreciated the looming spectre of 9/11. and i really do think that the final chapters - the end of ch 7 & 8 - were beautiful. i think Moshfegh just managed to tip the ending away from trite, but it was walking a bit of a tightrope and some really slight changes to any of it - the writing, the characters, the “emotional journey” would have absolutely upset that balance for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Eating disorder

Moderate: Abortion and Death of parent

jeninthebooks08'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

2.0

This was frankly quite underwhelming.
While I like the idea of depression metaphorically explored in prose, this book almost made ME depressed with the repetitions in plot. And, whether or not the intention was to prove how unlikeable the MC was, the use of the r-slur (about someone autistic) could've been left out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Eating disorder

Moderate: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

jackiestbr's review

reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Death and Death of parent

cheyison's review against another edition

dark fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Abortion

teaqueen's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.5

This book was agonising to read. I put it down and often it was a struggle to pick back up (took me 4.5 months to finish 😂). I get it was supposed to be slow. I can handle the LONG ASS chapters. I get the main character is supposed to be unlikable. I don't have to like her. But it was mostly boring. Ffs from around the halfway point I was SKIMMING the pages!! I really wanted to see what happened at the end, I had an inkling of where it would end and I was right. It was interesting reading references to the year 2000, kind of cool tbh.

I liked the character development from the cave saga to rejoining the world.

The last line would have worked better if she wasn't "diving into the unknown", because she wasn't. She knew what she was heading towards.

Apart from the boredom and subpar attempt at depth, the character's backstory didn't really grip me, there was nothing relatable and all the talk about medicines in American brands made me lose interest so fast. I don't care what youre taking hun, I have no idea wtf you're talking about. Also, doing a bit much with all the meds and shit. 

I would have liked to have known what happened next, for..... Whatever her name is. Lol I thought I blocked it out but just realised her name was never given, that's a nice touch but the story needed more to back up the impact of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Eating disorder

marissanbullis's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism and Abortion

baielleebooks's review against another edition

dark funny reflective 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

5.0

Wolfed this down with pleasure, a perverse kind of pleasure. Can money buy you happiness? My Year of Rest and Relaxation could be viewed as Moshfegh's fierce, ironic riposte to that question. 

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Passage after passage of punchy prose flowed in quick succession as I rapidly leafed through the novel. 

- 

The savagery of the narrator's put downs of Reva are bleakly funny, and sympathise with Reva's plight to fit in, made glaringly obvious by the narrator's elitist snobbishness against her. Dr Tuttle in her conspiracy-theorist-psycho apothecary treatments and diatribes were wild and entertaining. The writing that framed the narrator's past was heartbreaking and her present was dizzying yet compulsively readable. 

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The novel had great thematic terrain in its coverage of rage, grief, beauty, capitalism and America, apathy and more. All of which culminate in a story that is anti-heroic in its honing in on the matters of an imperfect and embittered human heart that beats on in a cruel world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, and Vomit

todrick_the_tree's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, and Suicide

ams5x9's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

2.5

This was hard to get through…The main character is pretty miserable. The last 1% of the book had the smallest redemption/semblance of humanity. And holy depression (pills) and drug use, Batman! This book had more normal, everyday villains than any other book that comes to mind. An interesting look into the mind of a brain I’m very glad not to inhabit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abortion, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

il0vepasta's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Dysphoria