Reviews with content warning for Torture - Eileen

Oh Eileen, you nasty bitch.

This is primarily a character study of a young woman in 50s Massachusetts, who works as a secretary at a youth correctional facility. While there is some commentary on the state of these places, how the young men are treated, that statement is almost heightened by the fact that as the narrator, Eileen doesn't linger on it. She simply doesn't care about them, and that's kinda the point. Eileen is passionate, lonely, pathetic, and disgusting. She is both self-loathing and self-centered. The way she describes herself in extreme detail, hyper-focused on every bodily function, whether anyone else notices her in that way- it's very gross, but somewhat relatable? Like I get it, as someone who spent a long time feeling absolutely digusted with my physical existence, those parts got to me. Eileen also latches on to the tiniest bit of affection shown to her, which leads to an obsession with her new coworker and getting caught up in a crime. Eileen doesn't do any of this because she gives a shit. She is just chasing that high of feeling loved.

Content Warnings

illgiveyouahint's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

lilacwhisker's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

katieohara's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-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

4.25

I think that this book is one of the best examples of a character study that I have read this year. As a native New Englander if also has a certain sense of for lack of a better word, dark charm for me. However, the book is hurtling you to this big bad moment that it hints at, but it just didn’t feel as bad as I was expecting. But honestly I might just be a spoiled reader to used to the horrifying details of murder podcasts and criminal minds. Perhaps what happened is sick enough and the author is making a subtle point that if you are looking for perversion you are no better than the spoiled rich girl not realizing her idealism has consequences.

Content Warnings

edamamebean's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.5

Content Warnings

sarahgr's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.0

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