Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

84 reviews

elinafranziska's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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jukebugging's review against another edition

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sad fast-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

3.5

it felt crass just for the sake of it 70% of the time and only crass for a reason the rest of the 30%. the only time the vulgarity didn’t feel like shock value and actually felt like it had a meaningful purpose was the scene with the dog pissing on the ice. it felt like a prime representation of life’s “silliness” that made the main character so miserable.

i felt for the protagonist for the majority of the book (beginning and middle mainly) despite how bad of a person she was, but the ending made me actually hate her because imo it made it clear that she didn’t “heal” from the morbidities of the world at all, but rather she finally got to a place where she truly achieved being above it all.

a woman (possibly her old friend) plunged to her death, and the main character described her as beautiful and was in awe of seeing her be beautiful as she plummeted, in a way that felt like “damn. that could’ve been me but i’m not shallow and worldly anymore because i listen to the radio in the park while i feed the squirrels. this possible reva really should get her shit together like me, and maybe she wouldn’t have died in 9/11.”

maybe the main character having no real redemption was the whole point and was proof that she was really a lost cause, and that this “enlightenment” she experienced was only temporary. but if so, that just makes this book so unbelievably bleak, if all she is is a representation of how awful and inescapable american consumer culture is or whatever. like we all already know that

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mollyharrisxx's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad 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

3.5

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joooos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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mh_reads's review against another edition

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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

Very interesting concept and fleshed-out psyche of the narrator. I did think it was a good depiction of grief and trauma. The theme of friendship that was explored was also touching to me.

However I felt that the right ideas and sentences were just flooded with randomness. I found it way too wordy, too long and because of this it lost important meaning. I really struggled through it because it was so slow. I understand that that might be the point but it just made me want to put the book down and I have read more meaningful depictions of depression using way less words. Then in contrast the ending felt rushed, unnecessary and hard to believe in the context of the rest of the book.

Another thing that bothered me was how much I felt like this was almost a guide of sorts. Like "How to go about dealing with trauma and coming back reset" There's a fine line there and to me it just felt dangerous to put this book out and act like in the end it just worked out for the main character.

But really a young woman that takes all kinds of pills with alcohol, blacks out for days on end, and puts her life in the hands of a strange man that wants to use her for art while she's passed out, is much more likely to not end up okay. While there is always special cases this wasn't openly reflected enough and that bothers and worries me.

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