Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

117 reviews

ercole's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Libro dall’atmosfera magnetica e accattivante, trasporta il lettore in una New York anni duemila in pieno stile Sex and the City e Gossip Girl, tra Cosmopolitan e i migliori film e serie tv di quegli anni, rigorosamente in cassette. La protagonista è una giovane donna che decide di intraprendere un anno di riposo per rinascere e rinfrescarsi la mente, così da superare i suoi traumi passati. Con l’aiuto di una psichiatra estremamente inaffidabile, raggiungerà il suo scopo di scomparire nel sonno per un anno intero. 
I personaggi sono caratterizzati da una mancanza di empatia quasi assurda, e le relazioni non sono molto naturali. L’amicizia tra la protagonista e Reva è estremamente tossica, e nonostante ciò le due saranno amiche fino alla morte di quest’ultima che, conoscendo il periodo e il luogo in cui è ambientato il romanzo, diventa estremamente prevedibile quando Reva annuncia di essere stata trasferita a lavorare alle Torri Gemelle. 
Il libro scorre bene. Lo stile è semplice e piacevole da leggere, e i riferimenti pop rendono il tutto ancora più interessante. 
Tre stelle perché, per certi versi, i personaggi sono poco realistici per quanto sono assurdi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Addiction, Abortion, Cancer, Eating disorder, and Medical content

beatrizdizon_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

Ottessa Moshfegh has a hand in concretizing on pages the feeling of emptiness. That incomprehensible, unfathomable, undecipherable feeling. This book consumed me (like MC did with those pills). But honestly, though, the blurb says it all. Don’t expect butterflies and rainbows going into this book. Don’t expect rest and relaxation afterward. Don’t expect a cathartic moment. With every rotting woman is another rotting woman next to her (me). It can never be me though! The pathological people pleaser (Swift 2023) in me cannot handle losing that much control and man did she lose control.

There’s so much to say about MYORAR. The social commentary it touches but it’s not in your face, so it doesn’t sound pretentious. The way our narrator adhered to the very things she criticized. How telling her toxic relationships are, especially with men, about her experiences.

So, I took my time considering if I liked that we readers can predict what will happen to Reva, and I settled on the notion that I do. Maybe it became predictable the moment she had that change, but what matters more is how the narrator reacted in the last chapter which arguably is not predictable. Reva is a star though. Something about her demise juxtaposed with MC’s plan b is poetic in a way.

Moshfegh makes me want to go all “you just don’t get it” type of insufferable. Now my friends and I can be miserable and insufferable together. As if we’re not already doing that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, and Alcohol

Moderate: Vomit, Grief, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Minor: Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, Racism, Body shaming, Cancer, Abortion, and Self harm

joanabrt's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy

haileyeh's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Vomit

fromatreebranch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

3.0

hm.

it was easy to finish.

and difficult to read.

easy: i really like
the pacing, voice,
characterization.

difficult:
1. I... am studying my eye
for desire politics...

this book was useful
in this regard --

the narrator's discussion
of self, Whoopi
("magical negro trope"/fixation
with Whoopi and her body),

and/in relation with every other
person/subject in the book.

2. This person 
is really hurting.

p.s.
did not realize
until now that 

i wasn't forgetting
her name -- we do
not ever get it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Self harm, Drug use, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Abortion, Medical content, Misogyny, Child abuse, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Addiction, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, and Cancer

baylee_grace's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

Unreliable narrator who isn't really a good person yet you sympathize with her. The descriptions of her thoughts and feelings are extremely raw and honest, you can't help but relate to them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Drug use, Sexual assault, Classism, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Body shaming

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion

phantompansy's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Medical content, Addiction, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Cancer, and Cursing

Minor: Confinement, Antisemitism, Vomit, Abortion, and Adult/minor relationship

mint7's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

3.5

I can't fix her but I could make her worse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Body shaming, Confinement, Infidelity, Abortion, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

matcharlyy's review against another edition

dark lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide, Eating disorder, Medical content, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Moderate: Dysphoria, Cancer, Blood, and Pregnancy

sxndaze's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

2.75

intriguing but ultimately not for me.

“I did crave attention, but I refused to humiliate myself by asking for it. I'd be punished if I showed signs of suffering, I knew. So I was good. I did all the right things. I rebelled in silent ways, with my thoughts.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content