Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

6 reviews

kay4eva's review

dark emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Murder, Violence, Gore, Vomit, Confinement, Excrement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Body horror, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

aalayah's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Incest, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Sexual content, Vomit, and Addiction

Minor: Cancer and Blood

jamihoneycutt's review

dark reflective tense 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

3.5

Pleas look up trigger warnings for this, because this book is full of them! 

This book took me an eternity to get through. I didn’t want to pick it up but felt like I was in too deep to DNF it. Ottessa Moshfegh writes unlikeable characters better than anyone I’ve read and it made for an uncomfortable reading experience at times. Especially given her love of detailed descriptions of excrement. However, the last hundred pages really turned it around for me. I think I just struggle with her pacing, but I’m glad I powered through because there were a few great quotes and reflections in the final pages that I would’ve hated to miss. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Incest, and Excrement

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Murder

lindseyhall44's review

dark slow-paced

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

4.25

“Eileen” is a character driven novel which follows our protagonist  as  she narrates her final and climatic days living in the gloomy small town of “xville.” I had read Ottessa Moshfeg’s most popular work “my year of rest and relaxation” prior to this, and knew  immediately that “Eileen” had to be my next read. Surprisingly enough I think I liked this book better… Moshfeg does a great job intertwining the narration of a 24 year old with narration of her older self, less naive and able to come to terms with the struggles she so desperately wanted to escape from. Eileen’s actions really exemplify  that the coming of age process doesn’t stop at 18, and through adversity and experience do we find growth. won’t say any more about the plot, since it’s best to go in blind, but I will say that Moshfeg reminds me very much of Salley Rooney. While Rooney focuses on the relationships of her characters as opposed to Moshfeg exploring the darkness of her charterers, both really convey the complexity of each individual. It was interesting to see how the characters were written as unlikeable and sometimes unreliable, but facets of themselves created redeemable features in the readers eyes. This book is not a light read, and not for everyone, so I advise searching up trigger warnings before you pick it up . But if you like darker literary fiction with foreshadowing and phenomenal character development, “Eileen”might be for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

zuleika's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, Mental illness, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Chronic illness, Cancer, Animal death, Alcohol, and Addiction

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Rape, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia