Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

31 reviews

ak97x's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Incest, and Addiction

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Fatphobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Stalking, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

meakey's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

Not for the faint of heart but a classic for a reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Mental illness, Addiction, Blood, Ableism, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Torture, Vomit, Death, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Classism, Sexual violence, and Alcohol

abigailbat's review

dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

Boy howdy, this was a grimy, visceral read. I picked it up because my girlfriend Anne Hathaway is in the movie and it looked gay. Well, based on reading the book… I’m not sure the movie is going to be for me. I am glad I finished it, though, because there’s a rather big twist that I did not see coming, like a car crash that then you can’t stop watching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Vomit

malb's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Vomit, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming

Moderate: Stalking, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

Minor: Murder, Death of parent, Suicide, and Animal death

maryamgo9909's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Body horror, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Rape

madamelacy's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Pedophilia, Medical content, Gaslighting, Murder, Incest, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Self harm

spiides's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

extremely raw. eileen’s internal monologue makes up the entire book and asks the question of “can we tell readers more than what they signed up for?” and if we can determine a character as a horrible person if they never act as such out in the open.

beautiful atmosphere of dark christmas with equally dark characters. tethering in the middle of many genres at once, is this a horror? coming of age? romance? all of the above?

sadly too slow with only a short chunk of exciting reveal, though maybe that’s what makes it interestingly real. people are just dark thoughts wrapped up in flesh after all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

kelleykamanda's review

dark mysterious 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

Incredibly “Moshfegh”- a unlikeable, grotesque, unhinged woman. Great writing. The story was a bit slow but nonetheless carried me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Self harm, Fatphobia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Excrement

Rape of a minor by a parent

devilconcrete's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.25

Eileen is a truly abhorrent human being. Throughout the book she is almost nothing but perverted, hating, homophobic, and misguided. That behind said, I loved this book. The writing style is smooth and vivid, and both pulls you into the moment of the story yet feels like someone sitting down and recalling it for you. There are so many individual dark but beautiful lines in this. The writing really kept me going, if it was written with even a sliver less quality I would have taken this deplorable book and burned it. It has the gritty details and thoughts worth hiding that make it seem terribly terribly real. All the most prominent characters are just as terrible. But they all feel like people. 
Horrendous cast of characters with wretched thoughts and wretched actions.

Reading this book and observing these characters was like pulling entertainment from footage of a trainwreck. But I couldn't bring myself out of it. Riveting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Bullying, Drug use, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

oddreads_nicolestins's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

So much of this book was about making us understand how "perverse" or "deviant" Eileen was in her mid-20s. I couldn't really enjoy this book because everything was framed so negatively except her "love interests" and quick statements about her experience as an aged woman. Eileen was basically angry, depressed, and emotionally stunted so badly that she made bad decisions. That's usually how it goes, and there are so many stories like this- I can't  say how this is more "playful, shocking, or witty" (NYT review blurb 😂) than similar stories.

As for the writing style, it was okay. There were no major flaws that put me off. It just wasn't as good as I thought it would be- and of course the constant references to weight or food were very annoying. I had heard that her books were fatphobic and after reading just this book I can see that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Vomit, Body shaming, and Misogyny

Minor: Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Classism