Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

26 reviews

dealingwithdragons's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Murder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Torture, Animal death, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Excrement, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Abortion

ahudd's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Stalking, Eating disorder, Excrement, Rape, Addiction, Death of parent, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Car accident, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Police brutality, and Domestic abuse

scarlettreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

My first book of 2022 was Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh! ✨🤍

In 1962, Eileen is a young, twenty something girl, who cares for her unwell, abusive, alcoholic father and works as a secretary in a young boy’s prison. Her mundane life seems to change once she meets Rebecca. Told from Eileen’s perspective 50 years in the future, we find out the events leading up to her disappearance from the town where she grew up. 

This is Ottessa’s debut novel and my first book of hers that I’ve read. I’ve got to say I was slightly disappointed with Eileen. I enjoyed the writing style, and the questionable morals of the characters. However, I felt it became rather repetitious, and for a book that is only 260 pages, it became a bit of a slog to finish. 

Most of the action happens in the last 70 pages, which I flew through. If you’re a lover of a slow burn, this one’s for you. 

I would also like to mention that you definitely need to check the trigger warnings on this, which range from alcoholism, death, incest, child abuse, and sexual assault. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

jcstokes95's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

To say I enjoyed this book would be incorrect, I was very glad to finish it. The sense of dread and pessimism is the exact kind of tone that tends to get in my head and bring me down in the dumps. The whole novel left me feeling the way I do after binging a crap-ton of true crime documentaries. It's that feeling that every single person on earth, is just, bad to the damn core. 

Our narrator tells the story of her finally escaping the town she grew up in after a truly traumatic childhood. It feels inspired by the Southern Gothic movement and reminded me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which I finished earlier this year, featuring another unreliable,

easily turned homicidal

character. Moshfegh reminds me so much of Jackson here because of the detailed, grotesque descriptions and dread. And a little bit of O'Connor because of the sheer ability she has to make it seem like every character is a bad person. Even the ones who are not active in their evil are bad seeds. 

Moshfegh treats every massive trauma like the smallest, irrelevant detail in Eileen's life. Eileen's attitude throughout really makes her final act in town make sense. At one point, for example, her father gropes her breast in the car while he's drunk. She pushes him off and he calls her by her sister's name and tells her to "stop fussing". The ongoing sexual abuse of her sister is not brought up at any other time, but is obvious to the reader. In a story where something that earth-shattering is just background noise, you know that nothing can be fixed in the end. 

This story is also important contextualization for the final act. While the subject of Eileen's obsession, Rebecca, acts out of a sense of (fucked up) morality, it's very clear that Eileen has no moral center. I think she never develops it; even as she is insistent in old age that she is better now. Eileen is pulled into the plot only by anger, lust and pragmatism, maybe the only drivers she has in life. 

If I had to summarize the book's theme, I'd do it with it's best quote: "Idealism without consequences is the pathetic dream of every spoiled brat, I suppose." Eileen can see no bright future because she sees reality darkly and maybe even clearly (at least, more than her counterpart). She knows the world is unfixable, so you may as well get yours and make a run for it if things go wrong.  

[Read for Books Unbound Book Club, December 2021]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Incest, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

This book is not for the faint of heart. It's difficult to read a lot of it and it comes with...a trigger warning for almost every thing Storygraph allows your to CW for. So, be very mindful if you are an assault survivor, or have an eating disorder. This one is rough.

moraofthestory's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Stalking and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit, Blood, and Death of parent

nora__reads's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Read this having read My Year of Rest and Relaxation, similar dark atmospheric writing, odious main characters and pessimistic attitude to life. 
It’s quite easy to see how her writing has evolved between the two books and would recommend it for fans of Moshfegh’s writing, but it is definitely an acquired taste. 
The prose is deliberate and the characterisation is excellent, it’s a book which leaves you with questions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Incest, Eating disorder, and Drug use