Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

27 reviews

lilyofmountain's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Stalking, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Body horror, and Toxic friendship

jnestwd's review

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Well, Ottessa, you are "quite a gal!"

No one manages to simultaneously repulse and intrigue me quite like Ottessa Moshfegh. When I read her work, I know I'm about to be thoroughly disturbed and I am here. for. IT.

Eileen did not disappoint. The story of Eileen Dunlop's miserable life spent living with her emotional (and at times, physically) abusive, alcoholic father and working at the local Boys Prison was exactly as uncomfortable as I've come to expect from Moshfegh's work.

Moshfegh somehow manages to get right under your skin and touch nerves you never thought existed. Reading Eileen move through life selfishly and disgustingly (intentionally ripping clothes in a store, wiping her dirty mouth on scarves for sale, touching herself and then shaking hands with someone before washing them... that sort of thing) somehow had me absolutely hooked and I could not put the book down before finding out whether or not Eileen managed to find happiness or not.

Ottessa's work is not for the faint of heart.

Often the reviews are scathing of the body horror and grotesque descriptions.

But that is part of the magic in my opinion.

I read Ottessa Moshfegh when I want to be disturbed. And she never ever fails to disappoint!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual assault

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

em_gauts's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body horror, Murder, Child abuse, Gun violence, Eating disorder, Sexism, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Vomit

amarige's review

dark sad tense medium-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

A profoundly disturbed and lonely young woman is obsessively seeking some sort of validation - her motives are perplexing at best. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Self harm, Death, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child abuse, Rape, Incest, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Body horror, Stalking, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Confinement

miriam_mal's review

I read about 70% of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh before DNF’ing and I just…needed to process my thoughts. (SPOILERS BELOW)

Before I get into it I guess it’s only fair to say this: I had an impression of what Ottessa Moshfegh’s books were like and stayed away for a long time bc it’s really just not my cuppa Joe. I think the only thing that compelled me to check out Eileen was that there’s a movie coming out, and I thought it was a murder mystery, or thriller maybe. Knew there was a murder involved. 

Since I am interested in how people write, like in a mechanical, technical sense, I thought I’d give it a go. Wish I hadn’t. While I think she writes vividly, going back and forth from memory to current day pretty smoothly, praising someone’s form can only go so far. 

Eileen as a character is a repressed mid-20s woman, super isolated and emotionally abused who feels trapped in her situation. She’s self destructive, body-obsessed, and I saw another review call her “psychosexual”, a term I’d never heard before but which seems apt. Like she’s repulsed by her own body, hardly showers, hardly eats, drinks with her dad, their house is in utter squalor, and then when she does encounter other people she hyper sexualizes them to the extreme, and weaponizes their appearances against herself to confirm her own shortcomings.   there are passages that say I preferred the struggle, the problem, because it emphasized her own misery to herself, sort of validated her victimhood and struggle. 
Definitely some grim descriptions not for the faint of heart or if you’re in a tough place mentally. 
Character definitely in a horrible place in life and lacks the gumption to pull herself together enough to look after herself, and is so horrified by her own physical being. Jarring read to say the least, and not a nice place to linger mentally. Again it was for that reason I expected not to like it. 

I couldn’t help but think if the character were male and the book was popular, being made into a movie with a major Hollywood actor in a leading role, the reception would be so wildly different. 

There seems to be a movement or trend currently of books written about womanhood that are just carnal, or “irreverent” is a word I come across a lot when talking about these books, but I just can’t get past how unhealthy the behaviour is. I’m not really sure what the appeal is in having characters have no boundaries or discipline and just allowing themselves to be utterly derailed by their intrusive thoughts. Its just gross. I understand that our own internal monologues are not always clean or kind but I’m of the opinion that overindulging these tendancies is more self destructive than anything (both for a reader and a writer). 

I added content warnings and put them all as graphic, not that they're all super vivid but just discussed constantly. So anyone looking to avoid these topics really should steer clear of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

mreisen's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

Major trigger warning for multiple types of abuse and addiction. Read if you like introspective character studies and enjoy a winding, convoluted, sometimes unclear plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Physical abuse, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Body horror, Body shaming, Addiction, Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Incest, Homophobia, Gun violence, Grief, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Dementia, Death, Confinement, Chronic illness, Child abuse, and Car accident

megansc's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, and Body horror

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

lanternhillbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Body horror, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Stalking, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Excrement and Animal death

linguaphile412's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Incest, Child abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Death, Murder, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body horror, Fatphobia, Drug use, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, and Excrement