Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

45 reviews

ricketycricket's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

leic01's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Body shaming

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

minimicropup's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

Setting the Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in a New England town in 1964

POV: We follow our main character in their fifties, recalled their childhood and early adulthood experiences from the 1960s. 

 

Mood Reading Match-Up:

-Autobiographical character study

-Unhinged obsessive female characters with 1960s vibes that could be nostalgic

-Literary psychological horror ick and cringe

-Themes of obsession, repression, arrested development, growing up, hope, abuse, injustice, revenge, disillusionment, and anger.  

 

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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕

 

🗣️ Tale-Telling: The first-person narrative was like a direct conversation with the reader. Eileen is sharing her life story with us, complete with reflective observations and raw honesty. The audio narrator embodied Eileen perfectly. I was able to multitask without zoning out and looked forward to getting back to the story. It felt like I was listening to an actual memoir. 

 

👥 Characters: This is my favourite kind of character study and hard to find. Eileen was not a likeable character, but she was so compelling right from the start and she feels so much like a real person. She’s an outcast living with her alcoholic and abusive father – socially anxious, self-conscious, repressed, and without much hope for the future. Even when she grossed me out or did terrible things, I couldn’t bring myself to fully dislike her. 

 

🗺️ Ambiance: The settings are atmospheric, capturing the essence of the 1960s in a natural, cinematic way. From the cars to the work environment, it was like stepping in to a different era. 

 

🔥 Fuel: The story is driven by a psychological slow-building suspense. As the reader we are often questioning our feelings towards Eileen. Should we sympathize, be disgusted, root for her, or root for her downfall? All four? It was the perfect mix of moral and emotional dilemmas. Gradually we get mystery surrounding a new person at her work and what's up with their strange behaviour - which we aren't sure is real or just Eileen's growing obsession making her infer meanings that aren't there. 

 

🎬 Scenes: The pacing was steady slow burn. It kept me hooked with its introspective nature and having no idea where the story was going, as Eileen becomes increasingly agitated. The scenes are cringe-inducing in the best way. We’re a fly on the wall, witnessing all the second-hand embarrassment, but it never felt cringe-for-the-sake-of-cringe or gratuitous. 

 

🤓 Random Thoughts: The only disappointment for me was the ending – I liked the concept of the ending making us question what we may have thought of Eileen all along, but it felt so rushed and almost random. I was glad it wasn’t a lazy or contrived ending at least. Now that I write this, I realize I may have just been disappointed that the story was over. 

 

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Content Heads-Up: Alcoholism. Loss of a parent. Emotional abuse (familial). Loneliness, anxiety, intrusive thoughts. Sexual content (ruminating, fantasizing). Rape (fantasies, topic). Obsession. Sexual slurs. Lesbophobia (historical). Dementia. Death of a pet (on page; grief). Body fluids. 

Rep: White American. Cis-gender. 

 

👀 Format: Listened to on Everand Audio

 

“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death

Minor: Body shaming, Rape, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

emilyrosebooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

I am giving this 3 stars because the writing is really wonderful, it is creepy and bold. However it is very very slow. I enjoyed the perspective of the narrator as the main character in her now 70s looking back and telling the story of herself at age 24. The main character, Eileen, is NOT lovable, especially not in her youth, but she is the sort of disaster you can't look away from. I do wish the book started with the sentence, "This is the story of how I disappeared" or something along those lines because it felt directionless for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

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

amarige's review against another edition

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

zoecitterman's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

scoutgreimel's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Alcohol

olive_lol's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

This novel's setting over the Christmas season creates a uniquely lonely atmosphere. Each scene is packed with description of often mundane things, which, for me, at least, got old after about a hundred pages. Some topics, like alcoholism and child abuse, are explored deeply through multiple characters who experience them.

This novel obviously makes you uncomfortable and grossed out on purpose, but I honestly don't think the story benefits much from that. Most of the sensetive or gross topics feel like they were only included for shock and contributed little to any wider commentary. However, some topics are very well-explored, just not most of those included. That said, make sure you check the content warnings for this book.

Nothing much in the plot happens until about the last third; most of the book leading up to that point is a mix of anecdotes, atmosphere, and gross-out description. For most of the first third, I was really considering picking up another book instead because so little was happening or felt significant. It did create a nice payoff when, in the last third, things started happening, but that didn't outweigh the slowness of the beginning and middle for me.

This book really wasn't for me. It had some merits, like strong descriptions and atmosphere. However, I couldn't look past the overly slow pacing and the overuse of some sensetive topics seemingly for shock.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Excrement, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

augusta_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.25

Hm. I don’t think Ottessa Moshfegh’s books are for me, and this will probably be the last that I’ll read. Personally, her writing comes off to me like it’s trying to be shocking/edgy/grimy without actually having any further effect or commentary. 

I liked it better than My Year of Rest and Relaxation—one of her other books I read previously, which, the more I think about the less I like. 

The thing is, Eileen still has some of the same problems that disenchanted me with that book. I really don’t love the reused themes of eating disorders, the fantasies of sexual assault, the ultra descriptive paragraphs about laxatives and shitting, with seemingly nothing insightful or redeeming attached to them. Maybe it’s going over my head, maybe i’m not reading deep enough, maybe i’m being too demure. But I don’t think i am. It feels like Ottessa uses these themes for shock and and unconventionality—especially in the form of her narrators—rather than having perceivable psychological significance. 

There are a couple moments in the book that escape this and do have a commentary that is more significant, but most of the time that doesn’t feel like the case. 

I will say that the pace of this was a lot faster than R&R, and I very much appreciated that. But by the same token I also feel like nothing really happened? It’s fast paced and feels like it’s leading up to this huge thing…but once we get there it feels like about 3 pages of action. Given all the prior building up and alluding to of this “life changing event”, things really fell a little flat once you arrive there. I feel like I was much more intrigued by the lead up, than the actual “climactic” event. 

The end falls into the same problem I had with My Year of Rest & Relaxation. We have a character who’s suddenly turned around their once cynical view on life, and yet it doesn’t seem earned—or even really plausible, to me. It feels rushed and neatly tied off, in a way that doesn’t align with the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Excrement, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Stalking