Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

83 reviews

libellumartinae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

2.5

My main problem with this book is the pace. Nothing - LITERALLY NOTHING - happens through the first page and in the last two chapters everything goes down, which might have been interesting as the previous chapters depict Eileen's life but ugh, was it just plain boring. and the plot-twist? not that impressive. Certainly doesn't make up for the whole waiting.

Still, I love the way that Moshfeg just write something like so unhinged and yet so close to the truth. She hangs onto the line of 'what if we just listened and did what that dark part in us tell us so?'. And it's strangely cathartic. STILL, it was plain boring and badly paced.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Drug abuse, and Vomit

kaylanoellesims's review against another edition

dark 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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Stalking, Incest, Sexism, Homophobia, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Rape, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia

Minor: Miscarriage and Lesbophobia

rachaelwho's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I didn't enjoy it but it was quite good. I saw someone call it "Carol for psychos" and honestly that's not too far off. Not quite as boring as Carol, but not lively, either. A very good character study. Not quite my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Incest

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Body shaming, Classism, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Stalking, Vomit, and Blood

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 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: 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

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

nyah_lou's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Incest, Excrement, Death of parent, and Child abuse

miriam_mal's review against another edition

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

applesodaperson'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

3.5

I kind of don’t know how to feel about this book. I liked it and didn’t like it at the same time. The thing this book did really well was having a deeply unlikeable main character that is somehow still likeable to read about. Like seriously Eileen is downright gross and disgusting. And also creepy. She’s a stalker and very unhygienic. She also has an eating disorder, which I do think the book handled well and wasn’t unnecessary graphic with. But yeah she is just a weird person with a lot of weird beliefs and unrealistic expectations. She also is straight up delusional. Like she believes that her crush is secretly in love with her, and that Rebecca thinks she is her bff after hanging out once.
My biggest problem with this book is that there was too much exposition. It just went on and on and I kept waiting for things to speed up and for the plot to happen. And then the conflict happens so fast and was resolved within a chapter. It felt a bit like the book just wanted to be a character study, which is fine, but it also wanted to add a plot structure.
Another thing is that I think the retrospective format was not super necessary. It just reveals the mystery of the ending too soon, which got rid of some suspense. Because the reader knows that no matter what happens, Eileen survives and grows old.
Read a personal copy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Stalking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder

mreisen's review against another edition

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