Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

839 reviews

marymayne's review against another edition

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4.0

A very strange book. I enjoyed it, could relate to some parts, found others funny and some absurd.

I have settled on interpreting it as a parody of how your brain works when you're mentally ill. If only you had a year to catch up on sleep and change everything about yourself, then you could come back better and beautiful and rich and be fixed and have no problems or shortcomings again ever.... then you read the main character doing it and see how it doesn't actually solve anything -
then the absurd ending where she sleeps for 4 months straight as an art piece then has an epiphany on her last sleep and is fixed! And she can go out in the world and forget about the whole thing. Yes that is how it would have to happen ~ if you don't put in the work to get better you'll just stay the same unless there is some medically induced divine intervention.

The 9/11 part was weird. I don't really understand why that was included, and it was so obvious from the moment it's set in NYC in the year 2000 that 9/11 will be a plot point. Then Reva gets a job in the Twin Towers..... I didn't think that added anything
.

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jneverland's review against another edition

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

2.5


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ashleyyyyreads7's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I was certainly enthralled, disturbed, captivated, worried, weirded out, but also very impressed. I get why it’s popular and I would recommend

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lenucciagrecos's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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imds's review against another edition

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

2.0


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eachz's review against another edition

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

4.5

I need to reflect on this more to give a proper review, but I really enjoyed it. This is my second Moshfegh novel and I'm once again struck by how she crafts these characters who you love and hate and root for and want to slap all at the same time. They're simultaneously realistic and ridiculous. I guess that speaks to the satirical nature of this story. Idk there was something profoundly relatable about the core of this story.

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zaraha's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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emmapaigereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.0


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annanas's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.0

I'm glad I've read this, but I didn't exactly enjoy most of it. The protagonist was very hard to like and to root for. But I guess that was the point. For some reason I enjoyed the last part the most.

However, I don't know how I feel about her plan to sleep and her heavy drug use actually ended up being beneficial to her in the end. Maybe allowing herself to rest was what she actually needed, but overall I was just worried about her going through withdrawl and needing to go to hospital, but that never happened. Then It hurt how badly she treated her friend and how she didn't seem to even like her. Her friend clearly was codependent with her own issues, but it still wasn't nice to for example throw the Christmas card, where Reva expressed her gratitude to her as a friend, in the trash. And in the end she seemed to want Reva back in her life again as soon as Reva had become more independent and more content with her life. Then  all of a sudden she wasn't annoyed with her anymore and she told her that she loved her. It was sweet but it just annoyed me that she couldn't have figured that out sooner. I also didn't like the way she judged her ex's new partner's son who was autistic. As an autistic person myself I was very hurt by that and I almost didn't want to finish the book after that.


In conclusion I liked a lof of it, and I also didn't like some parts. Mostly because I wasn't prepared for how dark and sad the entire book was going to be. But I'm very curious to hear other people's interpretations of the book since I do think that there are a lot of interesting things to discuss about it. And I think Ottessa Moshfegh's writing was often beautiful and I enjoyed  how she portrayed the early 2000's. 
For example how heartbroken I felt after Reva was excited about starting a new job in the Twin Towers in early 2001, because I instantly knew she was probably going to die. That was just so sad, but aslo a very effective way to pull at my heartstrings since I probably cared more about Reva than the actual protagonist.

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chickaboogawah's review against another edition

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dark 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

0.25

This book was horrible. The end epiphany that I expected didn't happen. The main character was still unlikeable. It was predictable and dumb. 

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