Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

18 reviews

quiltsandtealibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• 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

5.0

Loved this book. Fucking wild as hell, but good. Not for everyone & not an easy read (emotionally) but it’s so well written it is an easy read? If that makes sense? 

Longer review:
Lapvona is nothing like anything I have ever read before. The book is disturbing, distorted, unsettling, & most of all very distressing for the most part. There is no chapters, just Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, & Spring again as we follow the story of the people of Lapvona through multiple POVs. Lapvona is a self aware story of the evilness of humans, how it’s shaped & how it’s created, greed & society. The book explores religious beliefs & traumas, daring to ask “if the creator is so great, then why has this happened?” 

I couldn’t put Lapvona down & read it in one sitting. There’s so much, yet so little to understand. It is a well written book that is hard to read at times. I do not recommend going into Lapvona blind & to maybe even spoil yourself for certain scenes to prepare yourself.

There is a way motherhood, childhood, coming of age/self discovery, & parental care that is explored in this book & shown in this book that will haunt me for the rest of my life. 

I don’t know if there will ever be another book like Lapvona, but I am eager to read more from Ottessa Moshfegh

5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Self harm, Body horror, Gore, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Abortion, Alcohol, Cursing, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy

This book is,,,,,something. Please maybe read some spoilers or just be prepared with the warnings i provided. This book just explores like everything grim & awful of the nature of humans. It frames all these ugly, evil things as bad so it gave me some peace of mind while reading it. But it’s??? Something

maragtzrbooks's review against another edition

dark tense 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

4.0

Leer Lapvona fue una aventura muy adictiva, se siente como un cuento medieval con giros retorcidos, explícitos y asquerosos, muy al estilo Ottessa. Cuenta la historia de una aldea llena de personajes peculiares, Marek un niño con cara deforme y una adicción al castigo, Jude, un papá dedicado a cuidar ovejas y con una devoción extrema a Dios, Ina, una anciana rodeada de misticismo y técnicas extrañas, Villiam, un rey con un raro sentido del humor y un hambre insaciable, así encontramos muchos personajes más que nos llevan a una historia con crítica hacia la religión y política.
Es un libro que me mantuvo enganchada con sus personajes detestables y con esos momentos WTF que se quedarán conmigo muuucho tiempo. El único que no me encantó fue que todo giraba alrededor de personajes masculinos cuando bien se sabe que Ottessa es perfecta escribiendo mujeres, aún así se aprecia mucho el esfuerzo de salir de su área de confort al escribir una novela tan diferente a lo que ha hecho antes. Seguiré leyendo más y más de ella, su estilo me encanta y pienso que es muy peculiar y adictivo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Blood, Suicide, Abortion, Murder, Rape, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Self harm

charlotteih's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-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

i started this book and was immediately blown away by the gruesome darkness of the events in it. i had never read any of moshfegh's novels before, so i certainly wasn't expecting what greeted me. in the first 30 pages, i was nearly about to give up. nevertheless, it being my only book on a trip, i decided to finish it out of spite. once i moved past the horribly dark exposition of the book, the story seemed to mellow out a bit and just focus on distasteful characters and relationships/themes. the ending annoyed me, but i have just decided to ignore certain aspects of it that are upsetting. i would say that if you REALLY wanted to, read this book, but it does take some gut to get through the first bit. that being said, READ THE CONTENT WARNINGS. this book is no joke, and it has an impressive list of triggers so just keep that in mind. i did enjoy the food for thought on theology and misery, but i'm gonna have to give it 2.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Miscarriage, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Excrement

thearchivist03'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

So...where to start?
You're not supposed to like the characters, and it's very body gore oriented with a side of medieval soft world building. It's captivating at first when Ottessa writes about each character's suffering, but you soon get desensitized and perhaps go a little mad and laugh at the over the top chaos.
I hear some people say that one of the characters is representative of female rage, but this character strikes me as thrown in out of the blue for more plot development. It does have an open ending, just a heads up.
I have such a love-hate relationship with the author and this book. I did enjoy the descriptions and her writing style of scenery and the world, but keep in mind her character descriptions and development brink on grotesque and nihilistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Ableism, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Gore

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Lots of detail in the excrement and fluids part. And all the sexual violence scenes primarily take place in the abuser's point of view, even though it's omniscient. It demonizes women a lot, be warned.

sarahgr's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Genocide, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, and Torture

kellyung's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Abortion, Animal death, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Violence, Ableism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Rape, Child abuse, Grief, Incest, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

svspirium's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

while not new to this particular style, OM takes a hard foray into depravity as an exploration of god and the human condition. the grotesque sequences and heavy content have their place and purpose, but the shock factor grows old after a while. the meditations on the role of women in such societies and how the curtailing of their freedoms were compelling but were overall drowned out by the gore, noise, and debasement.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Incest and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Excrement, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

lycheejelly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Rape, Self harm, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Alcohol, Classism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Ableism, Alcoholism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Violence, Pedophilia, Abortion, Body horror, Bullying, and Confinement