Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

189 reviews

eupham's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Pedophilia

bec_s's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Rape

ariana3's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

2.0

I was not a fan of this at all. It was recommended by a friend and I can see why she liked it, but it was not my cup of tea. The book was slow and ambling, it just felt like it was stream-of-consciousness writing, like the author was supposed to be telling a story but then would get themselves down a different rabbit hole. It was just odd, the timeline, the story, everything. Only in the last half of the last chapter did it kind of get good. And even when it ended I was confused and was just left with a "that's it?" feeling. Like the entire book was a waste.
Plot summary:

The main character, Eileen, lives with her dad who used to be a renowned police officer. After her mom died, he became a terrible drunk and was emotionally abusive. Eileen herself is a slob, gross, frumpy, doesn't care about her appearances and yet is utterly obsessed. As a young adult, she thinks she's the only "higher being" in her small Massachusetts town. She's a secretary at a youth prison and has been for several years since she was pulled out of school to care for her sick mom. Her childhood sucked, her parents sucked, her life sucks. Then this mysterious woman starts at the prison. She's obsessed with her and wants to be her lover or friend? It's confusing what she wants, she just wants attention and admiration from this woman, Rebecca. Rebecca reads a case file from one of the boys at the prison that disturbs her (a father was raping his son, so the son killed him). The mom did nothing about it and would help facilitate it. So in the last half of the last chapter, you find out that Rebecca has tied up this mom to elicit the confession. Eileen gets it and Rebecca is pissed but doesn't know what else to do. Eileen comes up with a plan to frame her dad for the mom's murder, since he's a drunk, but they would kill her. She knows Rebecca won't join her, so she says "bye" to her dad, gets her money, drives north to a pretty part of the forest, and leaves her beat up old truck running with the mom inside (passed out from pain pills) to die from carbon monoxide poisoning while she hitches a ride back south to NYC to start a new life. That's it. Literally nothing else happens...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Incest, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Body shaming

zoraleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

annasorr's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Eileen is full of writing that is beautiful, tense, strange, and scary. I enjoyed getting to know Eileen and her world and deeply related to Eileen’s lack of self-assuredness. The novel’s narrator, Eileen’s older self, turns this narrative from a self-indulgent thriller to a well-paced, mysterious puzzle of the past. As this is Moshfegh’s first novel, it lacks some of the polish that her later writing has, but it’s still very much worth a read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Grief, Vomit, and Violence

hannnah_besss's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Incest, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent and Eating disorder

vouija's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Addiction, Child abuse, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Rape, and Self harm

maddb_96's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious 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

3.5

This book is very descriptive and really well written. I was super intrigued the whole time and was shook when Rebecca said that they were in Mrs Polk’s house and she was tied up downstairs in the basement. The penultimate chapter felt so chaotic, Eileen was on a mission of trying to impress and pander to Rebecca, whilst Rebecca was on a mission of her own, to get revenge for one of her students… it felt odd that they were clearly on such different pages and as a reader we only get Eileen’s perspective. I needed more context for Rebecca’s character. From this point in the book (the ending) it got a lot worse for me… to introduce such a violent and horrific and upsetting story about what Lee Polk went through at the very end, and treat it with such nonchalance, felt a bit problematic. 

Did Eileen tie up Rebecca and leave her in her dad’s basement? Why did she not leave Mrs Polk in her dad’s house after shooting her and framing her dad for the murder like she planned? Even though we learned so much about Eileen as a person, I still had no idea what her intentions were.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Rape

minacat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

TRIGGER WARNINGS YALL THIS IS NOT A LESBIAN LOVE STORY OMG 😭😭😭😭😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Eating disorder

ankiaisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Grief, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Incest, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Vomit