Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

107 reviews

alanagrace7's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Rape, Gun violence, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Death of parent and Fatphobia

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

mccalab's review

dark reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Rape, Pedophilia, and Confinement

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Murder, and Vomit

mcrespo's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.25

eileen is like the quintessential girl loser. she sucks, and because of that, she can be so relatable, but she’s also deeply flawed. as a girl, i can empathize with her self loathing, insecurity, and rage. she kinda gives off the vibes of A24’s pearl meets brand new city by mitski. however,  the ending of this books feels very rushed and underdeveloped. the climax doesn’t occur until the 85% mark, and things move very quickly afterwards. i just yearned for more answers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Rape, Incest, and Pedophilia

roseknows124's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcoholism, Excrement, Murder, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Torture, Death of parent, Vomit, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Violence

2hermione4's review against another edition

dark 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

2.75

It got me into a readind slump, I thought "My year of rest and relaxation" was captivating and interesting but I can't say the same for Eileen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Addiction

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Incest, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fatphobia

melissaalgood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

2.0

It’s ’I’m Thinking of ending things’ meets ‘The Bell Jar’ but I think I just don’t care for this particular author’s style. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

hannaheinhorn's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.75

i have mixed feelings about this book. i imagine i’ll like the movie more. eileen is a horrible character, and i’m not sure ottessa moshfegh wrote her in a way that was ethical. for example, eileen has tendencies that some would say are fully pedophilic. she is also fatphobic, which stood out to me a lot, as mrs. polk’s fatness seems to be used as a symbol for cowardice in eileen’s head. her own thinness is thought to redeem her. some parts of eileen are extremely relatable, but others aren’t. i don’t think all virginal 24 year olds drool over young boys. 

there is also the fact that nothing happened in the book until the last 20% of it. i could have just read THAT part and been satisfied. literally the several page fucking soliloquy after THAT part was so useless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Vomit, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Incest, and Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Ableism, Blood, Sexual harassment, Classism, Gun violence, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

kaywhiteley's review against another edition

challenging 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

This dragged for a solid 200 pages but the writing was good? I guess? This author is wild and I don’t know
If I’m happy I found her or not.

Big plus for a child abuser being murdered though slay

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Eating disorder

amsswim'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

4.25

I'm not sure really what to say about this. I enjoyed it. This is the second book by the author Ottessa Moshfegh I have read, the other being 'My Year of Rest and Relaxation', and just as that one this book is just unhinged. I think this one may be more based in reality but still gave me the feeling of unsettlement. If you like weird things this may be for you. 

I am now very interested in watching the movie they made recently based on this starring Anne Hathaway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Excrement, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Violence, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Rape, Addiction, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Incest, Dementia, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Child abuse, Miscarriage, and Car accident