spookymadds13 's review for:

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

3.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I'm having a hard time landing on a rating for this book. I thought it was well written, and it was an interesting character study of Eileen. However, it was very long winded and repetitive with Eileen's eccentricities, disgusting habits, and relationship with her father. A mysterious event with Rebecca keeps getting hinted at, but it doesn't happen until the last 30 pages of the book. And the event is a huge jump in my opinion, seeing as how the reader was barely introduced to the real Rebecca, so her motivations for

tying up Mrs. Polk and forcing a confession out of her

didn't make much sense at all. Moshfegh tries to say it's her privilege and entitlement, but that doesn't fully add up to me. What Eileen ended up doing made complete sense, but the event as a whole was a pretty big letdown for me. I ended the book feeling disappointed and bummed that I slogged through this continuing to hope it would get better and live up to the hype and that unfortunately never happening.