A review by hannaelisab
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark funny reflective tense 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

3.75

this one’s hard to rate. people either love this book or they absolutely despise it & i must say, i actually kinda liked it (even though there should virtually be nothing interesting about someone sleeping their life away for a year…but her descent into depression somehow hooked me). the protagonist kind of reminded me of the main character in “boy parts” (in irina’s earlier non-psycho phases at least), especially in how they both treated their “best friends”. in both cases i ended up rooting for their besties more than for them. i do have a critique about how the story wrapped up though, but this might’ve been done on purpose, idk: it felt extremely unsatisfying to me, that the MC truly just went on with her life as planned after completing her “year of rest & relaxation”. at this point she was so far detached from reality that it would’ve been much more satisfying to see her fail tremendously. 
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