Review by _scvvter - Eileen

_scvvter 's review for:

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

3.5

dark funny tense medium-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

"Faded and stiff now, I carried it around for years and I've cried over it many tims It's the map of my childhood, my sadness, my Eden, my hell and home. When I look at it now, my heart swells with gratitude, then shrinks with disgust."

This year, I have set myself on the mission to read multiple books by authors I have some interest in and see if I can find so more auto-reads. For January and Febuary, the author I decided to tackle was Ottessa Moshfegh. Last year I read one of her first novella's, McGlue, and absolutely despised it. But one of my main enjoyments of the book was her writing, so I was hopping it was just first book flops and went along to read Eileen.

In this novel, we follow a misreable young lady stuck in her small town with her terrible father. And over the course of this week, she will do something that will lead to her disappearing.

I had a pretty good time with this book. Moshfegh is a very talented writer in my eyes with a style that I can tell will be copied for in due time. She's unflitching against the gross and darkness of humanity—she actually turns into it. She has a strong way of making you fall into the head of the protagonist and stick with them through their downs and downs and small ups and another down. I was hooked to see what happened with Eileen and what will actually push her to the edge. I do not have any real plot critiques but I will warn people that this is very character driven. The ending, in my eyes, was just the right amount of shocking for what I expected of the book and loved how each day built more on the fact she was about to leave.

But in regards to the filth that Moshfegh writes, I believe that she can go too far at times to the point. Not even me just being sensitive to it all, but some of the gross things—digusting or immoral—felt like just nothing to me.

An example I bring up is in the begging when the Eileen is driving her dad home from the bar drunk. He ends up groping her and when she tells him to stop, he refers to her as her sister. This never really goes anywhere and it just felt in bad taste to include this.

Also I want to have a conversation with Ms. Moshfegh and ask her does she choose the time period of her books by which time period it would be okay to ridicule certain groups. Like, first with McGlue a gay man pissed her off and with Eileen, it was some plus sized woman. The way their bodies were described was very gross and dehumanizing a lot of the time. And I don't even hate it because it's offensive—Eileen isn't a good person and it makes sense with her own issues she would not like fat people. It' just feels like, once again, she overdoes it to the point it's comical and then tiring. Like girl, there are other ways to get out your frustration then to call marginalized groups terrible names in your books girl.

Overall, I find this novel find the novel good. I believe that Moshfegh will benefit from lowering the amount of nastiness in her books to focus on the quality of it. I also don't see this novel leaving much of an impact on me for long, which is why I have to give it-

Final Score: 7.10

Content Warnings