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A review by jessicaludden
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
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
1.0
“There she is, a human being, diving into the unknown, and she is wide awake.”
So, I hated this. The only reason I didn’t DNF is because my friends were reading it with me, but trust me I really wanted to. And I never DNF a book. I understand exactly what the author was trying to do with this book. I get it. I just think it was executed poorly and I didn’t like it. The character is unlikeable on purpose, but not even in an entertaining way. If you’re gonna make your protagonist unlikeable, it has to mean something. Nothing happened in this book. It was super repetitive and gave so many unnecessary details that I almost fell asleep many times while reading. Maybe it gave an accurate representation of the monotony of depression? But was that enough to interest me? Nope. The sarcasm and humor in this book was funny at times, but most of the time it really really wasn’t. It felt like when someone says they have dark humor, but really they just say a bunch of offensive things for the sake of shock value. Nothing about the plot (what little there was of it) was shocking. Some of the “jokes” were shocking, but they were ultimately just unfunny. They weren’t even funny in an ironic way. The ending was very rushed disappointing. I didn’t care about a single thing in the book and I’m glad it’s over.
“Favorite” Quotes:
“I wanted to hold on to the house the way you’d hold on to a love letter. It was proof that I had not always been completely alone in this world.”
“Die young and leave a beautiful corpse.”
“She wasn’t resting. She was not in a state of peace. She was in no state, not being. The peace to be had, I thought, watching them pull the sheet over her head, was mine.”
“Rejection, I have found, can be the only antidote to delusion.”
“I was the vacant, repressed depressive, and she was the obsessive blabbermouth, always knocking on my door, asking random questions, looking for any excuse to talk.”
“And that was exactly what I wanted—my emotions passing like headlights that shine softly through a window, sweep last me, illuminate something vaguely familiar, then fade and leave me in the dark again.”
“My blind eye was the one real comfort I felt I could give her.”
“‘You’ve got friends, you’re alright, no matter what.’”
“‘Sometimes friends are better than family, because you can say anything. Nobody gets mad. It’s a different kind of love.’”
“…there was stability in living in the past.”
“What would come later would be only sort remembrances of the thing called love she used to give me.”
So, I hated this. The only reason I didn’t DNF is because my friends were reading it with me, but trust me I really wanted to. And I never DNF a book. I understand exactly what the author was trying to do with this book. I get it. I just think it was executed poorly and I didn’t like it. The character is unlikeable on purpose, but not even in an entertaining way. If you’re gonna make your protagonist unlikeable, it has to mean something. Nothing happened in this book. It was super repetitive and gave so many unnecessary details that I almost fell asleep many times while reading. Maybe it gave an accurate representation of the monotony of depression? But was that enough to interest me? Nope. The sarcasm and humor in this book was funny at times, but most of the time it really really wasn’t. It felt like when someone says they have dark humor, but really they just say a bunch of offensive things for the sake of shock value. Nothing about the plot (what little there was of it) was shocking. Some of the “jokes” were shocking, but they were ultimately just unfunny. They weren’t even funny in an ironic way. The ending was very rushed disappointing. I didn’t care about a single thing in the book and I’m glad it’s over.
“Favorite” Quotes:
“I wanted to hold on to the house the way you’d hold on to a love letter. It was proof that I had not always been completely alone in this world.”
“Die young and leave a beautiful corpse.”
“She wasn’t resting. She was not in a state of peace. She was in no state, not being. The peace to be had, I thought, watching them pull the sheet over her head, was mine.”
“Rejection, I have found, can be the only antidote to delusion.”
“I was the vacant, repressed depressive, and she was the obsessive blabbermouth, always knocking on my door, asking random questions, looking for any excuse to talk.”
“And that was exactly what I wanted—my emotions passing like headlights that shine softly through a window, sweep last me, illuminate something vaguely familiar, then fade and leave me in the dark again.”
“My blind eye was the one real comfort I felt I could give her.”
“‘You’ve got friends, you’re alright, no matter what.’”
“‘Sometimes friends are better than family, because you can say anything. Nobody gets mad. It’s a different kind of love.’”
“…there was stability in living in the past.”
“What would come later would be only sort remembrances of the thing called love she used to give me.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Grief, Mental illness, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Cancer, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia