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

4.0

The unnamed Main character is conscious and deliberate in her desire to sleep as a way escape her callous thoughts and tortured past, as she enters a drug induced mimic of depression that lacks the guilt, shame and repercussions of the act. She, in fact is, I doubt consciously paralleling her mothers demise as a form of self curing while narrating a world she feels nothing but distaste for. The problem is the world goes on. As the MC personifies the exact criticisms she has of the world, her mothers coldness, Her best friend's self absorption she is forced to face the memories that she wants to avoid, to actually feel the sadness. But with this comes little self awareness, she continues to see herself as better, while playing mind games with her ex, uncaring for her friend, and sees others deaths as a means of escape from the pain they caused her. As Reva falls from the twin towers on the last page, a heavily foreshadowed aspect of the book, she sees it as beautiful and freeing, finally seeing the beauty of awakeness even in the most horrific of situations.