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A review by abbier_14
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
2.0
Either i have the worst luck or my standards are too high but i cant seem to read any good books lately.
struggling to see the point in what i just read. Might move it to 1 star if i feel like it one day.
- First of all i did not connect with the main character. When books are dealing with these kinds of topics i like to root for the character as it makes the story even more poignant and you truly feel for what they are going through.
However this was the compleate opposite of what happened in this book.
I think my biggest issue is that i dont know WHY the character is depressed. I compleately get that depression does not need a reason or an activating event but to me this depression seemed entirely self created (ik im sorry im not trying to victim blame but this is a fictional character).
From what i interpretted from the text the main character got a degree from a prestigious uni and had a job. Ok so they didnt really like the job and it didnt pay well but she did not have to worry about money, so she could at least just keep this job while looking for something else that inspired her. Also the job seemed pretty cool from what i can tell? yeah shes just a receptionist but she gets to work near all these artists and gets admission to new exhibitions and stuff. Also this is in new york city so its probably not a measly little gallery. So yeah this just made the main character seem like she was lazy and didnt have any drive.
Yeah i get her parents died which probably could have caused her depression but she repeately said how she didnt care about them and how they arent close. She only started crying about her dads death because she realised she would be 'left alone with her mum'. So im not buying that excuse either.
Also having to hear her descriptions of her dad's and reva's mum's funeral was painful. Criticising every little detail when they were probably such nice funerals where the people were celebrated and shes just sitting there bitching about it. Yeah if you couldnt get it shes not an easy person to like.
Also her being described as attractive in every chapter didnt help me feel sorry for her. She just came across as very self absorbed and was wallowing in this massive pool of self pity which i dont think was warrented.
- So there are only a few characters but i did actually like two of them.
Reva seemed very relatable and you could tell there was depth to her. Honestly reading about her struggles and achievements would be better than having to listen to the main character's drivil for the entire book.
Its so annoying that you have to read about reva from the main characters perspective as she isnt appreciated at all. Honestly i didnt find reva annoying one bit, she seemed to really care for her friend even though she was given nothing back, she also had a passion to succeed and to find love and meaning to life.
So that ending for her character was a punch in the gut, especially when the main character comes out of this relatively unscathed
I also really liked the Dr who was giving the main character the drugs. I know she was compleately exaggarated and no doctor would act like that but she was actually interesting. She was so crazy and nonsensical that i actually enjoyed reading the scenes that she was in, and reading a book from her perspective would probably be really cool.
Urgh the annoying thing though was how clueless the doctor was. The main character wasnt very good at lying and every time she would go to the doctors i would be like "is this it? is she finally gonna get caught out on her lies and get cut off?" but unfortunately no.
The amount of drugs the main character was mixing i was waiting for her to die. The author also kept describing her falling asleep as "and then i was gone" so every time i read that i thought she died but again no. The only time it was true though was for reva *eye roll* which im angry about because i wanted her to be free and have a better life instead of being dragged down by the main character
- There was no character development. The last chapter is an absolute joke and laughs in the face of character development and growth. Do i care that she now sits in the park for hours on end? still technically wasting her life away and not motivated to become a functional member of society? no. absolutely not. She is still the same old her and i honestly dont care about her enough to feel sorry for her.
Also i didnt like the 9/11 element to the book. The author wasnt very subtle with telling us dates and that certain characters were working in the world trade centre. I could see what was coming from a mile away. Also the disrespect to reva that her ending was HALF A PAGE. HALF A PAGE. again an absolute joke and i still dont understand the need to include 9/11 in the book when u arent even going to go into detail about it.
Boring. Boring. Boring. Filler. Filler Filler.
struggling to see the point in what i just read. Might move it to 1 star if i feel like it one day.
- First of all i did not connect with the main character. When books are dealing with these kinds of topics i like to root for the character as it makes the story even more poignant and you truly feel for what they are going through.
However this was the compleate opposite of what happened in this book.
I think my biggest issue is that i dont know WHY the character is depressed. I compleately get that depression does not need a reason or an activating event but to me this depression seemed entirely self created (ik im sorry im not trying to victim blame but this is a fictional character).
From what i interpretted from the text the main character got a degree from a prestigious uni and had a job. Ok so they didnt really like the job and it didnt pay well but she did not have to worry about money, so she could at least just keep this job while looking for something else that inspired her. Also the job seemed pretty cool from what i can tell? yeah shes just a receptionist but she gets to work near all these artists and gets admission to new exhibitions and stuff. Also this is in new york city so its probably not a measly little gallery. So yeah this just made the main character seem like she was lazy and didnt have any drive.
Yeah i get her parents died which probably could have caused her depression but she repeately said how she didnt care about them and how they arent close. She only started crying about her dads death because she realised she would be 'left alone with her mum'. So im not buying that excuse either.
Also having to hear her descriptions of her dad's and reva's mum's funeral was painful. Criticising every little detail when they were probably such nice funerals where the people were celebrated and shes just sitting there bitching about it. Yeah if you couldnt get it shes not an easy person to like.
Also her being described as attractive in every chapter didnt help me feel sorry for her. She just came across as very self absorbed and was wallowing in this massive pool of self pity which i dont think was warrented.
- So there are only a few characters but i did actually like two of them.
Reva seemed very relatable and you could tell there was depth to her. Honestly reading about her struggles and achievements would be better than having to listen to the main character's drivil for the entire book.
Its so annoying that you have to read about reva from the main characters perspective as she isnt appreciated at all. Honestly i didnt find reva annoying one bit, she seemed to really care for her friend even though she was given nothing back, she also had a passion to succeed and to find love and meaning to life.
So that ending for her character was a punch in the gut, especially when the main character comes out of this relatively unscathed
I also really liked the Dr who was giving the main character the drugs. I know she was compleately exaggarated and no doctor would act like that but she was actually interesting. She was so crazy and nonsensical that i actually enjoyed reading the scenes that she was in, and reading a book from her perspective would probably be really cool.
Urgh the annoying thing though was how clueless the doctor was. The main character wasnt very good at lying and every time she would go to the doctors i would be like "is this it? is she finally gonna get caught out on her lies and get cut off?" but unfortunately no.
The amount of drugs the main character was mixing i was waiting for her to die. The author also kept describing her falling asleep as "and then i was gone" so every time i read that i thought she died but again no. The only time it was true though was for reva *eye roll* which im angry about because i wanted her to be free and have a better life instead of being dragged down by the main character
- There was no character development. The last chapter is an absolute joke and laughs in the face of character development and growth. Do i care that she now sits in the park for hours on end? still technically wasting her life away and not motivated to become a functional member of society? no. absolutely not. She is still the same old her and i honestly dont care about her enough to feel sorry for her.
Also i didnt like the 9/11 element to the book. The author wasnt very subtle with telling us dates and that certain characters were working in the world trade centre. I could see what was coming from a mile away. Also the disrespect to reva that her ending was HALF A PAGE. HALF A PAGE. again an absolute joke and i still dont understand the need to include 9/11 in the book when u arent even going to go into detail about it.
Boring. Boring. Boring. Filler. Filler Filler.