Review by graydonoliver95 - My Year of Rest and Relaxation

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graydonoliver95 's review for:

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

3.5

dark reflective sad slow-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

I really enjoyed this book. The big problem I had was

the ending. I didn't feel like there were any consequences to the narrator shutting off her life and her mind, her addiction to pills and alcohol, her behavior towards her one "friend." As a result

I felt it sort of glorified mental illness.

The narrator spoke of her year of sleep, her year of hibernation, as being "transformative," and it put me in mind of a butterfly breaking free from it's chrysalis, beautiful, and constantly throughout the book, the narrator looks at her reflection and sees a girl withered by sleep and pills, but "still beautiful." By the end of the book, she's found inner peace, zen, gotten over her asshole on-again-off-again, and is reaching out to Reva, trying to be a friend. Apparently, sleeping for a year worked. It gives an impression that, instead of confronting our problems, we can just ignore them, and end up better, stronger, without putting any work into it.

That dropped the rating down a couple notches for me. However, that was only the end of the book. The rest of the book, the first three quarters, I found beautifully insightful. It felt like a vivid portrayal of grief and mental illness. I didn't like any of the characters, but I did believe them, and I wanted them to come out the other side better people, happier. I really cared about where they ended up.

Content Warnings