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

dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Captivating all the way through. At times I would be surprised it wasn't over yet, but never annoyed about it. The narrator's relationship with Reva was endlessly interesting. Both of them are whole enough to care about while still being symbolic of different perspectives one has to grapple with in life.

At parts I had trouble knowing how seriously I was supposed to take the narrator. Is she purely a vessel for observations or am I to pity her? When I see parts of myself reflected in her, should I feel comforted or called out? I appreciate a multifaceted character with a complex relationship to the reader's point of view, however this wasn't always a consistent duality. sometimes I felt the author was quite deliberate about the line the narrator walks, at other times less so. 

For much of the topics touched on here, I wouldn't say there was a clear thesis statement—and if there were they weren't obvious to my eye—but I'm not complaining. I kept wondering in particular what this was trying to say about people's relationship to beauty, but as I continued I learned to appreciate the contradictions it's presenting. I am glad, however, that for all the questions this book leaves open, it does make a definitive choice for one of them. Between cynicism and appreciation, the latter is the correct answer. It is always hope, it is always love, even in darkness and tragedy.


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