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

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

3.0

Really hard to rate this. Up front - this book has a very limited plot. It’s a really smart idea and written very well but the protagonist is vile as every review says, and the repetitive phrases and passages I assume are deliberate: there was something odd about the refrains about the unoriginality of shock factor art in a novel with such a vile protagonist with such graphic flashbacks and commentary - was this not designed to shock? I think I appreciated what it was trying to do and it did that well, but I wouldn’t tell anyone to go out and read it. 
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