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

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

2.5

This book is like how we stare at car wrecks. We shouldn’t look but we can’t help but look. 

I think there is definitely a place for stories with flawed characters and then there’s this….

Let’s start with the positive:
I enjoyed the exploration into different sides of depression. We see a main character (the narrator) that is mourning the loss of gaslighting parents and another character (her best friend) that is constantly comparing herself to others. 

As someone who struggles with depression and is constantly comparing myself to others, and beating myself up about it, I identify with the narrator’s desire to want to   sleep to escape her problems. 

On the outside her life looks “perfect” but inside she feels like she’s dying. —she’s a narcissistic, she is selfish, she is rude—her thoughts feel very realistic because I think she thinks what a lot of people (including myself) don’t want to admit that they think. 

Now, let’s talk about the negative: 

Some of these are simply because certain aspects of this book are not my cup of tea so keep that in mind. 

I think parts of this book are supposed to be “dark comedy “ but to me those portions felt very over the top and crude. I felt like this book was vulgar for the sake of being vulgar. For example, the narrator is uncomfortably obsessed with Whoopie Goldberg—in a way that is disturbing, degrading, and disgusting. if I was Whoopie I’d be seeking a restraining order from the writer. 

I was also very uncomfortable with the fact that this author essentially gives the reader a guide on how to legally get an excessive amount of addictive prescription drugs and how to use them in a way that won’t kill you. If an impressionable person were to get their hands on this book I think it would be dangerous. 

The main character LIES about sexual assault and committing suicide so she can get the affection of a man —I don’t think that this was necessary for the character to do in order to manipulate her toxic on-again off-again boyfriend to fuck her. 

Additionally, the main character spends the whole book being a toxic friend to her insecure “best friend.” She didn’t give a fuck about her unless she needed something from her—which is definitely true for some real life people, but in this book the narrator has full awareness and understands to a high degree why her friend is the way she is and yet she still choses to be toxic. She puts in the bare minimum of effort into reshaping their friendship — this is an element of the story that I felt lacked in character development and should have had a better pay off, considering that her “best friend” was the secondary character in the story.  

I know all the problematic elements of the narrator are on purpose but did it pay off in the end? 

I don’t think so. To me, the ending felt rushed and the problems that the main character faces seem to just go away—all it took was her doing some tidying up and she was magically better. this author just slapped a bandaid on the narrator’s problems without the character going through the deep emotional development that she needs in order to be a better person. Her “healing” felt very temporary (I’m pulling from my personal experience here).  

This is purely a cover design critique but I’m kind of annoyed that this isn’t a historical fiction, based on the cover design. 

I honestly feel very conflicted on how to rate this book. I can’t tell if I dislike it because it’s what the author set out to do or if I hate it because it’s objectively bad. 
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