oosij's reviews
112 reviews

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

4.0

nihilistic, incredibly weird, all sorts of wtf. this isn't for everyone, but i think it's well worth at least one read through! the entire book is about deep, deep, deep depression (she wants to sleep for a whole year) and contains, but not limited to, the following: eating disorders, prescription drug abuse, a myriad of episodes because of said drug abuse, experimental art?, and some confusion all around for both mc and reader. nice. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

tl;dr: main themes of the book are solid, the story arc is predictable, and it's an extremely easy read (if you can get past the depression/su!c!de trigger at the beginning).

some notes i wrote while reading this:

• reminds me of eeaao... though i suppose this book is before that movie, and the concept of parallel universes certainly isn't new. i'll eat up the multiverse shit every single time though, where the universe splits every time you make a decision. i think as humans, we will always wonder "what if," and it's humbling to know we're never alone for thinking it.
• "sometimes the only way to learn is to live."
  • a cliché, certainly, but a poignant thought regardless. makes me wonder when i'll just be able to live my own life without all this worry, all this negativity, all this anxiety. 
• it's so predictable that i wonder if it was supposed to be marketed as YA. i still enjoy it, but i enjoy simple things sometimes. we all need an easy read.
• certainly deserves the "overrated hype" more than some other booktok recs i've endured (coho, i'm looking at you).

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong

4.0

a wonderful collection of snippets from alice's life, experiences as a disabled person, and how the disabled community feels regarding the ableism coursing through this country. it reminded me that i still have quite a way to go in dismantling my own internalized ableism. 

Y/N by Esther Yi

• Loveable characters? No

1.5

picked this up in the new section of my local library because the premise caught my attention. i kept bouncing from thinking "is everyone in this fucking universe insane?" to "what in the flowery prose ao3 is happening right now?" and back. ultimately decided on giving it a 1.5/5 on my personal scale, since i didn't think it was good enough for a normal 2, but it wasn't bad enough for me to want to chuck the book out the window. 

i think, due to its incredibly flowery-oh-look-how-different-i-am-look-how-smart-i-am prose, y/n struggles to be anything but a weak attempt at symbolizing a delusional sasaeng's obsession with a celebrity. i wish it touched more on parasocial relationships! 

(also is it just me or is moon some sort of stand-in for bts' jimin, what with the dance background, physical features, and masked performance lol.)

Full by Julia Spiro

hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good? it touches on having an eating disorder in a way that makes it seem like it's almost easy to recover from one. the mystery of

who's behind mermaid1985

is predictable and might be unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, other than to put another smol lil bit of pressure on the protag. speaking of the protag, she's kinda unlikable. all the characters are pretty one-note as well. meh. 

2 stars for it wasn't bad, but i wouldn't read it again or fully recommend to friends. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

1.0

my least fav of the series. listen... when i read the twilight series back in junior high,

even then i thought bella was too young to be marrying someone.

i hate this trope so much lol there's a lovely (/s) combo one-two punch of miscommunication and extremely juvenile, naïve love that makes my face grimace just thinking about what i read. i know i'm not the target audience for this, but do teens and tweens... like this? i can see the appeal in

connor loving only belly 4ever lol

, but everything else...? 

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

2 stars in my book: i didn't hate it, but i wouldn't read it again. it was whatever. 

you ever read a book and think "damn, i am NOT the target audience" because that's what this series is for me. i will finish this series though, especially when i only have one more to go. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

2.0

it's cute, i guess. i think i would have eaten this up had i found it in my Youth™️... though i do enjoy the sense of nostalgia it gives me for teen summers i never experienced firsthand. 

It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

a lot of fucking exposition for exposition's sake. again, i'm shocked booktok loved the first one so much it got colleen hoover to write a second one just to appease the "we want lily and atlas to be happy" demands. the book both moves fast (we just speed through plot points, if you can call it that) but also drags incredibly so (the exposition is so unnecessary sometimes, i feel kinda insulted as a reader that there's no nuance anywhere). 

i only read this to finish up the story set by iewa. this is going to be the last colleen hoover book i'll read. 

p.s. if i see another person saying this is a good addition to a spicy book list, i'm gonna [redacted].

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman by Alan Rickman

reflective

3.0