Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

553 reviews

roshnimc's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Very well written. The characters are not meant to be liked but are drawn so three-dimensional that we could identify them if we met them.

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sequoia1920's review against another edition

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

4.0

Insane book, don't read it if you're easily offended or easily affected by media. Still one of my favorites though. 

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pearljams_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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veronyqueso's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious 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

3.5

“The Stranger” if Albert Camus wrote about a New York 7.

This is one of those first-person POV books that makes me feel like I’m the main character (who is never named). I can’t say I liked this book, but I was fascinated and wanted to keep reading. While I didn’t get the absolute chaotic ending I wanted, it was still a shocking end. I think the takeaway for me was a reminder to enjoy all the small moments of life. This book made me feel anxious and feel weird about sleeping. I did like the absurdity and irony in her storytelling. I really like the author’s writing style, it seems academic and polished. I do think this book is 200 pages too long and would have done better in shorter format, like The Stranger. 

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edenofalltrades's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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book_hang_o_ver's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

Oof, this book.

As a mental health provider/ social worker- this book is fucked up. As a human who’s experienced grief, complex relationships, and death of a parent with whom you had a complicated relationship with…. I kind of get it? The desire to sleep for an extended period of time- with the goal of waking up refreshed, feeling new. The hope of restricting your life a bit. The unrealistic but tempting thought of slipping into a moment of life a year from now and seeing where you are after all the complicated growth is already behind you and previously explored. Granted- this takes it waaaaaay too far. 

This content and the story is MESSY, but the writing is very precise and intentional. I will absolutely pick up more of Ottessa Moshfegh’s work! Her writing propels you forward and it was difficult to put the book down. I wanted to know what happens next at the end of every page, because honestly I couldn’t guess where it was going next if I tried.

Devastating ending.
Of course Trevor survived- though I wish Reva did. She deserved better.

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ursolovelypjm's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was such a beautiful surprise, and I am left wandering how it was always advertised to me (even if subconsciously) as a funny and weird story, of a woman trying to sleep for a full year.

Instead of a “year of rest and relaxation” the main character has to remember her hurtful past, her relationship with her parents (and her subsequent relationships with love and friendship), her past memories and present thoughts, herself as she was and the version she wants to become by the end of her hibernation period. However, this book reflects so deeply about avoidance, letting go of the past, embracing emotions regardless of them being good or bad. This woman, whose privilege felt like a curse, thinking sleeping forever and going numb would stop her from feeling anything about the irrelevant, out of our control, infinite world she lived in, being met with pure darkness, realized all she ever wanted to do was to live. 

To see things, to feel things, and to face the unpredictable yet constant challenges. Bravely. And wide awake.

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molarbear31's review against another edition

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

4.5


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the_neeerd's review against another edition

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emotional tense 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

5.0

I was recommended this book in a list of "books where the main character is a very strange woman" or something to that effect, and that person was correct. I think that is how it should be described. The main character doesn't get named and I only just realized that, because I was so drawn in by the fact that everyone in this story is just horrible. None of them have any characterization, but at the same time, they're all so different. Listening to the audiobook was a good call I think, because it was a level of immersion that made the story connect on a deeper level. I'm not saying that if you wake up at 4am, you should play the audio book, but I am saying that doing that is going to minmax your experience of it. And it made me feel a whole lot better about bedrotting over winter break because I could say "at least I'm not doing that". 

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littleseal's review against another edition

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- My dumbass thinking Infermiterol was really a medication (I am a therapist that knows some medications but clearly was "tricked" to think this was, lol)
- There is something so interesting about the writing that it was hard to put down sometimes
- I knew, <i>knew</i> what the ending was going to be;
The book was set in 2000, and knew it'd go into 2001 and it would relate back to 9/11

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