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Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

593 reviews

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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olgasalpe's review against another edition

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

4.0

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taleoftwoemilys's review against another edition

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

4.5

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ieotter13's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.5

i was definitely locked in to this book and i think as someone who has faced the horrors of depression, the desire to sleep forever was probably more approachable for me than for others. there are a couple bows left untied:
why didn’t we get to hear more about the artwork
why did the ending feel so rushed
. that being said, i enjoyed the read and was another good book to pull me back into my love of reading
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ruthdiaz's review against another edition

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

5.0

finished it on december 31st, 2024. funny. absurd. raw. tough. i genuinely enjoyed it, and it was the perfect book for me to read at the end of the year.
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bellsdixon's review against another edition

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

4.25

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calicoes's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i won't lie, i enjoyed the hell out of reading it and found it extremely hard to put down for later (for the most part.) HOWEVER. 

for me, my year of rest and relaxation was a rollercoaster that, more often than not, kept slinking downwards, and then her transformation at the end felt almost magic. it was nearly comical! i wanted it for her, and yet almost couldn't believe it? her ironic criticism of people's shallowness when she didn't seek any deeper meaning herself and held onto nothing but a dream... ultimately worked out for her—in other words, it reads to me as the "good ending" to all her decisions that would otherwise to lead to her (worse) demise.

the whole ordeal with ping xi came up a bit suddenly to me, didn't make as much sense as it was supposed to and happened very quickly—but i took it all as a satire and remark of the topics handled throughout the novel; image, ego, class & desperate relationships; all reflected in the bitter, privileged protagonist, her psyche, loveless past and her motives (or lack thereof?); her relative privilege seeming to just fuel her apathy & delusion only because it's all she can occupy herself with (childhood neglect aside.) i did note a bunch of ideas getting repetitive, but at other times i found much profoundness in those fleeting thoughts. 
plus 9/11 mentioned. saw it a mile away (reva's promotion lol)
 

maybe i'll be up to annotate the book by the time i re-read, and get my thoughts in better order... unfortunately i ate this one up
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decrown's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-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

4.0

I struggled to rate this. A great book with a terrible protagonist. I hated almost every single thing she said and thought and did but I also couldn’t stop reading. Leans on shock value a bit much at times. 
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likeagilmoregirl's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.25

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