Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

92 reviews

squaeshy's review against another edition

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

4.5

wow. i finished this book just thinking “what the fuck did i just sit through??”. it’s definitely a good read, very much a “it’s a girl thing, you wouldn’t get it” sorta book. 

spoilers ahead:
after everything we go through with the MC, to get a glimpse of her new life after clawing her way through it. the drugs didn’t help, until they did when reva took them and snapped the MC back to reality with her purpose of taking these drugs. the entire time, i thought she was just going to spiral and OD, but she made it through. Reva gave her purpose, even in death. just wow. a mindfuck story about grief, girlhood, abusive relations all around, and relatable crude comments.
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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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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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mimidelrey's review against another edition

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

3.75

hated it while reading it, realised I loved it after due to It's deep accuracy
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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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ktc97's review against another edition

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

4.5

I had previously read another Moshfegh and didn’t love it, but was so pleasantly surprised by this one. I feel like Moshfegh’s strengths shine through when her dark writing is accompanied by some relief. This one had a ton of hilarious satire and a compassionate message at the end. 
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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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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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kc_sears's review against another edition

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dark sad tense 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

1.5

While I would like to say this book is interesting, it’s incredibly dark and sinister in the sense that people could potentially act like this main character. I did not find it enjoyable. I think people could have adversely influenced to act this way if they are looking to be self destructive. I can’t imagine ever recommending this book.
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17nhammad's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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

4.0

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