What an appallingly awful book, one of the worst I’ve ever read.

Rich, bored and beautiful, the protagonist is a selfish, narcissistic bitch who decides to opt out of life for a year by sleeping. She only rises from her drug-induced unconsciousness long enough to eat a slice of pizza, some animal crackers or ice cream before swallowing enough medication to kill a horse in her quest for oblivion.

This boring, tedious pattern is periodically broken by brief interactions with her abusive lover and her own cruel abuse of her “best friend,” Reva. (While it is common for the abused to become abusive, I was nonetheless shocked and outraged by her callous insensitivity, her selfishness and cruelty towards her “friend.” So utterly despicable and unsympathetic did I find the protagonist that it was impossible to feel a modicum of compassion for her when she was ill used by her boyfriend. But, I digress.)

The motivation for her year of oblivion is never made clear. I have no idea what the point of this “anti-social experiment”was. The after effects of it are equally ridiculous and implausible.

At the end of a year, she rises from her bed and picks up where she left off: she rejoins society, having experienced no withdrawal symptoms or ill effects from her addiction to and abuse of sleeping pills and myriad other prescriptions—enough to kill a small army— other than losing a few pounds and some lost muscle mass due to atrophy.

This book made no sense. At all. What an appalling waste of ink (and my time).

Mostly enjoyed this. Found it to be rather unsettling most of the time. The ending was strange though and I’m not sure that I necessarily thought it was a good ending. I can’t say that I really know the “point” of this book yet but I will be thinking about it for awhile, that’s for sure.

I liked reading it, but I can’t help but feel like nothing happened in this book. When I was 85% done with it, I thought “Maybe it’s just a slow burn”, but no. The ending gives us what we were anticipating, but nothing else. Meh.