Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Ett år av vila och avkoppling by Alva Dahl, Ottessa Moshfegh

530 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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kris_55's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

Very interesting book. A wild ride indeed. And as a person who has issues with my sleep, her descriptions of sleepiness and just wanting to enjoy her sleep felt very accurate and I could definitely empathize. I mean who doesn’t wish the world could just pause for a while so you can get yourself together. 
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shakirajain's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.0

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tpwreads's review against another edition

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dark 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

1.0

All I can muster to say after enduring this soulless afterbirth of a book is-

Fuck all the way off, Moshfegh (insert middle finger emoji here). 
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cassknowshow2read's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

2.75

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hollywatson's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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

4.0

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_grmlin's review against another edition

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

3.5

maybe a 4 🌟 
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thebookerybabe's review against another edition

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challenging reflective 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

3.25

This was the first book I've read with a truly unlikable MC and I didn't hate my experience with it. While I found her unlikable I still found her complex and interesting, and therefore she held my attention...until she didn't. The back half of this was disappointing and I found myself mostly skimming toward the end. Her development came so late in the third act and was rushed in a way that didn't make sense with the pacing that had already been established up to that point. Boldly, I think this book could have been 100 pages shorter and packed a better punch. 
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ahalickyj's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.25

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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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