Reviews

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

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the_sunken_library's review against another edition

2.0

A tale about life, death and regret from an unreliable narrator. Incredibly well written but dull and meandering.

Vesta, our protagonist, a recently widowed 70+ woman is out walking her dog in the secluded woods, next to her secluded cabin, when she discovers a mysterious note claiming someone called Magda was killed and her body will never be discovered. Instead of ignoring it as a prank or investigating it properly (I.e check missing persons or go to the police) she dives head first into her own fantasy. Constructing Magda out of her own experiences and bitter regrets, she even goes as far to bend the local townsfolk into characters for the invented narrative.

She reminds me of Mary Katherine, the equally unreliable narrator of Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Disdainful of those around her, placing herself upon a pedestal in terms of intellect and beauty, deeply distrustful of all except her closest companion, she is not likeable. Unlike Merricat though, she is tedious. A constant, stream of consciousness than spirals deeper into her own delusions but in an unbelievable fashion.

There are some truly haunting and uncomfortable moments that were delectable. These occurred when she engaged with other characters. Creepy, odd behaviour that was so intriguing. I wanted to dive into their stories but I was denied further investigation.

Also, I don't get what happened with the dog. It felt rushed, shoe horned in. It came with 20 pages to spare and I can't for the life of me work out its purpose.

So it gets a 2. Unreliable I like, dull I don't. I could see that the author was being very clever but sometimes clever doesn't make for a compelling read that you want to share with others.