A review by annanas
Ett år av vila och avkoppling by Ottessa Moshfegh

challenging dark 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

3.0

I'm glad I've read this, but I didn't exactly enjoy most of it. The protagonist was very hard to like and to root for. But I guess that was the point. For some reason I enjoyed the last part the most.

However, I don't know how I feel about her plan to sleep and her heavy drug use actually ended up being beneficial to her in the end. Maybe allowing herself to rest was what she actually needed, but overall I was just worried about her going through withdrawl and needing to go to hospital, but that never happened. Then It hurt how badly she treated her friend and how she didn't seem to even like her. Her friend clearly was codependent with her own issues, but it still wasn't nice to for example throw the Christmas card, where Reva expressed her gratitude to her as a friend, in the trash. And in the end she seemed to want Reva back in her life again as soon as Reva had become more independent and more content with her life. Then  all of a sudden she wasn't annoyed with her anymore and she told her that she loved her. It was sweet but it just annoyed me that she couldn't have figured that out sooner. I also didn't like the way she judged her ex's new partner's son who was autistic. As an autistic person myself I was very hurt by that and I almost didn't want to finish the book after that.


In conclusion I liked a lof of it, and I also didn't like some parts. Mostly because I wasn't prepared for how dark and sad the entire book was going to be. But I'm very curious to hear other people's interpretations of the book since I do think that there are a lot of interesting things to discuss about it. And I think Ottessa Moshfegh's writing was often beautiful and I enjoyed  how she portrayed the early 2000's. 
For example how heartbroken I felt after Reva was excited about starting a new job in the Twin Towers in early 2001, because I instantly knew she was probably going to die. That was just so sad, but aslo a very effective way to pull at my heartstrings since I probably cared more about Reva than the actual protagonist.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings