My Year of Rest and Relaxation | 
so-so⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5️⃣
So I couldn't stop reading this one, but I can't exactly say that I enjoyed it. We spend a year in the life of the narrator who is privileged, unlikeable and has access to any downer possible due to her useless psychiatrist. The book does well in mimicking what depression and grief feels like but its ending seems somewhat unrealistic given her past. Would I recommend it? Probably, but defs not when you're feeling low
pickThis won‘t be for everyone but it was soo for me! I adored this quirky, smart study on the temptation to dissociate from the heaviness of life through sleep. Sleep is such a nourishing reset, and our main character aims to reset her spirit. The characters were vivid and hilarious, and it was so much fun to romp through their messiness with them. An entertaining showing of how feeling and suffering is essential to life. Narration was great! 🎧
pickI loved the dark humor, psychological insight and even fairly unlikable characters as our rich, beautiful protagonist endeavors on a self prescribed year of sleep amidst somewhat performative apathy.
pickThis is strange, bleak, but often - perhaps surprisingly for a novel about grief, depression, and an incredibly dysfunctional approach to dealing with these - darkly funny. Some of the characters - the artist Ping Xi, Dr Tuttle - are comically ridiculous.
pickVery strange book but I loved it. If you ever have to just sleep until things felt better this book is for you.
panIt was very readable, but wtf was the point? That‘s enough “literature” for meeee
pickWow! I‘m not sure what to think of this one. The main character is a self loathing & self absorbed socialite who is literally mean to her bulimic best friend. She decides to escape reality by being in a self imposed drug induced analgesic fog. She‘s so privileged she‘s actually disgusting. I knew most of the drugs but the main one I had never heard of & found out it doesn‘t exist. It‘s a good book but be forewarned it‘s heartbreaking at times.
Ah, I love it when all my library holds come in at once.
pickOh my god this book was the easiest 5 star read I've had in a while. It was daring and it worked. I know I own a couple other books by this author, and I'm about to go dig them up...
I've been so happy to take advantage of the warm weather and read on my porch. The bistro lights are back up and I'm ready to sit out here all night with my new book. 🤓
bailedI gave it a shot but pretty quickly figured out this wasn‘t for me. I think my history with oversleep to deal with depression made it not fun to read about a main character who takes sedatives so she can sleep for a year. I was expecting something less literal from the title.
I am overcome by awe, not because she looks like Reva, and I think it's her, almost exactly her, and not because Reva and I had been friends, or because I'll never see her again, but because she is beautiful. There she is, a human being, diving into the unknown, and she is wide awake.
panI don‘t know WTF this was or even what it was supposed to be. As far as I can tell, it‘s just the unnamed MC acting like a privileged little twatwaffle. Literally nothing happens beyond her trying to drug herself into oblivion so that she doesn‘t have to deal with life. I would‘ve bailed if not for #pop24.
#fanofthepan
#bookspinbingo - got a second bingo!
#pop24 - book in which a character sleeps for more than 24 hours
bailed⭐️⭐️ I tried… I tried SO hard to love this book, but bailed more than halfway through. ?
A novel about a woman who takes a year to “rest and relax” to cope with the loss of her parents by abusing sedatives. The blasé nature of the main character made it so challenging for me to hold on. Maybe one I‘ll come back to if I‘m feeling uninspired?
pickSet in a 12 month period before 9/11 this is the story of an entitled attractive young woman who has suffered 2 bereavements of parents + is struggling in her day to day life including her job in a v exclusive art gallery. She goes into an isolation fuelled by prescription drugs, caffeine, + video watching. A biting satire of New york Society and addiction to drugs this was both an unpleasant but compulsive read + I am still thinking abt it.
Dad‘s cancer and treatment has been a bit harder and more stressful than I thought it would be, so I haven‘t felt like diving into many new audiobooks. I‘ve just needed some comfort in my ears. These are five favorites I‘ve relistened to. Still reading audiobooks just not many new ones. 🤷🏻♀️
so-soMaybe it‘s just me, but this gave me [non-violent] American Psycho vibes. It had the same increasingly erratic narrative, and had a similar satirical commentary structure (AP on the yuppy culture of the 80s, this on the “quick fix” pill obsession of the 90s). But unlike AP (which gave me actual nightmares), I was so bored by the end of this.
pickI understand how this book isn't for everyone, but I thought it was extremely readable and pretty brilliant.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved this book…But, please, do not try this at home! 🤣
I‘m currently in the middle of 4 books…All interesting, but too heavy at times, so I picked this up last night because the curiosity was killing me (people either love or hate this book), and so far I‘m loving it!…Mainly because it‘s so ridiculous 😂😂
pickObsessed. Flew through it, and a great reminder to just tune out when needed (also maybe not to mix prescription drugs lol)
pick4/5 ⭐️
L'assurdo racconto di una ragazza ferita che decide di isolarsi per un anno intero per poter rinascere
Very relatable 🙄
bailedI couldn't stand this book. Initially I appreciated some of the dark humor it then it just became tedious and unbelievable that someone consuming the drugs the main character was, all in the effort to sleep 24/7, never had a medical emergency. I was reminded the first few pages in of Ignatius Riley from Confederacy of Dunces but then it nosedived into boring, repetive scenes. The ending was ridiculous and felt lazy.
pickThe narrator experiences the loss of both her parents while in college. She never had close relationships with either parent. Her lack of feelings, and the void of pleasant memories sets her on a mission to heavily sedate herself into a year long slumber. She hopes to wake up as a new person, and view her life as something worth living. The unnamed protagonist was cold, but hilarious. I really enjoyed this bleak novel, and couldn‘t put it down.
I started this one on my lunch break today! So far, so good! Im loving the dry sense of humor.
pickTrough the whole book I had this manic urge to keep reading and I think Otessa will be my new obsession for 2023! It was bold and brutal read.
pickI can understand the poor reactions to this book, but I personally loved it. I think it‘s useful to reflect on our reactions to such a female protagonist as this, what does our reaction to her say about ourselves? Why are we uncomfortable with a woman having an existential crisis, how is her reception by readers different than, say, the protagonist in The Stranger? Anyway, food for thought,TLDR: I‘m a sucker for a cold hearted bitch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pan⭐⭐
Nope!! This was not for me and my taste.. I liked the author's writing style but all the characters were insufferable, especially the unnamed protagonist!!
It's a yes. Though it took me longer than I expected to finish it. I had read so much praise for this book that maybe, I expected more.
Last month I did not finish a single book, but I did pour a significant amount of time in to Animal Crossing New Horizons!!! September will be a new month with new #bookspin and #doublebookspin numbers! #bookjournal (I realize that you can not see the list very well🫠🫠🫠)
pickInteresting... I found it hard at times as her sense of betrayal and lack of attachments is so intense.
I liked hearing her back story through her sleep.
so-soenjoyed it but didn‘t love 💕 it - perhaps would have loved it more in my 20s still a worthwhile read to see what all the fuss is about 😆
so-so“Rejection, I have found, can be the only antidote to delusion.”
- 3.25 ⭐️
picki think if i read this faster i would‘ve enjoyed it more but i left the book at my work for 6 months
whoopi goldberg is mommy
pickThis book was honestly so dark and hilarious. Loved the morbid oddity of it all. Really disliked the ending though - did not feel in line with the tone of the book at all. Full review www.anushareflects.com
so-so• TBR since July 11, 2018
Yay! This is my last TBR book from 2018. Now, on to my 2019 TBR (plus current books, of course).
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a 2018 novel by American author Ottessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh's second novel, it is set in New York City in 2000 and 2001 and follows an unnamed protagonist as she gradually escalates her use of prescription medications in an attempt to sleep for an entire year.
Epigraph from:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: A Novel
by Ottessa Moshfegh
pickSuch a beautiful satire! I appreciated the dark humour, the honesty, the realism, the reflections and inner life of this narcissistic heroine, and most of all, the artistic connotations of an act of rebirth and renaissance through sleep.
So many names of drugs I've never heard of and hopefully never will again, and I'm still not convinced a human being can survive after mixing these pills and these doses :))
Sleep felt productive. Something was getting sorted out. I knew in my heart - this was, perhaps, the only thing my heart knew back then - that when I'd slept enough, I'd be okay. I'd be renewed, reborn. I would be a whole new person, every one of my cells regenerated enough times that the old cells were just distant, foggy memories. My past life would be but a dream, and I could start over without regrets.
unlikable character but related to her…#audiophile #readinggoals #readingtherapy
pickUnlikable because the character is privileged and able to act out her depression fantasy of sleeping for a year. It‘s a good read filled with some dark humor.
pickoh to be in a self induced coma (jk that‘s not the takeaway i got from this book). i really liked it though i can see how pretentious it is.
