My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

This is like a female, partly updated version of Catcher in the Rye. It's pretty much watching the (unnamed) narrator totally screw up her life, and I was constantly appalled, but I couldn't look away!

Her unaffectionate parents recently died and she has an emotionally abusive ex, although she doesn't realize it. She's so tired of everything that she decides to literally sleep for a year, with the help of a quack psychiatrist and a huge amount of sleeping pills. She quits her job and lives off of her parents' life insurance, thinking that when she wakes up in a year she'll be a new person. It was kind of fascinating, getting into the mind of someone so spoiled and so obviously mentally unwell.

The book had some really dark humour that I did enjoy. And her justification that sleeping was the only thing she truly enjoyed doing scarily resonated. It spoke a lot about people of privilege and our tendencies toward escapism. The narrator wasn't likeable, and she wasn't supposed to be, but I think everybody would be able to see something of themselves in her.