Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Heimweh nach einer anderen Welt

Not my favorite read of the year but it held my attention until the last page. I love Moshfegh’s writing, even when becomes so disgusting. This is a collection of stories about people who carry some amount of misery, all of whom have flaws. I strongly disliked most of the characters, but I couldn’t put the book down.

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devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cherithh's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is the second Moshfegh book I've read. I've noticed a pattern when I read her books. I'm not necessarily in love with the novel, the plot(s), the characters, etc., but her books leave me wanting to read more. I'm even more excited to read another Moshfegh book than I was when I finished my first Moshfegh book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I think the writing is strong, but I didn't love any of the stories; none of them were standouts. They were all pretty okay. I will say there's something about the fact that Moshfegh can get me to read about these characters I don't like at all that I respect. I don't know if I want to give the other ones a try because she's such a popular author or because of pure interest. Either way, I think l will give another one of her books a read. Reminded me a lot of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. If I had to pick which ones I enjoyed the most: "A Dark and Winding Road" and "Slumming (probably my "favorite")."

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bucklink'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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

most of the stories were bad. i think I only liked the two before the last one, but man it is very funny. i swear half my camera roll now is just the stupid things like monkey dreaming and toxic burger king pee.

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_jennaalbright_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Moshfegh writes the grossest, most unappealing characters but I’m not complaining. I love crawling inside of her weirdo head via her writing.

*** As someone who tends to not LOVE short stories, this collection was very fun and engaging. It will most definitely make you very uncomfortable. ***

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emory's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

When I was reading the second story in this collection and the protagonist started thinking about sexual acts involving swimming in sewage, and then further details the acts this character performs on a young sex worker, I was going to stop reading, despite my aversion to not finishing books. I wish I had.

I was puzzled reading this about all the positive reviews I had seen of it. Every story seemed a pointless excuse for Moshfegh to describe something disgusting, insult a random fat side character, and call somebody r*tarded. A few of the later stories, such as Slumming, The Beach Boy, and A Better Place were (comparatively) charming and driven, but the abrupt endings in the latter of these two were discouraging.

The only saving grace I could find for these stories was that Moshfegh is clearly creative in thinking of vignettes of different shades of upsetting people. However, I don't feel as if her writing was strong enough to carry them. Each sentence was short and blunt. The simple sentences lent themselves to the subject matter I suppose, but it was not an artful or particularly nice reading experience. It read more like the begrudging English assignment of a super senior than that of a critically acclaimed author. Not to mention none of her characters were distinguishable from one another. All spoke with the same voice. The most discription anything received were fat characters that Moshfegh seemed to delight in calling disgusting and horrible. And anytime someone from a minority was mentioned, there was some weird aside that the narrator needed to have.

The idea of challenging what the purpose of fiction is and the role of a main character is an intriguing prospect, and this, along with the few stories that stood out to me as genuine, are the reason I'm giving this a higher rating than 0 or 1. But there's no skill or point behind it, to me, other than to shock and disgust. Most of these stories had nothing to say. To make something realistic in its unappetizing circumstances means nothing when you're doing the same trick over and over again. "It's so bad here, what if there were something better? Well, there's not." Cool!

And unfortunately there's not even a single story that's about aliens.

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marianneiriss's review against another edition

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I don’t generally read short stories but I thought I’d try these as everyone seems to love them, got about half way through and I still wasn’t enjoying it enough to continue reading despite the slightly unnecessary amount of graphic stuff - would’ve carried on if the graphic descriptions had been relevant and/or the stories interesting but I found the style irritating overall.

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orangesquidbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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