DN at 46%. I enjoyed Ottessa's book "Eileen", but this book was definitely not for me. The compilation of short stories was intriguing to me at first, before I realized that every chapter would be about a character who was ableist, racist, fatphobic, etc.. Her extremely frequent use of slurs held no significance to the stories. I know Ottessa usually writes in a way that makes people uncomfortable, but this was just way too far and felt extremely distasteful. 

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. 

Overall, the writing is simple, blunt, and erratic - kind of degrading to read.  Lots of sad, sloppy, angry people looking for sex or some kind of warped version of happiness (usually just sex, though).  Nothing really enjoyable or interesting about this for me. 

this is my third (and honestly, final) attempt at trying to enjoy moshfegh. genuinely do not understand the hype around her work. having characters be horribly racist, ableist, and fatphobic is a low-effort way to make them unlikeable. instead of actually developing these characters, moshfegh just throws in a slur and calls it a day. and it is such a constant theme that it's hard not to assume these are the author's own biases. 

as for the writing, most of it is incredibly dull and gross for the sake of being gross. i did enjoy the writing in the book more than her other works, but all of the characters felt pretty much the same. I love unlikeable characters and gothic-leaning books, but moshfegh just fails to deliver.  cool cover, though.

the vulture article says it best. what the hell is it with her and donuts? 

I've been in such a reading slump this summer, but since I'm always looking to find a good beach read, I thought I would give this a try since it's an anthology of short stories and figured those would keep me occupied better than a full-length novel. Unfortunately, a lot of them were very hit or miss for me. I loved Bettering Myself, The Beach Boy, and Nothing Ever Happens Here, but other than that I wasn't terribly impressed with the rest. Whether it was the overt usage of slurs and other distasteful language, the way the characters seemed repetitive which made the stories fall flat, or the abrupt and unclear endings, it seems there were a handful of reasons why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped. In the end, I only gave this book three stars, as I do have to give Ottessa credit for her writing style which paints an adequate mental image in terms of the setting and characters, keeping the reader interested.

This is my second time trying to read this book, and I couldn’t get past the second short story. The characters are so flawed they become annoying, and you lose interest in their lives and don’t really care what happens to them.

The descriptions were very intense, detailed which turned my off a bit. Everything was told in black and white while I appreciate a more philosophical approach to building up a story.

Honestly, I found it to be quite a boring attempt at being macabre. I feel like the intent of these stories was to show people are flawed, but the characters are way past being flawed and just seem to be sad incels trying to function in actual society.

Also, I felt the writing was quite racist and classist.

She mentioned how the main lady in the first story was getting hit on by skinny Indian men, and I found that to be so irrelevant. Why not just say skinny engineers? Then the description of the homeless person and following up if you couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Just say homeless person then! Not every little thought needs to be spelled out.

Moshfegh writes with such a distinctive, witty voice that makes each story gripping. Her humor and messiness of her characters were the clear highlights of the book. However, her characters’ “messiness” does not excuse the blatant ableism, racism, homophobia, and overuse of slurs shoved into every story.