Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Heimweh nach einer anderen Welt by Ottessa Moshfegh

11 reviews

acgeorge's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-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

3.5

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yogomagpie's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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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c_serpent's review against another edition

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

2.0

 The voice is interesting.

There's too much sex in this book for me to pretend to have enjoyed it.

It felt like a collection of short stories I would have been forced to read in a college lit class, and I would come up with something to say in class, and maybe pretend to like a single story, but actually I would have hated it, and I would draw things in the margin of my notebook while the girl I sat next to talked about the sex in the book, and I would be uncomfortable.

Then I would write a three-paragraph comparative essay on three of the stories in the book and what the common theme was in these stories(displacement) and how the author achieved this (by placing every single character in some kind of a fugue state, and using first person to force you into their perspective, and then having the characters do things that are amoral, like not telling a girl she's having a baby or a miscarriage, or lying to random people, or sex with somebody that they have no business even interacting with).

And then I would get an A on the paper, and I would sell the book to Half Price Books and spend the money on a Snickers bar to get me through L203: Intro to Family Law.

One star has been awarded because of the interesting literary voice. Another has been awarded because I could see one of my favorite professors assigning this book, and I loved her, and I hope she's well.

Total score: 2/5 stars 
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bananabeard812's review against another edition

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

3.25

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weaverca's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

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.
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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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thelibraryofanolive's review against another edition

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The first story was fine, but very boring. The second and third stories though, were disturbing. Not the good, artistic kind of disturbing, but the plain old weird and gross kind. I felt the stories had no clear purpose and the author was trying to be deep but failing miserably. Otessa Moshfegh is one of my favourite authors but I have noticed that she has this trend of trying to be deep and doing it way to intensly. Maybe that's intended but I don't like it and it drags her books along and makes them pretty boring. In conclusion, this book seems like something she just wrote up in her spare time to try and be edgy or something by fetishizing eating disorders and predators. This book was extremly triggering definetly look at the tw before reading it.
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shlbee's review against another edition

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

3.75

I love unlovable characters, and would have loved this so much more without Moshfegh’s weird and in the words of Roxanne Gay “bizarre and increasingly annoying preoccupation with fat and detailed descriptions of fatness”. Still, Moshfegh knows how to put the worst of us on a page and leave you begging for more. 
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unodoszoe's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i love each of these stories in their own way. there is no joy to be had for any character in this book at all, but somehow it was comforting to read. 
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