I am undecided about this one. Reviews are either 5-star ("brilliant") of 1-star ("pointless"). Honestly, I vacillated between those two points of view many times while reading. ( )

This is currently at the top of one of my favorite lists of books, the slacker girls list, or flailing females list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/153374.She_s_Not_Feeling_Good_at_All_Catastr... So of course I felt I HAD to read the current top book, even if a book club was the reason that finally shoved me into reading it. I kind of expected to like it more? Even if I feel like Ottessa Moshfegh is one of those writers that wants to shove you AWAY from a book. Since 2018, I think there have been a bunch more books like this, that take it even further, that I love even more. (See: the above list.) So maybe this book is kind of a pillar for those types of books, but I also expected Moshfegh to be more Out There. A lot of the writing features some vapid stuff, which I know is entirely the point for this main character, but not necessarily what I feel like reading. If this is satire, I don't really get it. I do like that the plot is set in late 90s, early 2000s, rather than being current. But then I also disliked the reason for it being set in that time. Ah well, I have the rest of that amazing list. Weird girls for the win! ( )

this book pissed me off so bad!!!! i was genuinely excited because it seemed like it was right up my alley, but now i guess i can safely say this is WAY overhyped, as both a new york novel and a sad girl novel.

may be spoilers ahead.

1) god i HATED how she treated reva. HATED it. i hated how consistently cruel she was, and it really went too far, for me. reva was a far more compelling character to me and i understood why the protagonist would feel the way she did, but like, we get it. you've made your point. enough. i was interested in their friendship but i often felt violently unwell when she was talking about reva. i can read any sort of shock horror with a straight face but i guess i draw the line at people harbouring genuinely repugnant private thoughts about their friends. (come to think of it, my reaction reminds me of how i felt about cersei's chapters in asoiaf/affc, so i guess i just have a particular ick around reading that sort of thing.)

2) i think the language of this book is a little too contemporary to make it a convincing y2k novel. some of how moshfegh writes about technology just felt a little blasé, like she was talking about stuff that had been around forever, except in 2000 it was actually brand new/not all that common. this really detracted from my comprehension of this as being something rooted in its era. maybe it's part of the conceit, but it did not work for me.

3) i did think there were some interesting ideas at play in this book. (that said, i don't think i would've touched it if i knew how much of it was about cancer, my least favourite Theme to explore in fiction.) but, here's the kicker: you want me to sympathise with a pretty, skinny, rich WASP? i know this is HEAVILY signposted, but like, the way she's like "i'm not stupid, i don't want to give up my privilege" was an unsatisfying way of dealing with her, honestly, fetishisation of poverty. like the ending felt raaaaather common_people.mp3, you know? i LOVE an unlikable rich protagonist!! i love reading about horrible rich people like you would not believe. i love reading satires on rich people in the art world. but NONE of that worked for me here; i felt that with the protagonist, moshfegh was trying too hard to thread the needle between "she's too privileged" and "she is genuinely lost and miserable." an interesting balance to strike, but not the way it was done here. and everything about the art world was SO extreme, so cartoonish, that it was hard to buy into the satire. like girl your lifestyle is another side of the same coin...

anyway at least it was a quick read ( )

i too want to sleep forever and never do anything
this was really unique and comfy but also kinda suffocating

-some parts were a tad too crude for the rest of the book?
-she kinda sucked as a person but it was still super entertaining and i would read this again ( )

wow 200 pages about someone sleeping. loved it ( )