Trigger Warnings: eating disorders, drugs, sexual assault, toxic relationships, mentions of suicide

You know how Netflix sometimes labels its shows as “off-beat?” I thought I’d covered all the bases of that genre after watching Russian Doll and The Umbrella Academy. It turns out I hadn’t… until I read Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, starring a privileged blonde from Y2K-era New York City. Despite whatever shallow, gossip-girl-esque impressions our narrator may initially give you, there’s more to the story. After graduating from Columbia University with a major in art history, our unnamed narrator carelessly bumbles through life. Yearning to escape the family troubles of her past and the first-world problems of her present, she takes a shot at getting some beauty sleep for a year. With the help of a wacky, regency-core-obsessed psychiatrist and various types of drugs, she embarks on her tumultuous journey. However, the outside caves in as people interfere with our sleep heroine’s plans. Her toxic not-boyfriend pulls his classic manipulation tricks. Her jealous friend, Reva, barges  in uninvited on the daily. And a disturbingly eclectic art hack infiltrates her thoughts again and again. Amid all this social chaos, Ottessa Moshfegh highlights societal issues such as ignorant racism and the idealism of certain body types. You’ll be amazed at how she uses the Y2K setting of the book to exacerbate these systemic problems within the plot. 

Most books have that one seemingly perfect character who everyone loves. (I bet some people from Six of Crows or the Percy Jackson series come to mind.) My Year of Rest and Relaxation cuts through the pattern of the loveable character by making each person flawed in the most provocative, reflective ways possible. Moshfegh borrows societal flaws, embeds them in her characters, and satirizes them through the narrator’s lens.

Moshfegh’s satire sprinkles a generous handful of humor into each chapter, keeping you interested—and thinking. Her narrator has an unfiltered yet artistically curated voice that will raise your eyebrows.

Moshfegh’s recipe for a novel also calls for vivid similes and metaphors that reveal riveting character traits. Her usage of recurring imagery and comparisons not only adds an edge to the plot but also develops the narrator’s understanding of her relationships with others. My Year of Rest and Relaxation deepens even when you think the narrator has already dug six feet of psychological dirt.

If I had to dedicate a painting to this BookTok-famous novel, it would depict the stars because it will take you places you never thought possible. On that journey, it will remind you that the mind is filled not only with limitless creativity but also with dangerous obstacles.

Rating: 5/5 VHS Tapes of Sister Act (starring the one and only Whoopi Goldberg)