My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshfegh
★ Top 25 book of 2018 · #15 on Best Books of 2018
In New York City at the start of 2000, a young woman who has lost her parents and drifted from everyone decides to spend a year essentially sleeping. Her pill use grows, her isolation deepens, and a strong medication brings dangerous blackouts.
Best for: Readers who like dark, unsettling stories about alienation and withdrawing from the world
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2018, out of 59 2018 books that cleared our data bar.
What My Year of Rest and Relaxation is about
A young woman in New York at the start of 2000 decides she has had enough of the world and sets out to sleep through a full year of it. She is unnamed, orphaned, and already cut off from almost everyone when the plan begins. The few people still in her orbit, a friend named Reva who struggles with bulimia, a former boyfriend, and a psychiatrist who hands out drugs freely, are bad for her in different ways. As she takes more pills, her isolation deepens, and a strong medication starts causing blackouts that put her in real danger. Moshfegh writes about numbness, withdrawal and the wish to escape, with a cool, sharp eye. It suits readers who like dark, unsettling character studies.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation on the Best Books of 2018
My Year of Rest and Relaxation came out in 2018. Of the 59 books first published in 2018 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #15 on our Best Books of 2018 list.
Why it made the list: 658 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (37 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2018 list
- The Burning Maze Rick Riordan, #13
- Factfulness Hans Rosling, #14
- Monday's Not Coming Tiffany D. Jackson, #16
- Front Desk Kelly Yang, #17
See all Best Books of 2018 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2017 Best Books of 2019.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 586 want to read it, 17 are reading it now and 55 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4 out of 5 from 37 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 78 | 55% |
| Reader love | 41 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 71 | 20% |
Questions about My Year of Rest and Relaxation
When was My Year of Rest and Relaxation published?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh was first published in 2018.
Was My Year of Rest and Relaxation one of the best books of 2018?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is #15 on BookWard's Best Books of 2018, out of 59 2018 books that cleared our data bar. 658 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (37 ratings).
Why is My Year of Rest and Relaxation on the Best Books of 2018 list?
658 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (37 ratings).
More of the best books of 2018
- Heartstopper, Volume 1 Alice Oseman, #1
- Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens, #2
- The Laws of Human Nature Robert Greene, #3
- Atomic Habits James Clear, #4
- Five Feet Apart Rachael Lippincott, #5
- Then She Was Gone Lisa Jewell, #6
See the full Best Books of 2018, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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