I think ottessa and I would be friends in real life but I think I'd need to tell her "you're at a 9 and I need you at a 4".

Here's why, even though I've dislikes 2 ottessa moshfegh books, I'll pick up another: her prose is gorgeous, the concepts are interesting, and the narrative is engaging. But I'll suspect I'll dislike the reading process and frequently hope that I'm close to the end of the book.

This book is basically "would living in the dark ages suck? Yes and here's a comprehensive guide on all the ways it could suck, especially if there's magic realism around eye-related body horror". I'd make a list of content warnings but the whole book is a content warning.

Ok before I accidentally close the goodreads app halfway through writing a review for the second time tonight, I'll wrap this up. This book is super weird but well written and you might be into that. Recommended if you think living in the dark ages would have indeed sucked but would love to see it illustrated in full.