Thank you @penguinpress for my free early copy of Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh! This one did not disappoint, falling in between Eileen (3.5⭐️) and My Year of Rest and Relaxation (4.5⭐️) for me. When Vesta finds a cryptic note about a dead girl called Magda in the woods near her home but no body, she becomes obsessed with solving this ‘crime’ that may or may not have happened.

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There’s an unnerving sense of claustrophobia being inside Vesta’s head the entire novel. Her thoughts run riot, each one branching off into a dozen new ones, all based on what if, what if, what if? You end up losing track of what’s real and what’s merely a figment of a lonely old woman’s imagination. Anyone who has an anxious, overly active imagination will find Vesta somewhat relatable - if I found a cryptic note in the forest like that my mind would jump to similar places, building up the most unlikely scenarios in my head until the thoughts were all-consuming.

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There’s also a pulsing undercurrent of tension running throughout, simple, single lines which, when you read them, make your heart jump into your throat. Little things, like the thought of a home intruder invading your privacy, someone lingering in the shadows of the woods, just outside of your line of vision...

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As with all of Moshfegh’s characters, there’s a vein of darkness running through Vesta; it seems like she takes pleasure at the thought of other people’s discomfort, although only those she thinks are deserving of it in some way. As her grip on reality slips, she starts to plumb the depths of her past, reflecting on her unfulfilled life with a manipulative and unfaithful husband. I’m still not sure where I stand on the ending, but ultimately it’s a heartbreaking depiction of where a deteriorating mind might take you.

An intense character study that gave me Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead vibes, I have a feeling this one will divide readers, but I loved it!