My Year of Rest and Relaxation

I'm honestly really disappointed. At first, I was mad, but now it just turned into disappointment. This book could have been so cool, and I was really excited to see what it was about, just from reading the title. And.. it's not.

The main character is unlikable - which is the point(Hopefully), but being stuck in her head for 250 pages should be classified as human torture. The ‘best friend’ Reva is also unlikable, but I ended up rooting for her due to how awfully - and I cannot stress this enough - the main character was treating her.

But ultimately, the book felt pointless, shallow, and condescending. The book didn't attempt to make any kind of commentary regarding the fact that our main character slept for a year due to grief, depression and other mental health issues. The whole thing is treated as ‘it is what it is’. Her cruelty to Reva? It is what it is. Her snobbish attitude? It is what it is. The fact that her parents are dead and that she was groomed by an older man? It is what it is. Her addiction to prescription pills? It is what it is. There's no meaning to anything in this book. I felt mocked the entire time while reading it, as someone who likely has depression - just undiagnosed.

The ending was what turned my anger and bitterness into defeat and disappointment. So the message is that she slept for a year, and her life actually became better? And the baffling inclusion of 9/11 for no reason? I'm not even American and I found the inclusion odd, to say the least. The only good thing about the ending is that Reva cut her off. Honestly, I hated the ending so much, so I made up my own - she overdosed on pills. Yup. That's it. That's the ending. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

Oh also, slurs. The slur for mentally disabled/challenged people(r-slur) has been used twice. You know that the author MUST be a great writer if they have to resort to slurs to make their character unlikable, right? Well yes, of course.

There's also one more thing I'd like to mention - an EGREGIOUS amount of pop culture references. I took my time to highlight every pop culture/celebrity/historical figure/media/product reference and count it. Disclaimer, I definitely missed some. Enjoy:

Whoopi Goldberg(15 times), Frantic(5 times), Austin Powers, Hugh Grant, Julia Robert, Winona Ryder, Girl Interrupted, Angelina Jolie, Office Romance, Cosmo(3 times), Get the Most Out of Your Day Ladies, Adolph Hitler, Tin Cup, DEA, FDA, NICB, NHCAA, NASA, National Geographic, The House of Mirth, The age of innocence, Fatal Beauty, Cling Film, New York Times(3 times), Danielle Steel, Burglar(2 times), The Fugitive, Jumpin' Jack Flash(2 times), The Color Purple(2 times), Ghost(3 times), Sister Act, Soapdish(2 times), The Player(3 times), Showgirls, Enemy of the State, I'll Be Home for Christmas, How to Attract the Man of Your Dreams Using Self-hypnosis, Architectural Digest, Air Force One, Apparent Death, Working Girl(2 times), The Nutty Professor, Jumanji, Casper, Space Jam, The Cable Guy, 9½ Weeks, Sex Lies and Videotape, Primal Fear, Indiana Jones, Big, Titanic, Regarding Henry, Three Days of the Condor, Absence of Malice, The Way We Were, Tootsie(2 times), Out of Africa, People, Sweet'N Low(2 times), McDonald's, John Hughes, Anthony Michael Hall, The Old Guitarist, The Death of Casagemas, Man on Morphine, Law&Order(2 times), Prince, Bonnie Raitt, Kate Moss(6 times), Edie Sedgwick, Charlize Theron, Amber Valletta, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Beaches, Steel Magnolias, Martin Luther King, Jr., River Phoenix, Viper Room, Sophie’s Choice, E.T., Boyz n the Hood, Anne Frank, Bambi, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Virginia Slim, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bloomingdale, Kleenex, New Yorker(3 times), On My Own, Santana, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias, Marie Claire(2 times), Rick Moranis, The Art of Happiness, Dalai Lama, Portnoy Porthole, Elvises, Maggie Kahpour, Gwen Elbaz-Burke, Ken Burke, Heinrich Himmler, Magna Carta, Andy Warhol, The Death of Marat, Storm Thurmond, Hillary Clinton, Giuliani, Presumed Innocent(2 times), Schindler's List, The Last of the Mohicans, Patriot Games, Sabrina(2 times), Harrison Ford(3 times), Driving Miss Daisy, Sling Blade, The World According to Garp, Stargate(2 times), Moonstruck, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek(3 times), Enterprise, Moonlight and Valentino, Marina Sirtis, Braveheart, Diane Arbus, The Hemingways, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Kurt Cobain, The Bodyguard, The Mighty Ducks, The Karate Kid Part III, Bullets over Broadway, Emma, Emmanuelle Seigner, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friends, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, The West Wing, Will & Grace, The King of Queens, Oprah, Donahue, The Ricki Lake, Sally Jessy Raphael, Nightline, Jenny Jones, Maury Povich, Lauren Bacall, Joan Fontaine, Kim Novak, Sharon Stone, Gorge Walker Bush, Saved by the Bell, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, StairMaster, Sybil, Turner Classic Movies Channel, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Thierry Mugler, Christian Dior 999, Jose Cuervo, D'Agostino, ThighMaster, Chip Clip, Us Weekly, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Dell, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Diet 7UP(5 times), Metamucil, Healthy Choice, Tostitos, Skippy, Hershey's, Belvedere, Gatorade, Laura Ashley, Burger King, Lifesavers, Farmingdale, Winnie-the-Pooh, Aspartame, Pepcid, Lysol, Maybelline, Claudia Schiffer, Guess Jeans, Calvins, Linda Evangelista, Listerine, Tiffany's, Manolo Blahniks, Atkins, Tide, Lubriderm, Rite Aid, Tarkovsky, Rousseau, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Pepto-Bismol, Schweppes(2 times), Shakespeare, Ophelia, Millais, Canada Dry, Plato, Hollywood, Hegel, ChapStick, Alive, Elsa Schneider, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Evian, Neutrogena, War and Peace, Mao II, Italian For Dummies, Mad Libs, 99 Cent Store, Harlem, Corn Flakes(2 times), Goodwill(4 times), Bad at Math, Ducat, Coca-Cola, Pennzoil, Channel, Absolut Vodka, Artforum, Ronald Jones, Phyllis Braff, ArtReview, Met, McGlue, Fence Modern Prize in Prose, The Believer Book Award, Homesick for Another World, The Paris Review, Granta, Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Award, The Plimpton Discovery Prize, National Endowment, Eileen, National Book Critics Circle Award, the Man Booker Prize, PEN/Hemingway Award, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

...I put more effort into writing that than the author did in writing this book. Needless to say, the author, and ESPECIALLY the editor, should be ASHAMED of themselves for this. That was 246 things references. The version of the book I've read has 243 pages. More references than there are pages. I'd say that I'm shocked, but I'm really not. My moral standards are keeping me from giving it one star.

A good book but I felt empty after reading this one.

Not an easy read this one 😔