At the time I requested this book I was very interested in it. Obviously, it has been a few years since I requested this and I am no longer interested in it now. It doesn't match my current reading tastes and I apologize that I didn't read it and thank you for the kindness you showed offering it to me.

Ottessa Moshfegh writes so broadly, you never know what you're in for! As a fan of My year of Rest and Relaxation I was expecting something very different, but I enjoyed this nonetheless. Not one for my students!

Another great book by Ottessa Moshfegh. Had me thinking long after I finished. Tried to get Ottessa to appear on my show but wasn't able to make it happen.

Death in Her Hands simply did not work for me. The writing was fine but I could not get into the story. I had to DNF.

I've been reading Ottessa Mosfegh for a while now and she is one of the most talented writers I have ever seen. The way she can capture the essence of a book in such few words is simply astonishing. She has a way with words that leaves me speechless time and time again. Ottessa Mosfegh is a brilliant writer and storyteller.

Her latest novel, Death in Her Hands, is a captivating and haunting tale of the life of one girl in an alternate reality. You will find yourself unable to put this book down as you follow her on her journey through love, loss and redemption. I couldn't put this book down. Ottessa Mosfegh is Death in Her Hands Review is a fantastic read and I can't wait to see what she does next.

"I have never been so terrified, so taken by the nature of things and the way that death operates, and the way life doesn't operate," says Vesta, a more stable version of our narrator, as she tries to piece together Magda's disappearance and death.

Magda was more than the wife of Vesta's husband, James. She was a colleague, a life-partner and friend. James dies, and all Vesta can remember of her dead husband is a faded photograph of him, wearing the hat he wore for his life's work as a geologist. But Vesta can't help but obsess about Magda. She notices things about Magda, like the mole on her leg, or the tattoos on her neck, and says, "I had no idea that when I lived with James, he had never told me the truth about Magda's death."

If anyone can figure out what happened to Magda, Vesta believes it will be her because she is a much more observant woman. She believes she could have predicted Magda's murder. Vesta never found Magda's body but she saw what happened.

And so the "surprise" comes when Vesta discovers a very surprising thing: Magda wasn't killed. Vesta didn't get the answer she wanted. She has no idea who killed her friend and she doesn't know what to do about it. There's no greater horror than not knowing.

Moshfegh has a knack for evoking the scary and the surreal, but this
novel is loosely based on Moshfegh's own bizarre circumstances, when her father died, prematurely, of an aneurysm. Moshfegh hasn't given many details about the book yet, but for my money, you can never say no to the idea of a book about a man in a coffin with his best friend. It seems particularly pertinent for a moment like

A very strange, dark and chaotic little novel. It’s unique and captivating, but confusing at the same time. It’s my first Moshfegh but certainly not my last. Perfect for October.

Vesta Gul is a widowed elderly woman who stumbles upon a crytic note in the woods while walking her dog. The note eludes to the death of a woman named Magda, possibly in a suspicious and sinister way. Vesta becomes seemingly obsessed with this letter and Magda herself, taking the reader on a wild ride in this psychological mystery. She creates narratives about Magda and her life that straddle the thin line between reality and the vivid imagination of a lonely woman.

I read some terrible reviews about this and while I can't say it was a traditional 5 star psychological type thriller, it was still rather brilliant. At times I found myself wishing for more viewpoints to maybe help the story along or provide some insight or character depth but reflecting back after finishing, I completely understand why. I am also left feeling oddly satisfied that events were not nicely wrapped up and explained; the element of unknown makes this even more interesting. If you enjoy somewhat open ended unusual thrillers, this is one I would recommend.
Trigger warning: animal endangerment and cruelty. Avoid if that's problematic for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review!

The thing with Otessa Moshfegh is that her novels are wavelengths. You either get it, or you don't.

I'm right on the age that I get it. I think 5 years ago, I wouldn't be able to get into her books, and in 10 years I likely won't again. It makes for a strange experience. It's unsettling.

But I liked it. Probably won't read it again.

3.5 stars - I love Moshfegh's pointed prose, and while this novel does meander, it does an amazing job of getting inside the head of a bitter, disillusioned and delusional woman who's losing her grip on reality.

Ottessa Moshfegh never fails to deliver something so new and different!! I quite literally never really knew what to expect going into this and that's something I love about her writing. I will continue to read everything she's ever done.

An elderly widow discovers an ominous note in the woods. From that point, we step onto the spiraling roller coaster that is her train of thought as her inner monologue darts in every possible direction, jumps to every conclusion. Its a frenetic ride.

This was intense. It was beautifully written and absolutely captivating. At times it was difficult to know what was real and what was her imagination, but that is the point, I think. A quick, fascinating read.

I love Ottessa Moshfegh and was particularly affected by "My Year of Rest and Relaxation."

I'm not sure what's going on with "Death in Her Hands." An allegory about the intellectual process of writing a book (or creating art in general)? A critique of our fascination with the true crime genre?

The story itself focuses on an unpleasant, judgmental widower who makes an awful lot of assumptions about the people around her as her own mental well-being deteriorates. It's like walking through an unsettling half-nightmare that goes from unpleasant to deeply unsettling.

Honestly I didn’t love this one.
I didn’t quite get into the writing story and I kept waiting for something to happen.

I know plenty of people who love this one but it wasn’t for me.

I love love love Ottessa Moshfegh but this book just didn't do it for me. I didn't hate it but I didn't absolutely love it.

Intense. Somehow this gave me Patricia Highsmith vibes. Certainly more of a guilty pleasure read, but it excelled at that.

Dark and twisted. A woman come undone in the wilderness. Haunted by many ghosts. Pursued by a mystery. The mind is a terrible wonderful thing and Moshfegh knows it very well.

This is the sort of book that I can't decide about. On one hand, I thought it was brilliant, but on the other hand, I don't think I liked it! It tells the story of an elderly woman, living alone in the woods, who encounters a note when out walking her dog. The note says, 'Her name was Magda. No one will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body' What follows is a spiraling narrative following our protagonist as she attempts to discover what happened to Magda. There is something very unsettling about the tone of the book, like a veneer of respectability over a sordid neighbourhood that I think Moshfegh writes incredibly well. This is also, at times, genuinely funny and the voice of our protagonist is strong and distinctive throughout. It's also nice to have an older woman as the focal point, which is something of a rarity. With all that being said, I thought that some of the choices made about this character left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, this is a really skillfully constructed narrative, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Frustrating book. It has an interesting premise. A woman walking alone in the woods near her home finds a note pinned to the ground by rocks with information about a murder. She lives alone nearby with her dog in a small town she has recently moved to. She is distrustful of those around her and her husband of many years has died.

Okay, good start. But then, the story goes nowhere. The woman keeps imagining information about the woman named in the note but does nothing to try and actually find her or whether she was murdered. The protagonist just spins a crazy tale in her head and, after a while, it was too much for this reader. I gave up.

I want a little more out of fiction that just....fiction, if you know what I mean.

This book made me feel so cozy..her described life at the beginning is exactly how I picture mine in 40 years. And boom! The reliable OM stream of consciousness comes out. The descent into madness was fun.