Death in Her Hands: A Novel
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by: The Washington Post, Vogue, Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, New York Magazine, Paste Magazine, LitHub, E! News Online, and many more
From one of our most ceaselessly provocative literary talents, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds an ominous note on a walk in the woods.
While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one.
Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate. With very little to go on, she invents a list of murder suspects and possible motives for the crime. Oddly, her suppositions begin to find correspondences in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to fade into menacing certainty. As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past; we must face the prospect that there is either an innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one.
A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, Death in Her Hands asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both reflect the truth and keep us blind to it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, and the stakes have never been higher.
From one of our most ceaselessly provocative literary talents, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds an ominous note on a walk in the woods.
While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one.
Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate. With very little to go on, she invents a list of murder suspects and possible motives for the crime. Oddly, her suppositions begin to find correspondences in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to fade into menacing certainty. As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past; we must face the prospect that there is either an innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one.
A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, Death in Her Hands asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both reflect the truth and keep us blind to it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, and the stakes have never been higher.
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Community Reviews
I purposely picked out a book by [a:Ottessa Moshfegh|3276202|Ottessa Moshfegh|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651525567p2/3276202.jpg] because the cover pages for [b:Lapvona|59693959|Lapvona|Ottessa Moshfegh|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637763820l/59693959._SY75_.jpg|90580155] and [b:My Year of Rest and Relaxation|44279110|My Year of Rest and Relaxation|Ottessa Moshfegh|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597676656l/44279110._SY75_.jpg|55508660] have consistently caught my eye while on display towards the front of the local bookstore. I picked Death in Her Hands because it was available at my library, and I liked the synopsis.
The first two thirds of this book were a bit of a drag, the inner-dialogue of a 72-year old woman, Vesta Gool, who lives with her dog in a cabin in New England (I think). She finds a mysterious note in the woods about a girl named Magda who was killed and tries to solve the mystery, in her head.
I honestly forced myself to finish the book before returning it to the library. Towards the end of the book, Vesta has more interactions with residents of Levant, the town where she lives. I'm not convinced Vesta didn't have dementia or even make up much of her day-to-day.
The first two thirds of this book were a bit of a drag, the inner-dialogue of a 72-year old woman, Vesta Gool, who lives with her dog in a cabin in New England (I think). She finds a mysterious note in the woods about a girl named Magda who was killed and tries to solve the mystery, in her head.
I honestly forced myself to finish the book before returning it to the library. Towards the end of the book, Vesta has more interactions with residents of Levant, the town where she lives. I'm not convinced Vesta didn't have dementia or even make up much of her day-to-day.
I found it a little slow to start and hard to officially dive into. I ended up setting it down for a while but then almost breezed through it the last half of the book. I know most complaints about the book are that since it's all in Vesta's head and not much else happens it's boring, but I honestly loved that aspect of the book. Being inside Vesta's brain felt so comforting in a way? Maybe I shouldn't relate to her too much but her imaginative brain that can just take a piece of information and conjure up a story to it was so familiar to me. Just two delusional girlies searching for answers. So many quotes about choosing the safe option or having someone else make decisions on your behalf made me anxious that one day I'll be old and full of regrets as well.
The only thing I absolutely hated was Vesta's fatphobia, I would be reading and all of a sudden get reminded that I'm gross and disgusting and if she saw me in the store she would give me the dirtiest look and puke at the sight of me.
The only thing I absolutely hated was Vesta's fatphobia, I would be reading and all of a sudden get reminded that I'm gross and disgusting and if she saw me in the store she would give me the dirtiest look and puke at the sight of me.
Not a book I would recommend to people who don't like introspection and deep looks into the psyche of an unreliable and unstable narrator.
There’s nothing technical I wanna critique about this book just that it was underwhelming, and not because it was open-ended, I just didn’t feel anything when I finished it. But I do resonate with the mc. Moshfegh really has a skillful way of interpreting loneliness that evokes emotions that you would never think to associate with being lonely. It’s also quite interesting, looking at it at the perspective of a 70-year old woman.
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