Wikipedia

“Eileen” tells the tale of a disturbed girl as she goes through her last week in her hometown.

Ottessa Moshfegh is known for making her readers feel uncomfortable and disturbed, but also like they can’t look away. Her debut novel “Eileen” is no exception.
The book follows a young Eileen Dunlop as she recounts her last week in her hometown, which she refers to as X-Ville. She spends her days working as a secretary at a prison for boys and taking care of her alcoholic and neglectful father in their home that is known around town for its filthiness. Eileen dreams of escaping X-Ville and moving to the big city.
Eileen hates herself, her life, and most other people. A lot of her thoughts consist of her disdain of her body, its appearance, its needs, its functions. She has no friends, she isn’t charming, she isn’t likable. Her thoughts and habits are odd and uncomfortable. But it’s beneath Eileen’s disturbing exterior that you find a girl who is utterly human.
“I think Eileen is a very interesting character,” says sophomore Grey Hall. “She’s obviously not a good person, and a lot of the things she does are messed up, but she still manages to be relatable in a really strange way.”
About a third of the way into the book, we are introduced to Rebecca Saint John, the new counselor at the prison Eileen works at. Eileen is immediately infatuated by Rebecca and they form a connection rather quickly. It is this bond that leads Eileen to become complicit in a crime which ultimately leads to her escape from X-Ville.
“Eileen” has garnered much praise since its release in 2015. It has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It has also won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for debut fiction. There is even a movie adaptation coming out this December starring Thomasin McKenzie as Eileen and Anne Hathaway as Rebecca.
Senior Christina Archer says, “I loved this book so much and I think about it often, Eileen is one of those books that after you finish reading you just have to sit with yourself for a while to take it all in, I’m still picking up pieces of myself after reading. I think everyone should give this book a read! It completely transports you into the lucid swirl that is Eileen’s life and takes your mind off of yours each time you read.”
There is this idea that all women must be perfect and pristine. Eileen is none of those things, but it doesn’t make her any less of a woman. She is the worst parts of womanhood intensified and combined and she is remarkably relatable.
If you like books about women who stray from society’s idea of what they should be, or if you like reading books that make you really uncomfortable, this is the one for you.