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Babies In the Library
Start growing your reader with rhymes, songs, and simple books. Develop early literacy skills at this program for our youngest patrons.
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
An adult caregiver must accompany children at this program.
No Registration Required
No Registration Required
Babies In the Library
Start growing your reader with rhymes, songs, and simple books. Develop early literacy skills at this program for our youngest patrons.
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
An adult caregiver must accompany children at this program.
No Registration Required
No Registration Required
Talk to Community Action staff to learn about and/or enroll in Coordinated Entry and to receive referrals to services in the area.
Disclaimer(s)
No Registration Required
No Registration Required
Join us for a lively, interactive storytime featuring books, songs, action rhymes, puppets and more. Each storytime incorporates the five practices of early literacy: READ, WRITE, TALK, SING & PLAY.
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
An adult caregiver must accompany children at this program.
Join us for a lively, interactive storytime featuring books, songs, action rhymes, puppets and more. Each storytime incorporates the five practices of early literacy: READ, WRITE, TALK, SING & PLAY.
Disclaimer(s)
Accompanying Adults
An adult caregiver must accompany children at this program.
Get Spooky: Paranormal Activities & Ghost Hunting
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Ghosts, Apparitions and Poltergeists
Skeletal remains rotting behind cellar walls, temple priests removing brains with iron hooks, phantom locomotives roaring across midnight plains--Brian Righi isn't making this stuff up. The ghost stories he finds in history are far more chilling than any Hollywood horror scene.
Join the seasoned paranormal investigator on a tour through mankind's millennium-old obsession with death and the afterlife. Ghosts, Apparitions and Poltergeists surveys 4,000 years of hauntings and ghost huntings--from the embalming rituals of ancient Egypt to the Ouija boards and séances of nineteenth century Spiritualism--highlighting a few outlandish tales and colorful characters along the way.
Once you've learned the history, launch a paranormal investigation of your own with Righi's guide to modern ghost hunting, full of detailed advice culled from his seven years of experience in the field.
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Ghost Hunting
The Roman scholar Pliny the Younger wrote about ghost hunting--2,000 years later and the hunt still goes on. For all the thousands of hours spent by investigators in cold, dark houses, ghosts remain elusive and unproven. This book sets out to be a practical guide to show how ghost hunting can be done to best effect. Examining cases of ghost hunting in the past and present (including examples good, bad, and sometimes amusing), this guide asks if it is possible to find the answer to the age-old question of ghosts--and if so, how can progress be made on this intriguing and sometimes addictive quest? Packed with practical advice from John Fraser, the Vice Chair (Investigations) of the Ghost Club and now spontaneous case coordinator for the Society for Psychical Research, it is an essential purchase for all would-be ghost hunters.
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Haunted Files from the Edge
The Strange, the Bizarre, and the Unexplained
Just when you think Philip Imbrogno's infamous files have been exhausted, he presents us with another collection of spooky cases of unexplained strangeness. Pulled from more than thirty years' worth of investigations, these never-before-published cases involve run-ins with angry spirits, phantasms, monsters, and poltergeists.
Through detailed on-scene investigations and historical research, Haunted Files from the Edge takes you on a creepy tour of notorious specters, haunted places, and legends such as the Ghosts of Sleepy Hollow, the Curse of the Green Witch, the Ghosts of the Alamo, and the Curse of Owlsbury.
Using state-of-the-art tools and special imaging techniques, Imbrogno has been able to find rational explanations for 73 percent of the cases he has investigated. The mystifying cases presented here, supported by eyewitness testimony and photographic evidence, are among those that defy explanation.
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EVP
Delve into electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) as you read and listen to ghosts in Massachusetts. Real voices from 15 real investigations, recorded throughout Massachusetts, from men, women, and even children, communicate like never before. Most are recorded in stunning clarity! Hear a ghostly voice at Cordage Park, in Plymouth, saying the words, "One teacher...", while another voice from Salem's Inn at Washington Square argues, "The devil make you live long", while another replies, "No, he won't!" Feel a chill as you listen to the incredible admission of murder from a spirit at the Fearing Tavern in Wareham, that confesses, "Hey Ashford, I killed Grandpa Ash..." Take an adventure combining new recording technologies with old-world beliefs that supports the idea that there is life after death!
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The Dead Are Watching
A girl convicted of witchcraft in seventeenth century England stalks a modern-day ancestor in her sleep. The Children of Death turn an Ohio nursing home into a ghastly playhouse. A long-dead woman's screams echo in the eerie silence of a decrepit graveyard. These true encounters with the dead will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
In The Dead are Watching, psychic Debra Robinson takes you inside her most frightening experiences with paranormal entities. Follow her exploration into the painful lives and often violent deaths of ghosts, spirits, and other bizarre manifestations. With detailed investigations and personal accounts from Debra's haunted life, this compelling book sheds light on the darkest mysteries of the spirit realm.
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Travelogue of Horror
Here is a travelogue for those whose idea of a perfect vacation doesn't involve amusement parks and tourist traps, a guidebook for fans of horror and the macabre. Ride along with the author to ghoulish destinations, such as where fright flicks like Friday the 13th and Jaws were filmed, Jeffrey Dahmer's childhood home, UFO crash sites, and macabre graves, to name a few. See the sites in over 70 vivid color photos. Fifteen states were visited from Maine to Georgia in search of iconic filming locations from movies such as The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Evil Dead. Along the way, monsters were hunted, vampire graves tracked down, a strange mix of paranormal and odd locations across the Eastern US were visited, and Stephen King was met. Hitch a ride, but remember that you never know what you might find--or what might find you!
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The Everything Ghost Hunting Book
All you need to track and record paranormal activity!
Ectoplasm...cold spots...orbs...everyone loves a real-life ghost story! Ghosthunter Melissa Martin Ellis takes you on an exciting journey into the supernatural world of haunted sites, restless souls, and messages from beyond the grave. You'll learn about the most up-to-date technology, such as motion sensors and highly sensitive digital cameras, as well as the supernatural phenomena themselves, including:- Poltergeists
- Electronic-voice phenomena (EVP)
- Possession
- Photo anomalies
- Seances and voodoo rituals
With expert advice on everything from picking a haunted location to setting up cameras and dealing with unwieldy ghosts, The Everything Ghost Hunting Book, 2nd Edition shows you how today's investigators use the tools of modern science to study a wide range of paranormal activity.
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The House Where Evil Lurks
This is not a Hollywood tale, it is a true account of one of the most malevolent hauntings ever recorded. Join experienced paranormal investigator Brandon Callahan as one demon-infested property shocks his team with the intensity of its hostility, especially when the darkness bleeds into their everyday lives.
When Brandon Callahan answers an innocent homeowner's plea for help, he has no idea he is about to become entangled with the most malicious supernatural force of his career. The House Where Evil Lurks chronicles a host of alarming activity: disembodied shrieks and growls, threatening EVPs, violent confrontations, horrific nightmares, sightings of spirits and dark entities, and physical attacks that change the lives of these seasoned investigators forever.
Praise:
"[A] stunning piece of paranormal writing."--Steven LaChance, author of The Uninvited -
Monster Hunters
Do ghosts exist? What about the Bigfoot, or Skinwalkers? And how will we ever know? Journalist Tea Krulos spent over a year travelling nationwide to meet individuals who have made it their life's passion to hunt down evidence of entities that they believe exist, but that others might shrug off as nothing more than myths, fairytales, or overactive imaginations. Without taking sides in the debate, Krulos joins these believers in the field, exploring haunted houses, trekking through creepy forests, and scanning skies and lakes as they collect data on the unknown—poltergeists, chupacabras, Skunk Apes (Bigfoot's stinky cousins), and West Virginia's Mothman. He even attends an attempted exorcism. Along the way, he meets a diverse cast of characters—true believers, skeptics, and hoaxers, from the credible to the quirky. It is hard not to be swept up in the investigators' never-wavering enthusiasm, and Krulos has a couple of hair-raising encounters along the way, ones that make him second-guess his own beliefs. Yet in the end, he leaves it to the reader to decide: are these people onto something, or are they tilting at supernatural windmills? Tea Krulos is a freelance journalist and author of Heroes in the Night and the blog of the same name. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Monster Hunters
Do ghosts exist? What about the Bigfoot, or Skinwalkers? And how will we ever know? Journalist Tea Krulos spent over a year travelling nationwide to meet individuals who have made it their life's passion to hunt down evidence of entities that they believe exist, but that others might shrug off as nothing more than myths, fairytales, or overactive imaginations. Without taking sides in the debate, Krulos joins these believers in the field, exploring haunted houses, trekking through creepy forests, and scanning skies and lakes as they collect data on the unknown—poltergeists, chupacabras, Skunk Apes (Bigfoot's stinky cousins), and West Virginia's Mothman. He even attends an attempted exorcism. Along the way, he meets a diverse cast of characters—true believers, skeptics, and hoaxers, from the credible to the quirky. It is hard not to be swept up in the investigators' never-wavering enthusiasm, and Krulos has a couple of hair-raising encounters along the way, ones that make him second-guess his own beliefs. Yet in the end, he leaves it to the reader to decide: are these people onto something, or are they tilting at supernatural windmills? Tea Krulos is a freelance journalist and author of Heroes in the Night and the blog of the same name. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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The Haunted House Diaries
Nestled deep in Litchfield Hills, Connecticut, a 1790 farmhouse sits near the epicenter of a paranormal commotion. The family that resides there regularly encounters its own ancestors and strangers--human and non-human--who seemingly occupy the same physical space in our world while remaining in their own, parallel worlds. When famous ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated, they dubbed it "Ghost Central."
Here's your chance to unlock and experience the private diary of farmhouse resident Donna Fillie. This amazing record spans five decades and recounts a parade of uncanny occurrences, including:
- Notes from old friends who insist they didn't deliver them
- A grandson playing with an invisible--but very real--friend
- Donna awakening to phenomena at precisely 12:42 a.m., an eerie correspondence to her house number, 1242
This compelling work includes many other unexplainable details of a wide variety of phenomena that frequently occur in this otherwise normal area of Connecticut, which may also be the site of a secret military base.
After reading The Haunted House Diaries, you will undoubtedly wonder: Are our assumptions about the paranormal all wrong?
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Chasing Ghosts
“A fantastic book.”—Ben Kissel, co-host of Last Podcast on the Left
Take a spirited tour through the supernatural history of America, from its haunted sites to its famous ghosts to its ghost-obsessed pop culture.
Ghosts are everywhere—whether you believe in them or not. Every town has its local legends, and countless books, movies, and TV shows are haunted by their presence. But our obsession with ghosts runs deeper than we know—and is embedded in the very fabric of American history.
Writer and historian Marc Hartzman takes readers on a fascinating journey through supernatural history, including:
• The Fox Sisters and the rise of Spiritualism
• The supernatural obsessions of famous figures like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Famous haunted sites like the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia and the LaLaurie House in New Orleans
• Famous ghosts like the Bell Witch of Tennessee and the Greenbrier Ghost of West Virginia
• Paranormal investigators like Ed and Lorraine Warren
Deeply researched and highly entertaining, with archival images and black and white illustrations, Chasing Ghosts will satisfy believers and skeptics alike.
BookTok FYP Picks
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They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.
New York Times bestseller * 4 starred reviews * A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 * A Bustle Best YA Novel of 2017 * A Paste Magazine Best YA Book of 2017 * A Book Riot Best Queer Book of 2017 * A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year * A BookPage Best YA Book of the Year
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.”
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A Court of Thorns and Roses
The sexy, action-packed first book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series from global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he's not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.
From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read. -
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
“Riveting, heart-wrenching, and full of Old Hollywood glamour, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is one of the most captivating reads of 2017.” —BuzzFeed
“The epic adventures Evelyn creates over the course of a lifetime will leave every reader mesmerized. This wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet and her tumultuous Tinseltown journey comes with unexpected twists and the most satisfying of drama.” —PopSugar
In this entrancing novel “that speaks to the Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in us all” (Kirkus Reviews), a legendary film actress reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.
“Heartbreaking, yet beautiful” (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is “Tinseltown drama at its finest” (Redbook): a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth. -
Verity
#1 New York Times Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
The Globe and Mail Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends With Us.
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her. -
Gild
By bestselling author Raven Kennedy, comes the first book in a stunning new fantasy series, perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout.
The fae abandoned this world to us. And the ones with power rule.
Gold.
Gold floors, gold walls, gold furniture, gold clothes. In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold.
Even me.
King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious. His favored. I'm the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe.
Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.
Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged. And I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong.
Because these bars I'm kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I'd never left.
The myth of King Midas reimagined. This compelling adult fantasy series is as addictive as it is unexpected. With romance, intrigue, and danger, the gilded world of Orea will grip you from the very first page.
Please Note: This book contains explicit content and darker elements, including mature language, violence, and non-consensual sex. It is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age. This is book one in a series. -
The House in the Cerulean Sea
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER!
A 2021 Alex Award winner!
The 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Winner!
An Indie Next Pick!
One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2020"
One of Book Riot’s “20 Must-Read Feel-Good Fantasies”
Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune’s bestselling, breakout contemporary fantasy that's "1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in." (Gail Carriger)
Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world.
Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
"1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in." —Gail Carriger, New York Times bestselling author of Soulless -
Where the Crawdads Sing
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENON—NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!
More than 18 million copies sold worldwide
A Reese’s Book Club Pick
A Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade
“I can't even express how much I love this book! I didn't want this story to end!”—Reese Witherspoon
“Painfully beautiful.”—The New York Times Book ReviewFor years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. -
An Ember in the Ashes
BOOK ONE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy and 100 Best YA Books of All Time • People's Choice Award winner • Bustle's Best Young Adult Book
“This novel is a harrowing, haunting reminder of what it means to be human—and how hope might be kindled in the midst of oppression and fear.” — The Washington Post
The beloved and bestselling fantasy series that “glows, burns, and smolders.” (Huffington Post).
Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.
It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR FROM The Wall Street Journal • Buzzfeed • LA Weekly • Bustle • Paste Magazine • Indigo • Suspense Magazine • The New York Public Library • Popsugar • Hypable -
Every Summer After
"A radiant debut."—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
Named One of the Hottest Reads of Summer 2022 by Today ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ USA Today ∙ SheReads ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ BookBub ∙ Bustle ∙ and more!
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that mark us forever. -
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, & Audible
A New York Times Bestseller • New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
“One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.” —VogueFrom one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.