Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

608 reviews

whatsmomreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Esther Greenwood is in New York on an internship for a women’s magazine, she’s broken out of her small hometown, made it to university and she has the interest of a well to do college student whose set to be a doctor. While to outsiders everything appears to be perfect for Esther, inside she’s slowly succumbing to a deep depression. She feels no joy, no love for writing, no enthusiasm for her internship. Esther can’t seem to make up her mind as to which direction her life will go and in the 50’s there were so few options for women. When she returns home to find she didn’t make the summer writing program she applied to it sends her off the deep end and into a stay at the asylum. 

This book made me so uncomfortable in how realistically Plath was able to write about depression and it makes sense as she based this book around her own life. I could feel myself sinking into that familiar fog, where you feel nothing and everything all at once so all you can do is freeze. At the time the choices for women were so limited and all roads eventually pointed to marriage and a family, which would end any career dreams they had. 

I found myself thinking about how now we can “have it all” but in so many ways we still can’t AND we still face the pressures of marriage & babies in the modern day. If you don’t get married and have kids something is wrong, if you have kids there’s always questions about when you’ll have more, if you have kids and go back to work you’re a bad mom, if you stay home with the kids then you’re taking the “easy” way out. 

The fig analogy broke my heart as I’ve felt the same way many times. Everything is just within my grasp but I still can’t decide. But I also found it inspiring to remember I don’t have to have everything figured out and there’s still so much time to chase my dreams.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

rebeccaehockin's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Fatphobia

soapfaced's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

emerlees's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicide, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Misogyny

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexual violence, Medical content, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Racial slurs

Minor: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

katie69's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Suicide, Mental illness, and Racism

csharp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Already wrote a review on GoodReads, this book is going into one of my all time favourites.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racial slurs

piesxlorini's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Racism, and Ableism

emmaareads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Racial slurs

lilawsahar's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Follows a young woman who deals with depression and suicidal thoughts.

After a suicidal attempt, she finds herself in a mental institution to help her cope with her feelings including shock treatment. It’s good that she ends on a happy note. But after reading the life of the author, you realize the experience of the character ties closely to the experience of the author. And the author ends up killing herself, which you can probably assume the character in the book does as well later on like Joan. I really hope that mental health services are better than they were back then.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death