Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark

14 reviews

maryclaire92's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

Admittedly I did not know much about Plath, but one 45 hour-long audiobook later and I want to read all of her work. A very in depth, yet empathetic look at Sylvia Plath’s life and how a very of factors shaped her work and personal struggles. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer, Abortion, and Antisemitism

mmaguire's review

dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Antisemitism and Cancer

Minor: Abortion

xx_selenite's review

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

I am truly speechless. I finished the book 40 minutes ago and needed those 40 minutes to process the monumental biography I just read. My thoughts are not fully organised yet, and I apologise for this.
- I believe Heather Clark knows Sylvia Plath better than Sylvia herself. There isn't one aspect of her life that wasn't talked about. This is the first time I feel familiar with a person through a biography.
- Related to the previous point, I cried, which is new for me upon reading biographies.
- Despite having studied The Bell Jar, I did not realise how autobiographical it was before reading this book. Even smaller, more trivial elements are rooted in Sylvia's real life. In the same way, some poems become much easier to interpret
- This book didn't feel tedious to read like some biographies are. It reads as easy as a novel, at the end of each chapter I just wanted to keep reading. 
I truly believe this is a book one must read if they've ever read anything by Sylvia Plath. It is necessary to understand her writings, and her life illustrates the psychiatry of her time, a system which failed to understand women's suffering and the impact of patriarchy on their psychology.
A genuine, major recommendation. 

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Content Warnings

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

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

Heart breaking, but also inspired me to write more poetry every time I picked this up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Antisemitism

ewitsell's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

wiktoriapiet's review

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

Really thorough and detailed

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Infidelity

itsinourhands's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Wow! Super in-depth. Appreciate neutral take on Plath’s life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt

aargot1's review

slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Infertility, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Body horror, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Antisemitism, Classism, and Confinement

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite people to learn about, and "The Bell Jar" is my favorite book, so I was very excited to see what this biography had to offer. I really loved how this book was set up, and I really enjoyed that this biography dove into the lives of the people around Sylvia Plath. We got to learn about her parents' lives and how their decisions and hardships impacted Sylvia. This biography also did a great job of looking at the relationship between Sylvia and Ted Hughes. Heather Clark really did her research and included information from an array of different sources. She beautifully pulled in excerpts from Sylvia's journals, interviews from people around Sylvia, and news articles and journals published during Sylvia's life. I was very pleased to see so many themes touched upon throughout the book: mental health specifically in the early 1900's and how women were treated during this time, women's rights in the early 1900's, what a women's "role" was, and so much more. This biography also has pictures throughout, which was really interesting to see. We get to see what her parents looked like, how Sylvia aged, and her own little family.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Infertility

alrauna's review

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Death of parent, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism and Abortion