Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar accurately portrays mental health struggles and does so interestingly through its pacing. The storytelling is tangential, distracted, and convoluted at times, there are many sub-stories and recollections of the past that brings you out of the story completely, just to rip you back to the reality of the moment. I found this style of writing to be beneficial to the character development, but not as engaging to read.

Despite this being a story about mental health and suicide, Plath maintains poetic and comedic language, making it an enjoyable read rather than a depressing one.

I couldn’t help but think of the social understanding or tolerance towards mental health and Suicide when reading The Bell Jar, when this book was written and first came out, Suicide was more taboo than it is now, I assume this made the mundane story more interesting at the time. To me it was relatable and something I was uncomfortably numb to.

This book is outdated and a bit racist, no question there, and follows a story of an upper middle class white woman. There’s room for improvement!

Content Warnings

georgie_libby_m's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

5.0

Content Warnings

jkandert2's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

greenranger666's review against another edition

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dark sad tense 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

4.0

Content Warnings

intofolkloreee's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

I was slowly descending into madness along with Esther (as if I was ever sane before this book)

Content Warnings

sjhonarvar's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

I really struggled with how to rate & review this—I’ve never had such complicated, heavy feelings about a book, honestly. I understand now why this is such a masterpiece, but I also understand why my friends begged me not to read it (lol sorry girls). I feel like I needed this, but it also kept me up at night & made me feel a lil crazy. The duality goes so crazy on this one, fr. Also, Sylvia—the racism is a big no from me (it really took away from my experience of the book). Final thought is that the fig tree will live rent-free in my mind for the rest of my days. Wowie wow wow.

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