Reviews

Mary Ventura Y El Noveno Reino / Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath

desidala's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

fati_reads_'s review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

To think that this was a rejected piece from Sylvia Plath! 

I think this was brilliantly written. This is such an interesting take on life, death, and maybe the afterlife. 

nerdybookworm23's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

elliebreen's review against another edition

4.0

Reread multiple times for my dissertation. Lovely short story that she wrote for her English class - can see her starting out and how she developed her techniques in allegory, imagery and colour.

lia_mango's review against another edition

4.0

The metaphors behind the train stops within this book hit different when you go in blind about what the book is about and with having prior knowledge of Sylvia’s life. The ninth stop essentially being the “final destination”, where if she followed a specific path that her family lead her to go on, it wouldn’t end with happiness, paralleling with Sylvias last moments of life. Where Mary getting off at an earlier stop represents her “breaking free” from a path that was lined up for her by somebody else. You’ll only find happiness following your own path.

genevieveroseb's review against another edition

4.0

thinking about the lizards on the suicide staircase

gwensdayy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

kapcoli's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

katesweeney's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

genevievesbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

I like this short story collection from Faber, as it gives me a little taster to see if I would like the authors writing style and work. Sylvia Plath is someone most well-known for The Bell Jar, a book I am terrified to read for personal reasons, but if it wasn't for this series, I may have never picked up anything by her at all. 

The plot was quite ambiguous, but I liked that aspect, as it added to the mystery of it all. This version is the original story which they edited, and I find that sad as this is quite good. It's made me less afraid to seek out her other work, something I'll be doing once I get through my massive TBR pile.