Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

475 reviews

bzzzzzz's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Sylvia Plath's writing is magnetic. Yet, given her state of mind, it comes as no surprise that this book is devoid of love, hope, or joy. I think art needs touches of these things to truly be a masterpiece. Also, it has a tragically distorted view of sex.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol

kikalox's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Sexism, Grief

Minor: Vomit

themadbloodstone's review against another edition

5.0

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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“I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing say that after I had children I would feel differently, I wouldn’t want to write poems any more. So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state.”

Plath, pg. 85

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Medical content

Minor: Racism, Lesbophobia

maddognews's review against another edition

3.0

sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I give this book a 3 out of 5 because while the book was an easy read I couldn’t really get into the main character story. While I felt bad for her I was turned off from her berating people who looked different than her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

maess's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

abby_reads_books's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol

sparroues's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Wow this book. First of all, look up the trigger warnings for it. 

A deep and intimate look into psychosis, depression, suicide, purity, virginity, and identity. 
Beautifully crafted and one of the most evocative and visceral reads I've experienced in a while. 

However, it's a 4 star rather than a 5 because of the blatant, unapologetic and pointless racism. 
I understand the argument of it being a product of its time, but it made me incredibly uncomfortable and affected my enjoyment and that is, after all, what I'm rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Suicide

___'s review against another edition

0.25

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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First world white girl problems. Not a single likable character in the book.

I knew nothing of this book going into it. As someone who has been both depressed and suicidal most of their life, as well as someone who knows everything's relative, I still found this book to be completely trash and almost insulting (bigotry aside).

...

Upon further reflection, this is one of the worst books I've ever read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt

Minor: Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol

mirandyli's review against another edition

1.5

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book is the whitest "I'm not like the other girls" story I've ever read. A country girl comes to the big city on a scholarship and realizes she doesn't fit in. She has always succeeded academically and begins to spiral once she is no longer succeeding.

I thought I would relate more to a book about depression, but I should have expected a super white story. There's casual racist phrases spattered throughout the book (“I looked as yellow as a Chinaman"). The author laments how difficult her life is as a (white) woman compared to a man. She says she doesn't see people as Black or white, but as those who fucked and those who didn't... what?! And don't even get me started on the racist comments about the Black hospital attendant. 

Other wtf parts: the narrator falling out of love with Buddy because he became fat after getting tuberculosis (yikes). Or becoming depressed because she volunteered to pass out flowers at a hospital and threw out the dead flowers (one of the weirder moments of the book).

The book, which is about depression, depressed me by how mediocre and white it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide attempt

livcashmere's review against another edition

3.25

dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt