Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Bell Jar

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

222 reviews

i_love_swimming_and_you's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

Content Warnings

faithmilne's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional sad tense 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

I can acknowledge that Plath’s writing is stunning but that being said, I’m so disappointed in this book!! I found Esther to be very unlikable. The way she described people was typically deplorable which was just exhausting by the end of the book. It may be just that I am very mentally ill, but the triggering content in this book almost made it not worth it for me to read. I do think (almost) everyone should read this book once, and I am very glad I did, but it was fairly hard to get through even though it was a very fast read.

Content Warnings

saskia6's review against another edition

4.25

dark reflective fast-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

Content Warnings

eviecheesepuff's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

Content Warnings

selinamaria's review against another edition

2.0

dark 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: Complicated

TW: The first thing to note about this book before reading it, is graphic trigger warnings. There is lengthy discussion of suicide and raw depictions of depression.

I actually really struggled to get through this book, I thought it was extremely boring. Yes, the prose is stylistically very good, but there are so many issues with the content that I think make it worth avoiding. The casual racist and homophobic references are frankly too much, and I think the book is romanticised way too much.

I really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

However, the single quote worth remembering: “To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.”

Content Warnings

thatwhichmeowsalsohisses's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a very interesting book. I like how it was nonlinear and she often moved through different memories and scenes without transitions. I think it’s very deep and analytical and I didn’t exactly get all of it through the first read. Some parts of it are definitely a little offensive to the current reader, with references to racism and homophobia. It also gives very “girl, interrupted” vibes. It’s an interesting view into Sylvia Plant’s psyche

Content Warnings