Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Bell Jar

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Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

222 reviews

moonlightamelia's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

this book is very sad. it does well to capture the numbness one feels with depression and the metaphor of the bell jar to describe feeling trapped by mental illness is genius. Sylvia Plath is incredibly talented and i am in no way smart enough to comprehend her writing, which was by far the standout.

also i cant stop thinking about this book.

Content Warnings

alid73's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ale101010's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional reflective 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

Content Warnings

n31131's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective 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

The racism and homophobia in this book is unfortunate. Beautifully written novel on the treatment of mentally ill women in the 1950s-60s.

Content Warnings

samdolan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

jenmur's review against another edition

3.25

dark sad fast-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

Have read a bunch of one-off quotes from Plath previously and expected a poem book of sorts, instead of the retelling of her life that this book ended up being. Moderately boring and hard to like her for most of the read.
Painfully old-timey with the way she spoke of race/homosexuality/weight/etc., and was only really commendable on her commentary on marriage and children and other feminist-related topics.
Was a disappointing read overall, but will likely read other works from her anyways.

Content Warnings

xbernadette's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ilovebarbie12dancingprincesses's review against another edition

4.5

emotional 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

For the first half of this book I felt like I connected with the story and character of Esther but the blatant racism of Plath really just ruined the immersion for me. While this is not so bad in the second half, there is still a few occasions I feel would have greatly benefited from her simply not being racist.

Aside from this, TheBell Jar is a beautifully written story on mental illness and the terror of the unknown in both Plath’s era and contemporary society. From the first page Plath creates a horrible sense of anticipation, then dread and then what felt like almost a

sense of acceptance with Plath’s final few words of her singular novel. Ones of fear at the prospect of her reintroduction to society, at how easy it is to heal and ‘become whole’ again only to shatter against the hard surface of depression, as seen in the novel itself, with Joan’s suicide, but also Plath herself’s tragic end.

Content Warnings

emmadavis_08's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective sad 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

itsocchiolism's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-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

- this book scratched an itch in my brain that i can't explain,,, maybe it was the way it was written, like jumping back and forth and talking about several things at once!!! my brain had fun following
- i was so invested that i finished it in two days
- surprisingly did NOT cry at the end (the author's real life story almost got me though)
- did i think it was pretentious?? maybe at first, but it's part of what makes it a classic
- do i recommend it? yes, but check trigger warnings
- might read again once i have the physical copy so i can highlight all of my favorite quotes

Content Warnings

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