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Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Medical content, Suicide attempt
Minor: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
The reason I didn’t dnf this is because the author is dead (actually by suicide) and I thought it quite rude to do so. Now some may say my rating is rude but I suffered through 244 pages of something that I should have, in fact, marked off as a dnf because this is my first ever 1★ rating. Of course I also was trying to see what everyone else was seeing, that maybe I wasn’t, to warrant over a million reviews, over 3 million copies sold since it was released, and an average rating of over 4★s. I just didn’t find it.
The writing is subpar at best. The synopsis says, “Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the readers in” I’m sorry, who and how? I felt zero connection to the characters or the story. I understand it follows a very dark, heavy, sad, emotional topic and that’s about the only thing that kept any ounce of my interest.
I read 154 pages of what felt like “fluff” to me. There is far too much unnecessary information and I say that because it either tells me absolutely nothing of importance or doesn’t do its job to draw you in or connect you to the characters. This book is only 244 pages long and it took me until I was 65% of the way in for something to trip me up into feeling anything at all. Personally I feel if you are going to write a book like this and it’s a short book, you need to captivate a reader within 20 pages or less. Not only that but the last 50 or so pages where there was the most happening at once, is what needed to be drawn out the most. Something would happen or be said and then 2 pages later it was like I missed a step because we jumped from point A to point B so quickly that it was a missed opportunity to really get us feeling something and deeply attached.
I’ve come to the conclusion that you can be manipulated by an author to believe a book is good if it’s about certain topics. This is one of those books. Because of course the topic is sad and you feel compelled to think it’s good.
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicide
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Racism
Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt
Minor: Religious bigotry
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
note: of course keeping in mind plath’s casual racism, a sign of the times but inexcusable nonetheless
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm
Minor: Death of parent