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A review by literaryjunarin
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
dark
sad
slow-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
2.5
“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.”
Very quick plot line: Esther Greenwood is a brilliant and talented woman who is slowly descending into madness.
I didn't like Esther much, to be honest. She kind of insults people in her musings and can't help but see that she's racist too. She's also very self-important, like "I got straight As in physics maybe I should take chemistry for credit" or something. She's annoying, really.
The story also did not grip me as I expected. I started reading her poetry collection "Ariel" when I started this novel and damn, her poems felt like a punch in the gut. But this novel, I think, is aggressively average. I know I'm average too, don't hate me but I had read better books about depression.
However, I can't deny that the depiction of depression was very real, but something about the way Plath wrote about it made the experience feel flat for me. It didn't give me the feels or the intensity I expected from this book. I was just like, okay she felt that, okay that happened. Or maybe I just had high expectations. Gosh, I regret it, this book was expensive HAHA.
I guess I'll leave now and go back to her poetry.
Very quick plot line: Esther Greenwood is a brilliant and talented woman who is slowly descending into madness.
I didn't like Esther much, to be honest. She kind of insults people in her musings and can't help but see that she's racist too. She's also very self-important, like "I got straight As in physics maybe I should take chemistry for credit" or something. She's annoying, really.
The story also did not grip me as I expected. I started reading her poetry collection "Ariel" when I started this novel and damn, her poems felt like a punch in the gut. But this novel, I think, is aggressively average. I know I'm average too, don't hate me but I had read better books about depression.
However, I can't deny that the depiction of depression was very real, but something about the way Plath wrote about it made the experience feel flat for me. It didn't give me the feels or the intensity I expected from this book. I was just like, okay she felt that, okay that happened. Or maybe I just had high expectations. Gosh, I regret it, this book was expensive HAHA.
I guess I'll leave now and go back to her poetry.