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wrenlogan1 's review for:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
4.5
dark sad slow-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
a lot of people love to hate plath and the main character, esther greenwood. i think yeah fair using slur after slur in the 1970’s is a bit much and often they were for no reason there are much better ways to describe people. with that being said though, it did take place in the 50’s when people were very much still using those words and can we really not read or enjoy books that have differing opinions than us? i don’t think plath is the feminist icon that tumblr told us she was, but that doesn’t make her writing less compelling. 
as for esther greenwood and the plot of the book, this has a chokehold on me in my formative years because i felt like esther was the only one who truly understood just how it felt to be suicidal and nobody understanding. i’ve seen a lot of critiques saying that she never wanted to get better and she didn’t work towards getting better and she didn’t do this and she didn’t do that and she is a pick me?? all i can say to that is the people who say that must have never had severe mental health issues because that is exactly what it feels like and i can only imagine it feels like that x100 in the 50s which is when the book was set. nobody wanted to help her, they wanted her to just stop acting like that and that only made her condition worse. justice for esther. 
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