Review by seventhswan - The Bell Jar

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seventhswan 's review for:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

4.5

dark reflective medium-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

Hands-down the depiction of depression in literature that has most resonated with me. I feel like as an Unwell TM teenage girl you're duty-bound to an unhealthy relationship with either Lolita or The Bell Jar, so I'm glad I didn't read this as well as Nabokov back then, but approaching it from the other side of severe mental illness, I felt uncomfortably seen. That said, I didn't expect to laugh as much as I did in the earlier chapters - some of Esther's observations were honestly hilarious and felt very modern. (Some of her observations were also, by modern standards and probably the standards of the time, very racist, as other reviewers have warned).

I found the final third or so of the book weaker than the rest, as the character and plot development just petered out a little, leaving me wanting something more. However, on the whole this was a book with a rich narrative and beautiful writing which I will definitely return to in the future.

Content Warnings