Review by bail33 - The Bell Jar

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bail33 's review for:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

4.5

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

Wow... I did not expect to be so entranced by this book. This story means so much to me, it's difficult to put it into words, but the prose in this is beautiful and the character is such a flawed and nuanced person, and it's incredible to me how similar the feelings that accompany depression are through time. This is definitely a heady book, and if you aren't a fan of literary fiction or character studies you certainly won't like this one. Fortunately, those are my two favourite genres :)
If I were in a worse head space, this would likely send me spinning a little bit so keep that in mind before reading (but The Bell Jar's reputation precedes it, so I'm sure everyone likely knows that!)
This isn't a five-star book for me, but it is one of my favourite books I've ever read and is among the ones which mean the most to me. Not sure how to reason that out, but alas!

Content Warnings