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heartsneedle's reviews
1175 reviews
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
5.0
5/5
tw: self harm, suicide
"You shouldn’t have broken that mirror. Then maybe they’d have let you stay."
But of course I knew the mirror had nothing to do with it.
Depression, College, Psychological
Societal Conventions, Women v. Male Oppressors
Plath permeates a frightening tour of the medical world with glimpses at madness and mental breakdown. The immersive (mirror) quality coupled with the established mood carries you like a shadow following Esther until left alone, used at the novel’s close. Still, The Bell Jar creates one of the more horrific exposures of patriarchy, female perfectionism, and the struggle for self-identity that I’ve read.
tw: self harm, suicide
"You shouldn’t have broken that mirror. Then maybe they’d have let you stay."
But of course I knew the mirror had nothing to do with it.
Depression, College, Psychological
Societal Conventions, Women v. Male Oppressors
Plath permeates a frightening tour of the medical world with glimpses at madness and mental breakdown. The immersive (mirror) quality coupled with the established mood carries you like a shadow following Esther until left alone, used at the novel’s close. Still, The Bell Jar creates one of the more horrific exposures of patriarchy, female perfectionism, and the struggle for self-identity that I’ve read.
The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4.0
4/5
In Medias Res, Obsession, Arrogance, Existentialism
“Now she would suddenly start to draw me to her; a trusting smile wandered across her face; and then suddenly she would push me away and once again take to peering at me with a darkened look.”
I loved the dramatization of reality under the guise of gambling, as well as the intricacy of emotional (seesawing) characters. The way Dostoyevsky interlaces existentialist subtext under Polina’s obsessive yet fatuous love of Alexei and Mr. Astely is excellent.
In Medias Res, Obsession, Arrogance, Existentialism
“Now she would suddenly start to draw me to her; a trusting smile wandered across her face; and then suddenly she would push me away and once again take to peering at me with a darkened look.”
I loved the dramatization of reality under the guise of gambling, as well as the intricacy of emotional (seesawing) characters. The way Dostoyevsky interlaces existentialist subtext under Polina’s obsessive yet fatuous love of Alexei and Mr. Astely is excellent.
Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
3.0
3.5/5
Torment, Identity, Gothic-Romance
“My life was a snarl, a rat’s nest of dangling threads and loose ends. I couldn’t possibly have a happy ending, but I wanted a neat one.”
Overall: Poses interesting novel-within-a-novel parallel between Joan and other versions of herself, yet suffered from unevenness and rote ended plots.
Pros:
-- Writing about other books
-- nostalgic, witty passages out of genre
Cons:
-- Progression was slow, complicated, and often bloated
-- unneeded flashbacks, repetitive attempts to bridge characterization
Torment, Identity, Gothic-Romance
“My life was a snarl, a rat’s nest of dangling threads and loose ends. I couldn’t possibly have a happy ending, but I wanted a neat one.”
Overall: Poses interesting novel-within-a-novel parallel between Joan and other versions of herself, yet suffered from unevenness and rote ended plots.
Pros:
-- Writing about other books
-- nostalgic, witty passages out of genre
Cons:
-- Progression was slow, complicated, and often bloated
-- unneeded flashbacks, repetitive attempts to bridge characterization
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
5.0
4.75/5
Victorian-Morality, Violence, Decline
“The band of silver paleness along the east horizon made even the distant parts of the Great Plain appear dark and near; and the whole enormous landscape bore that impress of reserve, taciturnity, and hesitation which is usual just before day. The eastward pillars and their architraves stood up blackly against the light, and the great flame-shaped Sun-stone beyond them; and the Stone of Sacrifice midway. Presently the night wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still.”
Overall: This was a multilayered and extremely dense blend of anti-romantic and bleak tragedy enclosed within the historical and symbolist representation of human misery. Hardy consistently weaves descriptions of rural life during the Victorian era and the eerie forebodings of disasters in the plot. Tess, the haunting heroine, full of paradoxes, appears to disown her unflinching fate. And yet, despite the pessimism, there is an ecstatic beauty that radiates from the lyrical style that is as nuanced as it is sensitive.
Victorian-Morality, Violence, Decline
“The band of silver paleness along the east horizon made even the distant parts of the Great Plain appear dark and near; and the whole enormous landscape bore that impress of reserve, taciturnity, and hesitation which is usual just before day. The eastward pillars and their architraves stood up blackly against the light, and the great flame-shaped Sun-stone beyond them; and the Stone of Sacrifice midway. Presently the night wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still.”
Overall: This was a multilayered and extremely dense blend of anti-romantic and bleak tragedy enclosed within the historical and symbolist representation of human misery. Hardy consistently weaves descriptions of rural life during the Victorian era and the eerie forebodings of disasters in the plot. Tess, the haunting heroine, full of paradoxes, appears to disown her unflinching fate. And yet, despite the pessimism, there is an ecstatic beauty that radiates from the lyrical style that is as nuanced as it is sensitive.