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A review by dmackreads
The Bell Jar by
1.0
Frances McCullough’s Foreword at the beginning of this book is the most interesting part of it. Personally I think he should have left it where he found it.
The reason I didn’t dnf this is because the author is dead (actually by suicide) and I thought it quite rude to do so. Now some may say my rating is rude but I suffered through 244 pages of something that I should have, in fact, marked off as a dnf because this is my first ever 1★ rating. Of course I also was trying to see what everyone else was seeing, that maybe I wasn’t, to warrant over a million reviews, over 3 million copies sold since it was released, and an average rating of over 4★s. I just didn’t find it.
The writing is subpar at best. The synopsis says, “Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the readers in” I’m sorry, who and how? I felt zero connection to the characters or the story. I understand it follows a very dark, heavy, sad, emotional topic and that’s about the only thing that kept any ounce of my interest.
I read 154 pages of what felt like “fluff” to me. There is far too much unnecessary information and I say that because it either tells me absolutely nothing of importance or doesn’t do its job to draw you in or connect you to the characters. This book is only 244 pages long and it took me until I was 65% of the way in for something to trip me up into feeling anything at all. Personally I feel if you are going to write a book like this and it’s a short book, you need to captivate a reader within 20 pages or less. Not only that but the last 50 or so pages where there was the most happening at once, is what needed to be drawn out the most. Something would happen or be said and then 2 pages later it was like I missed a step because we jumped from point A to point B so quickly that it was a missed opportunity to really get us feeling something and deeply attached.
I’ve come to the conclusion that you can be manipulated by an author to believe a book is good if it’s about certain topics. This is one of those books. Because of course the topic is sad and you feel compelled to think it’s good.
The reason I didn’t dnf this is because the author is dead (actually by suicide) and I thought it quite rude to do so. Now some may say my rating is rude but I suffered through 244 pages of something that I should have, in fact, marked off as a dnf because this is my first ever 1★ rating. Of course I also was trying to see what everyone else was seeing, that maybe I wasn’t, to warrant over a million reviews, over 3 million copies sold since it was released, and an average rating of over 4★s. I just didn’t find it.
The writing is subpar at best. The synopsis says, “Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the readers in” I’m sorry, who and how? I felt zero connection to the characters or the story. I understand it follows a very dark, heavy, sad, emotional topic and that’s about the only thing that kept any ounce of my interest.
I read 154 pages of what felt like “fluff” to me. There is far too much unnecessary information and I say that because it either tells me absolutely nothing of importance or doesn’t do its job to draw you in or connect you to the characters. This book is only 244 pages long and it took me until I was 65% of the way in for something to trip me up into feeling anything at all. Personally I feel if you are going to write a book like this and it’s a short book, you need to captivate a reader within 20 pages or less. Not only that but the last 50 or so pages where there was the most happening at once, is what needed to be drawn out the most. Something would happen or be said and then 2 pages later it was like I missed a step because we jumped from point A to point B so quickly that it was a missed opportunity to really get us feeling something and deeply attached.
I’ve come to the conclusion that you can be manipulated by an author to believe a book is good if it’s about certain topics. This is one of those books. Because of course the topic is sad and you feel compelled to think it’s good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis