Having previously read the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the works of Alice Sheldon and Matt Haig, it is perhaps inevitable that all paths should lead to this iconic novel about depression and mental illness.

The tale of Esther Greenwood is a sobering tale for the parents of daughters and indeed for us all, by virtue of the fact that Plath frighteningly depicts the very indistinct line between happiness and depression along which we all walk. The glass of the Bell Jar is very thin but enough to refract our view of the world.

Time and again the reader can relate to the superficially happy experiences of Esther but is nagged by a haunting sense of her emptiness and lack of purpose. The clues to the decline of her mental state are deftly developed by a writer all too familiar with the darkness of depression and anxiety.

This haunting novel leaves us questioning the value of the actions in our own lives but importantly offers hope reasserting the strength of the spark of life that burns within us all.