Books like…

Books Like The Bell Jar

by Sylvia Plath · about this book

Loved The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath? If its first person narrator, depression and classics hooked you, these 20 books hit the same notes — starting with Girl, Interrupted, The Catcher in the Rye and Night Watch. Every pick is matched by what’s actually inside the book, not just its genre, and we skip other books by the same author so you find someone new.

What’s inside The Bell Jar: First Person Narrator · Depression · Classics · Dark · Suicide Content

1. 

   Girl, Interrupted

   Susanna Kaysen

   Self-Harm Content · Suicidal Ideation · Depression · Suicide Content · Identity Formation

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2. 

   The Catcher in the Rye

   Jerome David Salinger

   Bildungsroman · Depression · Coming of Age · Identity Formation · Classics

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3. 

   Night Watch

   Jayne Anne Phillips

   Asylum · Hospital · Lyrical Prose · Haunting · Literary Fiction

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4. 

   The Diary of a Young Girl

   Anne Frank

   Coming of Age · Classics · Identity Formation · Writer Protagonist · Haunting

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5. 

   Jane Eyre

   Charlotte Bronte

   Bildungsroman · Classics · Feminism · Literary Fiction · First Person Narrator

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6. 

   Never Let Me Go

   Kazuo Ishiguro

   Haunting · Literary Fiction · Character-Driven · First Person Narrator · Coming of Age

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7. 

   The Outsiders

   S.E. Hinton

   Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Classics · Writer Protagonist · First Person Narrator

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8. 

   Lolita

   Vladimir Nabokov

   Classics · Lyrical Prose · Literary Fiction · Haunting · Unreliable Narrator

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9. 

   I'm Thinking of Ending Things

   Iain Reid

   Suicidal Ideation · Haunting · Suicide Content · Identity Formation · Unreliable Narrator

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10. 

    Of Human Bondage

    W. Somerset Maugham

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Classics · Hospital · Literary Fiction

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11. 

    Atonement

    Ian McEwan

    Writer Protagonist · Haunting · Unreliable Narrator · Lyrical Prose · Hospital

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12. 

    Middlesex

    Jeffrey Eugenides

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Identity Formation · Literary Fiction · Character-Driven

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13. 

    The Great Gatsby

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Classics · Lyrical Prose · Literary Fiction · Unreliable Narrator · New York City

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14. 

    Little Women

    Louisa May Alcott

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Writer Protagonist · Classics · Character-Driven

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15. 

    Ham On Rye

    Charles Bukowski

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Literary Fiction · Bleak · Classics

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16. 

    Memoirs of a Geisha

    Arthur Golden

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Lyrical Prose · First Person Narrator · Literary Fiction

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17. 

    Martyr!

    Kaveh Akbar

    Suicidal Ideation · Writer Protagonist · Lyrical Prose · Literary Fiction · Depression

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18. 

    What My Bones Know

    Stephanie Foo

    Therapy Journey · Anxiety · Suicidal Ideation · First Person Narrator · Depression

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19. 

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    Harper Lee

    Bildungsroman · Coming of Age · Classics · Literary Fiction · First Person Narrator

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20. 

    Fight Club

    Chuck Palahniuk

    Identity Formation · Classics · Unreliable Narrator · Literary Fiction · First Person Narrator

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