Books like “The Bell Jar”

What to read after “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Expelled from prep school and drifting through New York before going home, teenager Holden Caulfield narrates a few days of restless encounters. He rails against adults he calls phonies while quietly grieving a brother and his own place in the world.
2
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey · 1962
Similar setting: “Asylum”
- Asylum
- Outcast Hero
A loud, scheming new patient named McMurphy arrives on a mental hospital ward run by the cold Nurse Ratched. Narrated by Chief Bromden, who pretends to be deaf and dumb, the ward becomes a battleground over who controls the men's days. A struggle between an unruly spirit and a system built on obedience.
3
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1937
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Janie Crawford tells her friend the story of her life: three marriages, a long search for love and independence, and the storm that changes everything. Set in the Black towns and farms of Florida, the novel follows her from a silent girl to a woman who speaks for herself.
4
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
5
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy · 1891
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Tess Durbeyfield, a poor country girl, is sent to wealthy relatives who share her family name. There she is wronged by a young man and later falls in love with Angel Clare, who knows nothing of her past. Society's judgement of her becomes the story's central cruelty.
6
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Melinda begins high school as an outcast after calling the police at a summer party, and barely speaks. Through art class and small moments she slowly confronts what happened to her that night and finds the words to name it.
7
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Thirteen-year-old Jojo rides in the back of a truck as his mother drives across Mississippi to collect his white father from prison. The journey stirs up family history and two restless ghosts, drawing Jojo toward a harder understanding of his mother and his own name.
8
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Clay Jensen receives a box of tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate who has taken her own life. As he follows her voice around town, she explains the thirteen reasons behind her decision, and Clay learns his own place in her story.
9
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe · 1958
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Okonkwo, a respected wrestler and farmer in a Nigerian village, builds his standing on a fear of appearing weak. When he is exiled and, years later, British missionaries and officials arrive, the customs that shaped him begin to collapse around him and his people.
10
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse · 1927
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Outcast Hero
A middle-aged loner who feels half man and half wolf drifts through a city he despises, until a chance encounter leads him to a strange magic theatre. There he confronts the many selves inside him. A novel about alienation, desire and finding one's way back to life.
11
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez · 1967
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
The Buendía family founds the town of Macondo and repeats its own history across seven generations, through civil wars, doomed loves and strange miracles. A manuscript of prophecies waits all the while to reveal how their story ends.
12
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
Ove is a grumpy widower who has decided there is nothing left for him, until a noisy young family moves in next door and keeps interrupting his plans. Piece by piece, the neighbourhood draws him back into a life he thought was over.