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lexigrce's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
this book is just so tragic, the irony of telling a whole story encapsulating these girls’ lives when they truly didn’t know them at all. i remember first watching the movie when i was maybe 16 or 17 and writing it off. but when i rewatched it a year ago, despite being even further from the sisters’ ages than i originally was, i actually understood. reading the book somehow feels more real, seeing the story as it is without the added glitz of familiar celebrity faces, a bunch of made up stories constructed so that the boys could feel interesting and connected to the girls, as if they could even for a second understand what it felt like to be them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Child death, Alcohol, Child abuse, Grief, Self harm, Sexism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
toffishay's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
As a lifelong Michigander, it was high time that I read this book that so often makes listicles for the quintessential "Michigan Gothic". I can certainly see how it fits the bill. The premise of five young girls trapped in a house becoming more and more isolated from their crumbling suburban community and losing hope for a future until they all commit suicide is extremely Gothic. The premise is that the story is being told years later by a group of men who were obsessed with with Lisbon girls when they were all younger, back when the suicides happened. They have collected evidence, memorabilia, and stories from anything and anyone who was even a little connected to the girls. The need that the men have to collect and analyze everything about them is an analysis and criticism of the ways that boys idealize girls, seeing them as pretty objects so separate from themselves, but ultimately they are all the same. It is an interesting story all about decline, death, the loss of ourselves and our communities.
I think that the story loses me not in the plot, but in the pacing. It comes out hot out of the gate and then things really slow down after the first two chapters and don't pick up again until the very end. I also think that the characterization of some of the girls suffers from the short length and that the space that is used is to add color to that world. Setting the scene is important of course and makes the characters feel more real, but I would have liked a little more insight into some of the older Lisbon daughters like Therese, Mary, and Bonnie. Cecilia and Lux are interesting, but I would have liked a deeper dive all around.
If I were to compare it, it does put me in a mind frame of Don Delillo's White Noise. I don't like The Virgin Suicides quite that much, but I do think that they have similar themes of the decline of the white American suburban ideal, the falseness behind it all.
I think that the story loses me not in the plot, but in the pacing. It comes out hot out of the gate and then things really slow down after the first two chapters and don't pick up again until the very end. I also think that the characterization of some of the girls suffers from the short length and that the space that is used is to add color to that world. Setting the scene is important of course and makes the characters feel more real, but I would have liked a little more insight into some of the older Lisbon daughters like Therese, Mary, and Bonnie. Cecilia and Lux are interesting, but I would have liked a deeper dive all around.
If I were to compare it, it does put me in a mind frame of Don Delillo's White Noise. I don't like The Virgin Suicides quite that much, but I do think that they have similar themes of the decline of the white American suburban ideal, the falseness behind it all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Suicide, and Death
Moderate: Medical content, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexism, Fatphobia, and Classism
mgoodrick's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide
Moderate: Confinement and Child abuse
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Blood, and Toxic relationship
paralanguage's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, and Stalking
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexism
neledeich's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them."
A group of neighbourhood boys grows obsessed with five sisters and recount their suicides. A fantastic portrayal of the delusional view society, especially teenage boys, has of women. They fetishize them and are convinced to know everything without ever properly having a conversation with them. They are beautiful things to the boys, but they're not actually interested in them and their thoughts, if the girls do show parts of a personality, such as in the ultimate act of suicide, the boys are utterly confused. How can a woman have such complex thoughts and feelings?
A group of neighbourhood boys grows obsessed with five sisters and recount their suicides. A fantastic portrayal of the delusional view society, especially teenage boys, has of women. They fetishize them and are convinced to know everything without ever properly having a conversation with them. They are beautiful things to the boys, but they're not actually interested in them and their thoughts, if the girls do show parts of a personality, such as in the ultimate act of suicide, the boys are utterly confused. How can a woman have such complex thoughts and feelings?
It also explores how suicide affects the surroundings and the entire community. Eugenides captures how isolated the girls were to the point where no one could bring them back anymore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Child abuse
kelleykamanda's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely beautiful. Such a thought provoking, lyrical novel.
Recommend reading this article after finishing:
“In Defense of the Unsatisfying Ending: The Virgin Suicides” by Janey Tracey
Recommend reading this article after finishing:
“In Defense of the Unsatisfying Ending: The Virgin Suicides” by Janey Tracey
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Rape, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse
cassbarker's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexism
ru_th's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Hardly have we begun to palpate their grief than we find ourselves wondering whether this particular wound was mortal or not, or whether (in our blind doctoring) it’s a wound at all. It might just as well be a mouth, which is as wet and as warm. The scar might be over the heart or the kneecap. We can’t tell. All we can do is go groping up the legs and arms, over the soft bivalvular torso, to the imagined face. It is speaking to us. But we can’t hear.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, and Gore
favvn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I keep dragging my feet on typing out a review for this book. Possibly because there's so much I could say about it that I'm at a loss for how to phrase it, much less fit it all into a review barely anyone will read (maybe someday I'll be a booktuber girlie but not any time soon lmao). I just reread it for the third time and I still don't know exactly what to say.
I could be flippant and say, "Cecilia is just like me fr fr" or that this book once helped to tank my already sunken mood so badly I found myself in therapy as a result, but that's just sensationalist and doesn't explain why I would come back to it again and again. (I will say, if you struggle with depression/depressive episodes.... maybe wait until your mood stabilizes before cracking open this book because guess who didn't and just got worse in continued self-imposed isolation 🤪 until the fog lifted and in a moment of lucidity I sought help) So, I guess let me try to put into words why I like The Virgin Suicides enough to come back to it in spite of my past history with it.
1. The Writing Style/Set Up
Eugenides reveals what's going to happen right in the title, right in the first sentence. Already, you go into this book knowing what you will encounter. He does this because he wants you to ask, like the collective narrator, "Why?" And the more you read, the less you will ask why but rather, "How could no one help?" This is the issue that haunts the narrator(s). This is why they're still obsessed with the Lisbon girls 20+ years later. Well, that and teenage hormones/first crush/"we could've dated, but never did, so all we have are scenarios we dreamt about" type combo. Add suicide at such a young age and anyone could be haunted by all of those what-ifs and maybes, that complete lack of resolution.
2. The Collective Narrator
Truly the most unreliable narrator of all time! Like playing a game of telephone, these boys/men contradict themselves, get details mixed up or wrong entirely, or focus on the most mundane of things while glossing over the important events.
Yes, there's a heaping amount of gross sexualization and misogyny as a result. Frankly, this should come as no surprise (although I'm a cynic. If men want me to change my opinion, change your behaviors first xoxo). They're recounting their teenage years--the time of crazy hormones and intense feelings--during the 70s, a time period that could be just as grossly sexist as earlier periods and was sexist as a backlash to the Women's Movement of the time. It would be unrealistic for the boys to not be perverts about the girls, although frankly, why they're dreaming of the girls whilst having sex with other women 20+ years later is a big, gross yikes. Eugenides, please explain that decision to me.
That aside, the fact that the boys sexualize the Lisbon girls works to heighten the girls' plight, in my opinion. There's a line in chapter 4 that I think about always because it's a throwaway type of line, but it's jarring because of its placement in the story. The boys are finally about to enter the Lisbon house to play out their fantasy of rescuing the girls by taking them away to wherever, but before they enter they watch Lux smoking in the living room and take stock of a halter top they had last seen her wearing 2 years before everything happened. The boys tell themselves that it's this great symbol of the girls soon-to-be had freedom, but it ends with, "That halter could've come undone with one quick yank." And this line destroys that stupid white knight fantasy the boys believe they're living because all it shows is how the Lisbon girls would be trading a cloister (albeit a rotting and leaking cloister with a questionable food supply) for a new hell of objectification at the hands of boys believing themselves to be saviors. Which, based on criticisms I've read from women about the free love movement of the late 60s/early 70s and the expectation of domestic labor from the women involved in political activist groups of that time... it all hits. Or I'm just being a complete cynical killjoy.
But of course, the best possible example of what I'm talking about comes later in chapter 4, when the boys return to the basement. The floor is flooded from rain and backed up sewage vents and nobody cleaned up from the party held the year before. The decorations, food, punch bowl, all of it is still out, rotting and collecting dust.
I could be flippant and say, "Cecilia is just like me fr fr" or that this book once helped to tank my already sunken mood so badly I found myself in therapy as a result, but that's just sensationalist and doesn't explain why I would come back to it again and again. (I will say, if you struggle with depression/depressive episodes.... maybe wait until your mood stabilizes before cracking open this book because guess who didn't and just got worse in continued self-imposed isolation 🤪 until the fog lifted and in a moment of lucidity I sought help) So, I guess let me try to put into words why I like The Virgin Suicides enough to come back to it in spite of my past history with it.
1. The Writing Style/Set Up
Eugenides reveals what's going to happen right in the title, right in the first sentence. Already, you go into this book knowing what you will encounter. He does this because he wants you to ask, like the collective narrator, "Why?" And the more you read, the less you will ask why but rather, "How could no one help?" This is the issue that haunts the narrator(s). This is why they're still obsessed with the Lisbon girls 20+ years later. Well, that and teenage hormones/first crush/"we could've dated, but never did, so all we have are scenarios we dreamt about" type combo. Add suicide at such a young age and anyone could be haunted by all of those what-ifs and maybes, that complete lack of resolution.
2. The Collective Narrator
Truly the most unreliable narrator of all time! Like playing a game of telephone, these boys/men contradict themselves, get details mixed up or wrong entirely, or focus on the most mundane of things while glossing over the important events.
Yes, there's a heaping amount of gross sexualization and misogyny as a result. Frankly, this should come as no surprise (although I'm a cynic. If men want me to change my opinion, change your behaviors first xoxo). They're recounting their teenage years--the time of crazy hormones and intense feelings--during the 70s, a time period that could be just as grossly sexist as earlier periods and was sexist as a backlash to the Women's Movement of the time. It would be unrealistic for the boys to not be perverts about the girls, although frankly, why they're dreaming of the girls whilst having sex with other women 20+ years later is a big, gross yikes. Eugenides, please explain that decision to me.
That aside, the fact that the boys sexualize the Lisbon girls works to heighten the girls' plight, in my opinion. There's a line in chapter 4 that I think about always because it's a throwaway type of line, but it's jarring because of its placement in the story. The boys are finally about to enter the Lisbon house to play out their fantasy of rescuing the girls by taking them away to wherever, but before they enter they watch Lux smoking in the living room and take stock of a halter top they had last seen her wearing 2 years before everything happened. The boys tell themselves that it's this great symbol of the girls soon-to-be had freedom, but it ends with, "That halter could've come undone with one quick yank." And this line destroys that stupid white knight fantasy the boys believe they're living because all it shows is how the Lisbon girls would be trading a cloister (albeit a rotting and leaking cloister with a questionable food supply) for a new hell of objectification at the hands of boys believing themselves to be saviors. Which, based on criticisms I've read from women about the free love movement of the late 60s/early 70s and the expectation of domestic labor from the women involved in political activist groups of that time... it all hits. Or I'm just being a complete cynical killjoy.
But of course, the best possible example of what I'm talking about comes later in chapter 4, when the boys return to the basement. The floor is flooded from rain and backed up sewage vents and nobody cleaned up from the party held the year before. The decorations, food, punch bowl, all of it is still out, rotting and collecting dust.
Buzz Romano waded out to the card table, and as we all watched, began to dance, to box-step, as his mother had taught him in the papal splendor of their living room. He held only air, but we could see her—them—all five, clasped in his arms. “These girls make me crazy. If I could just feel one of them up just once,” he said, as his shoes filled and emptied with silt. His dancing kicked up the sewage smell, and after that, stronger than ever, the smell we could never forget.
It's an entirely fitting description that his shoes should fill with disgusting sewage water while he imagines dancing with the girls as he says he wants to feel one of them up. It covers all bases: the boys' fantasy of their relationship to the girls and the reality of why the boys are so dogged in their pursuit.
3. The Parallels
I love parallels. I love when separate things mirror each other and show a united message once compared. Love it, love it, love it. And in The Virgin Suicides, Jeffery Eugenides parallels the deterioration of suburban life in the 70s with the deterioration of the environment and the deterioration of the Lisbon family.
The unifying symbol of all this deterioration and decay is, of course, the elm trees. Once a thing of natural beauty that hid how sterile and uniform the neighborhood was in the boys' youth, they are removed one by one throughout the book owing to an outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease. Without the trees, the boys are confronted by how artificial their life is, and with no more trees, the neighborhood loses an old communal tradition of each household collecting leaves to burn by the end of fall. The Lisbon's tree, in a poetic turn, is left standing last but as a bare trunk devoid of limbs, described as, "a creature clubbed mute, only its sudden voicelessness making us realize it had been speaking all along." Do I even need to say what this symbolizes?
The ending chapter describes a spill at a local chemical plant creating a thick layer of algae that results in a disgusting, swampy smell permeating the neighborhood. It recalls the descriptions of vapors coming from the Lisbon house earlier and that strange smell that would enter the neighborhood if any Lisbon opened the door. But, naturally, no one wishes to be ousted by such a silly thing as nature taking its due course, so a local family uses the theme 'Asphyxiation' for their daughter's debut party.
It's in this backdrop that racism is included in the book and, much like Eugenides' use of sexualization, it's very much for a purpose. It's mentioned in passing, of course, because the book focuses solely on white characters--black maids waiting on street corners for buses to the city, the local costume store changing its ghost mannequin to look more pointed, a restaurant removing fried chicken from its menu. And yes, there is at least one use of the n-word that I can recall. But it's all in the sake of reality because yes, the wealthy, white suburbs of Michigan would be racist in the 70s, especially with the 1967 Detroit Riot happening about 10 years prior to the book's setting and the white exodus from the cities to the suburbs going on since the 50s. Racism never limited itself to south of the Mason-Dixon line, it just took a more subtle approach. Eugenides isn't tossing in these details to be shocking or showcase latent racism on his own part. He was writing from his own experiences as a teen in 1970s Michigan. And by this point in the story, if a whole neighborhood can watch but never confront the decaying house across the street or its occupants, how is casual racism from these same characters so shocking? They're not even caring after their own neighbors! Which goes back to how hollow and meaningless the suburbs of The Virgin Suicides have become--any sense of community slowly erodes with each passing year until families outright pack up and leave for the Sun Belt. The only thing that keeps enough of them together--or possibly brings them back--is survivor's guilt at not doing enough to help the Lisbons.
Other/Miscellaneous:
I will forever laugh at the part where the boys earnestly believe girls ages 13-17 are douching every night. Big hearty chuckle.
Partly mind boggling but partly not to learn that Eugenides had zero symbolic intentions behind having Cecilia wear an old wedding dress. I love knowing he just said, "She's a weird kid so that's one of her quirks." Meanwhile so many people analyze it--rightly so!--to call back to the idea of a virgin bride and the joy of a wedding only for Cecilia and her shorn-hemmed, stained dress to turn all of that on its head. Gotta love serendipitous coincidences.
It's also funny to me that Eugenides was surprised to learn how so many girls are fans of a book so thoroughly centered in the male perspective, but he captured the hell of being a girl perfectly: on one extreme, the Lisbon girls are locked away by their mother to stay safe forever. On the other, they are lusted after by the boys and held up as a fantasy that doesn't exist according to the boys' white knight dreams. In the process, no one wants to see them for who they were--not a dream or sex fantasy or something to be protected and locked away, but human. And under living conditions like that and a society only all to happy to crush them into further dehumanizing roles, they took the one choice that was theirs to control entirely. Ya know, like the original meaning of the word virgin, not a sexually inexperienced person but a woman in control of her own life (even if that control only extends to choosing to end it).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Confinement, Sexism, Misogyny, Child abuse, Child death, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content, Racism, and Racial slurs
fannysshelves's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
This was a bit of a weird experience. I read most of it in one sitting, so i was definitely invested in the girls stories, but at the same time a bit bored by all the side characters stories. The way the book was narrated was a bit strange at first but it did make me curious about the girls, so I guess it fulfilled its purpose. The pace of this was pretty slow but I found it manageable. I did like the portrayal of the male gaze, those boys were only in love with the idea of the girls. For example, Lux sent so many signals, that she needed help, but they continued to watch her and ignore them. While I liked that part, others lacked a bit so over all, a very average book to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, and Sexism