Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

47 reviews

grboph's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

It took me a while to get into this book, but I'm glad I read it. I gave it four stars because it was beautifully written and the story was very emotionally charged (I found myself wanting to save the Lisbon sisters and felt for both their struggle and the boys'). I also think the book had some very profound things to say about repression, mental illness, and suicide that I appreciated as someone who has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts and lost a loved one to suicide. This is a book I can see myself re-reading at some point in the future and gaining something completely new out of it the second time around. However, I took a star off because the whole thing felt really male-gazey (both in the way the boys view the sisters and in the way Eugenides writes about them) and a lot of the pages felt like I might see photos of them on r/menwritingwomen. Because of this, it made the Lisbon sisters as characters seem a bit flat. I would really like to see a rewrite of the story done from the perspectives of the sisters since I feel this would make the story much deeper and more meaningful, as we would get to experience their feelings and the motivations that led to their deaths. (On the other hand, maybe the point of the story was that it was told from an outsider's perspective to focus on how the suicides affected both the people and the society surrounding them). In conclusion, this was a very good, although slow-paced book that could have been potentially made even better had it been written from a different perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something you can sort of just pick up and put down whenever, or anyone who likes stories with a lot of emotional depth to them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Child death, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Classism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Pedophilia, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Cursing and Toxic relationship

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This is a book about the patriarchal tendency of dehumanizing women. Which should be enough to tell you why I didn’t like it at all.

The writing itself is good, but that’s about the only redeeming quality to this book. The rest is just men being… well, men. I get what the author wanted to achieve with this, but why it needed to be written in this way is beyond me.

I keep hoping the next “classic” I read is going to be better, and I keep being disappointed because those “classics” were written by allocishet white men in a time women were seen as little more than property.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Confinement, Racism, Rape, Stalking, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Drug use, Pedophilia, Vomit, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Infidelity

beanwa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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? No

5.0

I absolutely adored this book. I loved the writing (Eugenides is such an amazing writer) and I really enjoyed the narration style. I loved the atmosphere the book built around the sisters, and how their story reveals so much about the neighbourhood around them and the fears of the time. This is a book I will definitely read again, one of my favourites for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gore, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

chaoticweevil's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Stalking, Ableism, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Vomit and Drug use

esztervida's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Obviously doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen year old girl” 

GENIUS. Male gaze criticism. Lyrical. The Lisbon girls have this heartbreakingly parasocial relationship with everyone in their small town and it’s destroying to watch it all unfold. The investigative format is brilliant; exploring the framing of mental health of young girls within 70s middle class suburbia. 

And i love sofia coppola’s film adaptation of this

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexism, and Misogyny

coriblake'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? It's complicated

4.0

Left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, jury’s still out on whether that’s positive or negative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Grief, Pedophilia, Suicide, Child death, Confinement, Death, Stalking, Blood, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Addiction

mirandajatib's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

I have a weird relationship w this book. Its characters and setting were very well built, the book posed great questions about girlhood, the male gaze, abusive households, religion, guilt etc. Despite this, it was a very slow read. I was rarely immersed in the novel. While this may make it seem like I hated the novel, completing it was so rewarding. It is a future classic that deserves to be analyzed and discussed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I think I’d be more willing to accept satire if this were written by a woman. I understand it is satirical, an exaggeration of a boys imagination but that doesn’t change the fact that this book is perverse. I can’t sugarcoat it. I am very disturbed by the male gaze and it’s effects on these poor girls. I’m very interested in the movie adaptation now thought I doubt it’s any kinder to the girls. Just by the amount of romanticization and fantasy already scattered around the internet. The adaptation is taken without any deeper thought into its meaning. I, to be honest, can’t really explain what it is either. I think my parents could learn from this book a little bit LOL. Being strict is toxic. It creates children who do everything to bend the rules and children who are deeply upset like in their core being. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, and Suicide

jaiari12's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Medical content, and Sexism

Minor: Pregnancy

beesbumblebooks's review against another edition

dark funny 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? Yes

3.0

I really like the writing style of Jeffrey Eugenides. Even the translation to German worked well. I like how he wraps heavy topics in the banality of everyday life, and how the tragic story is hidden by the perception of the bystanders, who all tell stories from their angles, mixed with their view on the world and their boring problems. It ist very sensitive in some, and very cynical in other parts. Since the story gets lost all the time in the side stories of the other persons of the city, the book dragged a bit after a while. Mostly I was really entertained by the side story and thought it was a great way of building an atmosphere and showing the life of a small city, but it got draining for me personally in some parts, especially since it was between all the tragic parts that I couldn't take too well emotionally. 

I also had my problems with the language, nowadays being racist, fat-phobic, sexist in subtle ways, but it's never that subtle, is it? It's an older book which makes me understand it, but doesn't make me like it. 

I didn't like the ending, because it feels like after a whole book of feeling with the girls and seeing their struggles, it seriously blames them for not wanting to live anymore. It blames them for not caring for the people around them, who voyoristically participated in their suffering withour reaching out. Maybe I get that part wrong, but it felt that way and it really threw me of after the general tone of the book was so different.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Self harm, and Sexism