Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Virgin Suicides

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.

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karol99's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

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luvkillzall's review against another edition

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i genuinely cannot stand the way the boys talk about the girls, the male gaze in this book is just too gross for me to read rn.

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beesbumblebooks's review against another edition

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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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taylorttea's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-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

2.0

men need to stop writing women in such a way that makes me want to gouge my eyes out. its worse when its not even a good story

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katemolony's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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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