Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

50 reviews

_dom_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

The first two thirds of the book is so strange, weird and uncomfortable. But the last third is so beautifully written that I’m sure the different voices of the narrators are like that on purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Suicide, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Death, Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Mental illness

Moderate: Stalking and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

brianna2811's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Confinement

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Medical content, Pedophilia, Drug use, Dementia, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

ppp's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Stalking, Grief, Self harm, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, War, Ableism, and Alcoholism

mo0ma's review

challenging dark tense 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

This book felt suffocating, like I was enveloped in the narrative, which is contributed to by the setting and various descriptions of the area in which it takes place. The descriptive writing is excellent—

I liked how the symbol of the solar system can be interpreted to reflect how the suburb and its people seemed to orbit around the events of the Lisbon’s house and tragedies

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I didn’t like how voyeuristic it felt, but I think voyeurism was in some sense the purpose of the author, and I’ve come to realise that I’ve been just as voyeuristic as the characters by having read the book at all. Still, upon reflection, I realise that I didn’t really have much of a choice in this regard. The voyeurism of the narrating boys was a perspective pushed onto me, and it gave me no opportunity nor many resources to understand and appreciate the characters that I actually wanted to—the Lisbon girls. Even the ending focuses on the reflections the boys have about themselves; the Lisbon girls, although staged in the centre, have been staged artificially, illuminated in the light of the boys’ fantasies, romanticisation, and introspection. The girls become tools for the boys to understand themselves, empty shells for the boys to fill with their own conjecture and wonder, rather than full beings. 

Perhaps this irony and/or this dynamic is actually a tool to criticise the boys, and the other characters—neighbours, acquaintances, medical professionals—in the book who are not sympathetic to the Lisbon girls but rather eager to deconstruct and discuss them. If that is the case, then I think it would be a very good narrative, and I have thus given the author the benefit of the doubt in my rating (which would be higher if I could be sure it was what the author intended to do).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, and Suicide attempt

theatomicblonde22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder

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

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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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Medical content, Mental illness, Grief, and Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexism

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 

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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

zhazhadiamond's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Confinement

themelleh's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

I went into this having seen the film 20-something years ago when it came out. Luckily, there were some differences which actually make the book more enjoyable and shocking at once. Still, it’s probably a little gauche to be reading a voyeuristic tale of five teenage boys so in lust with the Lisbon girls they don’t even tell an adult about the really weird shit happening when my own mental health is in the toilet.

Really, the only points are because I visualise Kirsten Dunst when I see Lux.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship