Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Las Virgenes Suicidas by Jeffrey Eugenides

51 reviews

dennyiii's review against another edition

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

3.75


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jemmareadsalot's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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bookshelfhannah's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0


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elysianbud's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

Very odd book, but I very much enjoyed the writing style - the descriptions were really well done. Felt quite slow to read yet I still managed to finish it in about six hours. 

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toffishay's review against another edition

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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. 

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kibiiiariii's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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lindsayerin's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-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? It's complicated

2.75


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kelleykamanda's review against another edition

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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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ru_th's review against another edition

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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.

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annikanewland's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.25


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