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ppp's review against another edition
- 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
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
lexigrce's review against another edition
- 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
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
elysianbud's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Confinement, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Drug use, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Ableism and Racial slurs
theatomicblonde22's review against another edition
- 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
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
kibiiiariii's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, Child death, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking
anoldharmonica's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Child abuse
lilybisliterate's review against another edition
- 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
2.25
Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Self harm, and Suicide
amelie_b1008's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, Emotional abuse, and Suicide attempt
mxcopmy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is the kind of book where you can only make assumptions about the story and will never know 100% the meaning of it. You can compare it somewhat to a work of art where each gives their own hypothesis and perspective and each also contributes to the whole.
'The virgin suicides' is about 5 sisters who each commits suicide, starting with Cecilia. They grow up together in a traditional Christian family where it becomes clear that the mother and father have strict rules about hanging out with boys, going away to parties, wearing revealing clothing, ... This is one of the assumptions raised as to why the girls would have committed suicide. They felt trapped in their own home, their own family. However, the title and synopsis are a bit misleading (in my opinion) where you think you will delve into the Lisbon sisters' characters and really find out why they ended up committing suicide. However, this is not the case. Rather, the story is written to show how different perspectives can bring a different story, and each contributing to the overall picture. The entire book is written from the perspective of a group of boys where you sense through the written text that the female gender is still unknown territory with them. In the end, they narrate how they experienced the sisters' suicides. A lot of stereotyping and traditionalism comes into play here.
You should definitely read this book if you want a story that keeps you thinking after you read it. As I wrote at the beginning of my review, you cannot grasp this book 100% and you can only have a hypothesis at the end of the story. So what my personal conclusion is, is that the author wants to give the reader an experience of 'the male gaze'. You notice immediately in the story that the boys view the Lisbon girls mainly from a sexual perspective and especially start stereotyping them in the sense of: "oh well, they are girls who only care about their looks anyway" or start viewing them mainly as objects. This is very powerfully brought by Jeffrey, just because you would almost fall into it yourself to start sneaking into this line of thinking. Next, the boys have a pathological obsession with the sisters throughout the story. For instance, they literally watch them with binoculars from their room. Why? No clue... and this is one of those pressing questions I am left with after reading the book. one of so many....
The interesting thing about this book is that so many different opinions and stories are shared about the sisters' deaths that you can never be sure whether the characters are telling the truth or not. This still kept me glued to the book (for as much time as I had at times). It follows that the book was therefore also a very smooth read. In fact, the ideal book to read in one sitting!
Moving on to those pressing questions, I experienced them both positively and negatively. On the one hand, positive because it remains mysterious and exciting. You really want to find out for yourself why and what it all actually means. Because of this, you genuinely feel that humans are creatures who keep looking for explanations and allow themselves to be drummed up by all sorts of fantasies if they don't get these explanations on a piece of paper. On the other hand, negative because there are a lot of things I don't understand at all, like: what does the Virgin Mary have to do with it? What did Cecilia suffer that it eventually had to come to the point where she committed suicide as a 13-year-old? The boys often speak of "exhibit ..." as if they were conducting a police investigation, what does this mean? Or was this rather obsessional? There is also frequent mention of interviews with both the sisters' mother and father, again is this the boys' obsession that made them start talking to them or is this police, ...
These are all things that didn't seem to make sense in my head and why I was also confused at times. This sometimes made me feel that I had overlooked things in reading the book or that I was missing the essence of the story.
Despite the negative points, I was still surprised by the book! I was guided by people on tiktok who were very enthusiastic about it after reading books by Otessa Moshfegh. It definitely has the same dark side as her books! My review may not be very concrete, but that's because you really have to read the book yourself to understand what the mayhem (which is nonetheless structurally brought) to get through from these boys and the family. There is also a movie released of this that I definitely want to watch! Maybe that will give me answers to my questions?....
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, and Mental illness
kelleykamanda's review against another edition
- 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
Recommend reading this article after finishing:
“In Defense of the Unsatisfying Ending: The Virgin Suicides” by Janey Tracey
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