Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Las Virgenes Suicidas by Jeffrey Eugenides

84 reviews

pagesoftara's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Rape

afroheaux's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

I finished this book in one sitting. It was a wonderful and strange ride. I did read it before, about five years ago. I remember loving the style of writing, but not truly absorbing the book itself and its contents. With this read, I can see the girls so clearly and I don't understand why when I read this book earlier (and watched the movie which I also love), I didn't understand why the girls acted the way that they did. I almost found myself agreeing with the final paragraphs of the book because I couldn't put my finger on the reasoning for the events of the book. I was taking the hive teenage boy brain's opinion as my own. Now that I've studied more history, crime, and psychology, I was able to see the situation for what it was.

It's a group of men speaking as their teenage selves as they dive into what has become their life's mystery to solve: the suicides of the Lisbon sisters. Do note that this is a mid to late 1970s teenage boy's brain. There's a lot of misogyny in here as well as instances of boys doing insane shit due to their obsession with the sisters. Their "investigation" is only possible because they stalked them. Be prepared to hear racist, classist, and overall dated language. People of color are not treated as human beings in most scenes in this book, black people especially.

The absurdity and obsessive nature of these boys are also part of the appeal for me. It's so raw. The depth of the descriptions of the mundanity of it all amongst the chaos of being a teenager. They do not spare you their teenage thoughts or strange happenings. I would give it five stars, but I can only give so much to a man's account of five teenage girls. Their analysis was naive and misguided, sometimes cruel and insulting. The way they marveled over the girls but were also seemingly hopeless to save them from their fate. You watch a family of abused children and a controlling mother come apart before your eyes even though the narrators are not describing it as such. The girls are more mirages than anything else, molding into whatever piles of pillows the boys had laying next to them.

For example, when Trip has sex with Lux on the football field and she starts crying, he recalls later how he instantly was done with his obsession with her. The moment she was a human being before in him, in the flesh, the fantasy could no longer continue. I can't imagine how that must've felt for Lux. This person who was dogged in their pursuit of you, who you thought could find some solace in after years of isolation, turns away the moment you show yourself to him. Was it any wonder she wanted to lose herself in anyone who looked her way? When you think about what those girls were going through in that house, it's overwhelming to digest.

The boys say their decision was selfish, but it was the only option they saw that was good for them. They were being left to rot by a mother who didn't want to take care of them anymore. Yet at the same time refused to let them live any other way. A way that could've saved their lives. It's a heartbreaking story about what happens when parents don't let children be human.

 "We just want to live. If anyone would let us. ” - Therese Lisbon

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

sadiaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

2.5

This book has a cult following so I was intrigued to read it. This book wasn't for me and I found myself dragging my feet to finish this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

phillyhufflepunk'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

I cried...but not from sadness. I cried in frustration. This is one of the starkest tragedies ever written, told from the perspective of selfish, inane narrators - under the delusion that they are somehow a part of the story. With each new development, they...and the self-involved upper middle class d bags that they spawned from...fail the Lisbon girls. Over and over and over, the community has opportunity to step in, but they don't. As these boys chronicle the downward spiral of their Manic Pixie Dream Girls, they continuously miss the moments in which they actually could have saved them.

The boys literally run out of the house after finding one of the girls dead without checking on any of the others, in spite of the fact that they were there to save them in the first place AND that they were about to let Lux do one or all of them just 10 minutes earlier.

 The Lisbon Girls deserved better, and although the story would have been 10x better from their perspectives, I still rate it 4 stars because by hearing the story from a bunch of clueless middle aged men, who were clueless teenaged boys, you see just how ignored these girls felt when they were practically SCREAMING for help.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

cm1922's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I love the narrator and the other boys almost savior complex pov throughout the entire book along with the narration in general. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

fancymcgee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

you know, i love to emphasize with female characters, but their mother was a villain. the story is told from the perspective of an outsider, but as you read you know something is happening inside those walls that you will never fully grasp. i also don’t love the language the boys use for the girls, but in the end when they realize that they truly didn’t know these girls and romantized people they never truly met, was good. first opening this book, i didn’t know that i would finish it, if i even wanted to. putting it down, i just feel hollow and angry. maybe that was the authors intent, to leave you feeling like even though you were essentially one of the boys looking in on this sad family, you would never understand what happened behind closed doors. can’t say i loved or hated this book. can’t even say i loved those girls, cause did we ever even know them? 
“daughters of the community” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Blood, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Self harm, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Minor: Racial slurs

lindseyhall44's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

“We realized that the world [our parents] rendered for us was not the one they really believed in.“
The Virgin Suicides is a book set amidst the backdrop of mundane suburban life, where a community is forever changed by the suicides of five sisters. Told in first person plural (the male gaze), readers are pulled into the mystery and obsession which will haunt the boys for years to come.
I never expected to enjoy this book so much, much less find it a new favorite. But the compelling writing and dark undertones made it difficult to put down. The story of the Lisbon girls (told through every perspective except their own) is one which I will never forget.
I would definitely recommend (though take time to consider when this was written and the aspects which have not aged well, and please check trigger warnings before reading)!
*I would also recommend watching the movie after, it’s iconic and generation defining!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Mental illness, Medical content, Blood, Self harm, Medical trauma, and Ableism

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

kathleenjones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Death, Grief, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Sexual content, Child death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Alcoholism

ladybergart's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, and Eating disorder

kayabennett's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol and Toxic relationship