Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Las Virgenes Suicidas by Jeffrey Eugenides

84 reviews

merries's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This book is, in some ways, a sign of its times. While, for once, a male author decided to reflect on the presentation of women rather than analyse or explain them, the language screams 1990s. I will say, if you are one for avoiding books with derogatory terms, give this one a miss. Instances are few, but the choice of words reflects 1990s society and how it differs. With the book being set in the 1970s, it further reflects the differences in societal norms. 

I, like many others, wish the other sisters were as fleshed out as Lux. It’s clear that she is the sister at the forefront of the narrator’s infatuation, but a lack of development for Mary, Therese, and Bonnie made it hard for me to distinguish the behaviours of the three, almost-forgotten sisters. Cecilia was given more detail as she was the catalyst, and Lux as she was the centre of the narrator’s lust for the sisters.

Speaking of the narrator, the recalling of events and explanations are very description-heavy, which is not my preference. As a result, I felt lost in the concrete events due to the obsession over the abstract. I feel like a lot of this could have been left out of the book, in favour for developing characters who are meant to be the centre of the story.

However, there were a lot of positives to this book: I devoured this book rather quickly, feeling a need to read on to get to the breaking point of the Lisbon sisters. While that seems a cruel statement, the narrator had explicitly stated multiple times exactly how the sisters died - but not what caused it, and it was that which intrigued me the most.

I felt like Mr and Mrs Lisbon were arguably the most complex characters in the book - we never experienced a true exploration into why they were so cruel, and why they restricted the actions of their daughters. They were enjoyable to question, and provided another level of intrigue as I read.

Overall, this was the book that ended my reading slump of Summer 22, and while it was a book I enjoyed on the whole, I do have my qualms with the details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and Medical content

grboph's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

It took me a while to get into this book, but I'm glad I read it. I gave it four stars because it was beautifully written and the story was very emotionally charged (I found myself wanting to save the Lisbon sisters and felt for both their struggle and the boys'). I also think the book had some very profound things to say about repression, mental illness, and suicide that I appreciated as someone who has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts and lost a loved one to suicide. This is a book I can see myself re-reading at some point in the future and gaining something completely new out of it the second time around. However, I took a star off because the whole thing felt really male-gazey (both in the way the boys view the sisters and in the way Eugenides writes about them) and a lot of the pages felt like I might see photos of them on r/menwritingwomen. Because of this, it made the Lisbon sisters as characters seem a bit flat. I would really like to see a rewrite of the story done from the perspectives of the sisters since I feel this would make the story much deeper and more meaningful, as we would get to experience their feelings and the motivations that led to their deaths. (On the other hand, maybe the point of the story was that it was told from an outsider's perspective to focus on how the suicides affected both the people and the society surrounding them). In conclusion, this was a very good, although slow-paced book that could have been potentially made even better had it been written from a different perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something you can sort of just pick up and put down whenever, or anyone who likes stories with a lot of emotional depth to them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Child death, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Classism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Pedophilia, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Cursing and Toxic relationship

holliesarah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racial slurs, Ableism, and Emotional abuse

chaoticweevil'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Stalking, Ableism, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Vomit and Drug use

bearsinthesky's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

__thalia__'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Eating disorder

technobabble's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

coriblake's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, jury’s still out on whether that’s positive or negative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Grief, Pedophilia, Suicide, Child death, Confinement, Death, Stalking, Blood, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Addiction

rachelg'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Alcohol, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Emotional abuse

mirandajatib's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

I have a weird relationship w this book. Its characters and setting were very well built, the book posed great questions about girlhood, the male gaze, abusive households, religion, guilt etc. Despite this, it was a very slow read. I was rarely immersed in the novel. While this may make it seem like I hated the novel, completing it was so rewarding. It is a future classic that deserves to be analyzed and discussed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Suicide