Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Las Virgenes Suicidas by Jeffrey Eugenides

19 reviews

meghanhelent's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Child death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Death, and Grief

brownsugar25's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.5

 

I'm actually quite out of words for this book.
There were many moments in the book that had flabber-ghasted about the treatement the entire societal views had about the Lisbon girls, moments where I thought they had reached for help multiple times with others, moments I was angered at the sheer fact that their parents didn't want to take the blame-especially Mrs. Lisbon for what went forth with her daugthers, moments I truely couldn't wrap my head around with Dr.Hornicker.

Because there are no words. The boys who watched them across grow up knew them so much better than their parents did, their curiosity is much bigger and beyond than the infatuation they shared with the girls. They truely wanted to find the fact on why they did, trying to understand the girls rather than what others blamed it up- their young age, their involvement with religious cults (cecilia's virgin Mary concept), their parent's ridiculous punishments, it was their deterioration of watching an entire family go within a year's worth of time.

And I think the neighborhood at the end also didn't really fair much either. It's truly melancholic to read, I had watched the movie years ago. But the book had much focus on the non-objectification of young teenage girls- told through the lens of teenage boys. There actually wasn't much sexualization here to be honest, the movie focused more on it (duh, commercialization). This book talks about a time where politics were in from a small town, the weather was changing, the communicim that was blooming, the recession that was just around the corner, & then the hippies.

Overall, a good read.

Most memorable scene from the book: When Mary camps out in the living room in a sleeping bag and her parents in the master bedroom right after she gets discharged from the hospital to come to an empty house. It reminded Mr Lisbon of when the family moved in about 11 years ago, and the moving vans hadn't come in yet so the house had been empty, and the family had to camp with a tent with the girls. Reading bed time stories under lanterns in the tents they set up. So when Mr. Lisbon woke up in the morning and spotted Mary sleeping in the tent, it took him back to a time pre-puberty of the girls when they were kids and he said "Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I'd forget everything had happened. I'd go down the hall and for a moment, we'd just moved in again. The girls were asleep in their tent in the living room." This scene BROKE me.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Self harm, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism and Addiction

ellietodd08's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Grief and Self harm

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Misogyny, and Alcohol

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

cepbreed's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I think I’d be more willing to accept satire if this were written by a woman. I understand it is satirical, an exaggeration of a boys imagination but that doesn’t change the fact that this book is perverse. I can’t sugarcoat it. I am very disturbed by the male gaze and it’s effects on these poor girls. I’m very interested in the movie adaptation now thought I doubt it’s any kinder to the girls. Just by the amount of romanticization and fantasy already scattered around the internet. The adaptation is taken without any deeper thought into its meaning. I, to be honest, can’t really explain what it is either. I think my parents could learn from this book a little bit LOL. Being strict is toxic. It creates children who do everything to bend the rules and children who are deeply upset like in their core being. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, and Suicide

priyas's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Stalking, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, Pedophilia, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Misogyny

kalinamiski1's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

A good book overall. A few parts were quite boring but I’d still say that the book was better than the movie. It says  a bit more about their grief and the abuse they suffered. The content might be triggering since it dealt with topic like suicide(duh), abuse, stalking and addiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Stalking, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse and Mental illness

Minor: Addiction, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

lordofdisorder's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Racism

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Racial slurs

karenaerts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, and Racism