Scan barcode
mxcopmy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- 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
Spoilers ahead.
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?....
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?....
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, and Mental illness
kelleykamanda's review against another edition
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
Recommend reading this article after finishing:
“In Defense of the Unsatisfying Ending: The Virgin Suicides” by Janey Tracey
Content Warnings
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
cjdangerfield's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
lilawsahar's review against another edition
It’s slow. Written by a man. It’s in a research format of why the Lisbon girls committed suicide but the research is poor because they have no good interviews or reasons on why they committed suicide. Also it feels misogynistic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content
Minor: Misogyny
ru_th's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, and Gore
favvn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I keep dragging my feet on typing out a review for this book. Possibly because there's so much I could say about it that I'm at a loss for how to phrase it, much less fit it all into a review barely anyone will read (maybe someday I'll be a booktuber girlie but not any time soon lmao). I just reread it for the third time and I still don't know exactly what to say.
I could be flippant and say, "Cecilia is just like me fr fr" or that this book once helped to tank my already sunken mood so badly I found myself in therapy as a result, but that's just sensationalist and doesn't explain why I would come back to it again and again. (I will say, if you struggle with depression/depressive episodes.... maybe wait until your mood stabilizes before cracking open this book because guess who didn't and just got worse in continued self-imposed isolation 🤪 until the fog lifted and in a moment of lucidity I sought help) So, I guess let me try to put into words why I like The Virgin Suicides enough to come back to it in spite of my past history with it.
1. The Writing Style/Set Up
Eugenides reveals what's going to happen right in the title, right in the first sentence. Already, you go into this book knowing what you will encounter. He does this because he wants you to ask, like the collective narrator, "Why?" And the more you read, the less you will ask why but rather, "How could no one help?" This is the issue that haunts the narrator(s). This is why they're still obsessed with the Lisbon girls 20+ years later. Well, that and teenage hormones/first crush/"we could've dated, but never did, so all we have are scenarios we dreamt about" type combo. Add suicide at such a young age and anyone could be haunted by all of those what-ifs and maybes, that complete lack of resolution.
2. The Collective Narrator
Truly the most unreliable narrator of all time! Like playing a game of telephone, these boys/men contradict themselves, get details mixed up or wrong entirely, or focus on the most mundane of things while glossing over the important events.
Yes, there's a heaping amount of gross sexualization and misogyny as a result. Frankly, this should come as no surprise (although I'm a cynic. If men want me to change my opinion, change your behaviors first xoxo). They're recounting their teenage years--the time of crazy hormones and intense feelings--during the 70s, a time period that could be just as grossly sexist as earlier periods and was sexist as a backlash to the Women's Movement of the time. It would be unrealistic for the boys to not be perverts about the girls, although frankly, why they're dreaming of the girls whilst having sex with other women 20+ years later is a big, gross yikes. Eugenides, please explain that decision to me.
That aside, the fact that the boys sexualize the Lisbon girls works to heighten the girls' plight, in my opinion. There's a line in chapter 4 that I think about always because it's a throwaway type of line, but it's jarring because of its placement in the story. The boys are finally about to enter the Lisbon house to play out their fantasy of rescuing the girls by taking them away to wherever, but before they enter they watch Lux smoking in the living room and take stock of a halter top they had last seen her wearing 2 years before everything happened. The boys tell themselves that it's this great symbol of the girls soon-to-be had freedom, but it ends with, "That halter could've come undone with one quick yank." And this line destroys that stupid white knight fantasy the boys believe they're living because all it shows is how the Lisbon girls would be trading a cloister (albeit a rotting and leaking cloister with a questionable food supply) for a new hell of objectification at the hands of boys believing themselves to be saviors. Which, based on criticisms I've read from women about the free love movement of the late 60s/early 70s and the expectation of domestic labor from the women involved in political activist groups of that time... it all hits. Or I'm just being a complete cynical killjoy.
But of course, the best possible example of what I'm talking about comes later in chapter 4, when the boys return to the basement. The floor is flooded from rain and backed up sewage vents and nobody cleaned up from the party held the year before. The decorations, food, punch bowl, all of it is still out, rotting and collecting dust.
I could be flippant and say, "Cecilia is just like me fr fr" or that this book once helped to tank my already sunken mood so badly I found myself in therapy as a result, but that's just sensationalist and doesn't explain why I would come back to it again and again. (I will say, if you struggle with depression/depressive episodes.... maybe wait until your mood stabilizes before cracking open this book because guess who didn't and just got worse in continued self-imposed isolation 🤪 until the fog lifted and in a moment of lucidity I sought help) So, I guess let me try to put into words why I like The Virgin Suicides enough to come back to it in spite of my past history with it.
1. The Writing Style/Set Up
Eugenides reveals what's going to happen right in the title, right in the first sentence. Already, you go into this book knowing what you will encounter. He does this because he wants you to ask, like the collective narrator, "Why?" And the more you read, the less you will ask why but rather, "How could no one help?" This is the issue that haunts the narrator(s). This is why they're still obsessed with the Lisbon girls 20+ years later. Well, that and teenage hormones/first crush/"we could've dated, but never did, so all we have are scenarios we dreamt about" type combo. Add suicide at such a young age and anyone could be haunted by all of those what-ifs and maybes, that complete lack of resolution.
2. The Collective Narrator
Truly the most unreliable narrator of all time! Like playing a game of telephone, these boys/men contradict themselves, get details mixed up or wrong entirely, or focus on the most mundane of things while glossing over the important events.
Yes, there's a heaping amount of gross sexualization and misogyny as a result. Frankly, this should come as no surprise (although I'm a cynic. If men want me to change my opinion, change your behaviors first xoxo). They're recounting their teenage years--the time of crazy hormones and intense feelings--during the 70s, a time period that could be just as grossly sexist as earlier periods and was sexist as a backlash to the Women's Movement of the time. It would be unrealistic for the boys to not be perverts about the girls, although frankly, why they're dreaming of the girls whilst having sex with other women 20+ years later is a big, gross yikes. Eugenides, please explain that decision to me.
That aside, the fact that the boys sexualize the Lisbon girls works to heighten the girls' plight, in my opinion. There's a line in chapter 4 that I think about always because it's a throwaway type of line, but it's jarring because of its placement in the story. The boys are finally about to enter the Lisbon house to play out their fantasy of rescuing the girls by taking them away to wherever, but before they enter they watch Lux smoking in the living room and take stock of a halter top they had last seen her wearing 2 years before everything happened. The boys tell themselves that it's this great symbol of the girls soon-to-be had freedom, but it ends with, "That halter could've come undone with one quick yank." And this line destroys that stupid white knight fantasy the boys believe they're living because all it shows is how the Lisbon girls would be trading a cloister (albeit a rotting and leaking cloister with a questionable food supply) for a new hell of objectification at the hands of boys believing themselves to be saviors. Which, based on criticisms I've read from women about the free love movement of the late 60s/early 70s and the expectation of domestic labor from the women involved in political activist groups of that time... it all hits. Or I'm just being a complete cynical killjoy.
But of course, the best possible example of what I'm talking about comes later in chapter 4, when the boys return to the basement. The floor is flooded from rain and backed up sewage vents and nobody cleaned up from the party held the year before. The decorations, food, punch bowl, all of it is still out, rotting and collecting dust.
Buzz Romano waded out to the card table, and as we all watched, began to dance, to box-step, as his mother had taught him in the papal splendor of their living room. He held only air, but we could see her—them—all five, clasped in his arms. “These girls make me crazy. If I could just feel one of them up just once,” he said, as his shoes filled and emptied with silt. His dancing kicked up the sewage smell, and after that, stronger than ever, the smell we could never forget.
It's an entirely fitting description that his shoes should fill with disgusting sewage water while he imagines dancing with the girls as he says he wants to feel one of them up. It covers all bases: the boys' fantasy of their relationship to the girls and the reality of why the boys are so dogged in their pursuit.
3. The Parallels
I love parallels. I love when separate things mirror each other and show a united message once compared. Love it, love it, love it. And in The Virgin Suicides, Jeffery Eugenides parallels the deterioration of suburban life in the 70s with the deterioration of the environment and the deterioration of the Lisbon family.
The unifying symbol of all this deterioration and decay is, of course, the elm trees. Once a thing of natural beauty that hid how sterile and uniform the neighborhood was in the boys' youth, they are removed one by one throughout the book owing to an outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease. Without the trees, the boys are confronted by how artificial their life is, and with no more trees, the neighborhood loses an old communal tradition of each household collecting leaves to burn by the end of fall. The Lisbon's tree, in a poetic turn, is left standing last but as a bare trunk devoid of limbs, described as, "a creature clubbed mute, only its sudden voicelessness making us realize it had been speaking all along." Do I even need to say what this symbolizes?
The ending chapter describes a spill at a local chemical plant creating a thick layer of algae that results in a disgusting, swampy smell permeating the neighborhood. It recalls the descriptions of vapors coming from the Lisbon house earlier and that strange smell that would enter the neighborhood if any Lisbon opened the door. But, naturally, no one wishes to be ousted by such a silly thing as nature taking its due course, so a local family uses the theme 'Asphyxiation' for their daughter's debut party.
It's in this backdrop that racism is included in the book and, much like Eugenides' use of sexualization, it's very much for a purpose. It's mentioned in passing, of course, because the book focuses solely on white characters--black maids waiting on street corners for buses to the city, the local costume store changing its ghost mannequin to look more pointed, a restaurant removing fried chicken from its menu. And yes, there is at least one use of the n-word that I can recall. But it's all in the sake of reality because yes, the wealthy, white suburbs of Michigan would be racist in the 70s, especially with the 1967 Detroit Riot happening about 10 years prior to the book's setting and the white exodus from the cities to the suburbs going on since the 50s. Racism never limited itself to south of the Mason-Dixon line, it just took a more subtle approach. Eugenides isn't tossing in these details to be shocking or showcase latent racism on his own part. He was writing from his own experiences as a teen in 1970s Michigan. And by this point in the story, if a whole neighborhood can watch but never confront the decaying house across the street or its occupants, how is casual racism from these same characters so shocking? They're not even caring after their own neighbors! Which goes back to how hollow and meaningless the suburbs of The Virgin Suicides have become--any sense of community slowly erodes with each passing year until families outright pack up and leave for the Sun Belt. The only thing that keeps enough of them together--or possibly brings them back--is survivor's guilt at not doing enough to help the Lisbons.
Other/Miscellaneous:
I will forever laugh at the part where the boys earnestly believe girls ages 13-17 are douching every night. Big hearty chuckle.
Partly mind boggling but partly not to learn that Eugenides had zero symbolic intentions behind having Cecilia wear an old wedding dress. I love knowing he just said, "She's a weird kid so that's one of her quirks." Meanwhile so many people analyze it--rightly so!--to call back to the idea of a virgin bride and the joy of a wedding only for Cecilia and her shorn-hemmed, stained dress to turn all of that on its head. Gotta love serendipitous coincidences.
It's also funny to me that Eugenides was surprised to learn how so many girls are fans of a book so thoroughly centered in the male perspective, but he captured the hell of being a girl perfectly: on one extreme, the Lisbon girls are locked away by their mother to stay safe forever. On the other, they are lusted after by the boys and held up as a fantasy that doesn't exist according to the boys' white knight dreams. In the process, no one wants to see them for who they were--not a dream or sex fantasy or something to be protected and locked away, but human. And under living conditions like that and a society only all to happy to crush them into further dehumanizing roles, they took the one choice that was theirs to control entirely. Ya know, like the original meaning of the word virgin, not a sexually inexperienced person but a woman in control of her own life (even if that control only extends to choosing to end it).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Confinement, Sexism, Misogyny, Child abuse, Child death, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content, Racism, and Racial slurs
elllav's review against another edition
dark
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
2.5
U can tell this was written by a man
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Misogyny
ptitirodactyle's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide, Stalking, Child death, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Self harm
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Medical content, Drug use, Pedophilia, Alcohol, and Pregnancy
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.
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.
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
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”
“daughters of the community”
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