Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Las Virgenes Suicidas

I have a mix of "this is meant to be voyeuristic and is a commentary on the hypocrisy of the neighbours boys and their delusions of "knowing" the Lisbon girls" and "this is a very creepy view of teenage girls that lacks depth and ultimately dehumanises and oversexualises them".

i expected the book to be from the perspective of the girls, so was intrigued at the start when i realised it was from an unnamed neighbour's point of view, but then by the end i really wished it was from the girls' points of view. my favourite moments were the little shows of the girls' real nature - the chattiness at the dance, Therese's radio conversations, the sharing of music over the radio. So probably these moments made me enjoy the book, but there weren't enough of them.

I found myself getting bored of the long descriptions of the characters being interviewed who would never be brought up again, and disappointed that there was no "conclusion" or even an explanation of the reasoning of the interviews - were they just being nosy? did he grow up to be a detective? why would people (especially the parents) answer these questions if it wasn't an official thing?

Also, there was so much attention on Lux (obviously as the most outwardly sexual and therefore easiest to sexualise), but i really would've loved more on the other sisters, especially Mary and Therese. it's quite creepy that only cecelia, bonnie and lux, as the youngest sisters, got attention - possibly a commentary on oversexualising young girls? but again i think this book lacked a Moment or Epiphany that showed it really was a commentary on society rather than another piece of the society itself.

one last thing, there's not really any payoff by reading the book. you don't get any deeper understanding of the girls, why they did what they did etc., and you know even before reading it what the ending will be, and they keep mentioning throughout how the girls will be dead by the end, so it sort of felt unnecessarily long considering you know whats gonna happen. i saw a review though that said it was meant to put you into the perspective of the neighbours who also had no idea of the details, which is a better way of looking at it, but again probably too long of a book (and it isn't even that long, only 240 pages)

The writing was very flowery which was nice at times, i found myself wanting to underline descriptions that stood out to me, but sometimes it was over the top and became hard to read. Mixed feelings and unsure of what rating to put but i will stick with this for now and it might change once i have mulled it over a bit longer

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elysianbud's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

Very odd book, but I very much enjoyed the writing style - the descriptions were really well done. Felt quite slow to read yet I still managed to finish it in about six hours.

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theatomicblonde22's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

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toffishay's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.75

As a lifelong Michigander, it was high time that I read this book that so often makes listicles for the quintessential "Michigan Gothic". I can certainly see how it fits the bill. The premise of five young girls trapped in a house becoming more and more isolated from their crumbling suburban community and losing hope for a future until they all commit suicide is extremely Gothic. The premise is that the story is being told years later by a group of men who were obsessed with with Lisbon girls when they were all younger, back when the suicides happened. They have collected evidence, memorabilia, and stories from anything and anyone who was even a little connected to the girls. The need that the men have to collect and analyze everything about them is an analysis and criticism of the ways that boys idealize girls, seeing them as pretty objects so separate from themselves, but ultimately they are all the same. It is an interesting story all about decline, death, the loss of ourselves and our communities.

I think that the story loses me not in the plot, but in the pacing. It comes out hot out of the gate and then things really slow down after the first two chapters and don't pick up again until the very end. I also think that the characterization of some of the girls suffers from the short length and that the space that is used is to add color to that world. Setting the scene is important of course and makes the characters feel more real, but I would have liked a little more insight into some of the older Lisbon daughters like Therese, Mary, and Bonnie. Cecilia and Lux are interesting, but I would have liked a deeper dive all around.

If I were to compare it, it does put me in a mind frame of Don Delillo's White Noise. I don't like The Virgin Suicides quite that much, but I do think that they have similar themes of the decline of the white American suburban ideal, the falseness behind it all.

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