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A review by luccamaria
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
dark
sad
tense
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
4.0
to me, this book is mainly about the male gaze. this whole time the boys were obsessed only with the idea of being with the girls, never once did they actually care about what they might have felt. they were infatuated with them, analysed their behaviour - but always with the intention of one day being able to have them. they viewed them as possessions.
what really confirms this is the quote at the end:
"It didn't matter in the end how old they have been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling [...]" (p. 243).
they blame the girls for their own suicides - they blame them for never turning to them, the boys - not once thinking of the possibility that the girls might not have loved them. that the reason they killed themselves is something they can't understand, simply because they were looking in all the wrong places with all the wrong intentions.
the boys kept inserting themselves in this situation, so much that in the end, they convinced themselves that truly they were the ones that had suffered, turning the attention completely away from the actual suffering of the lisbon girls.
what really confirms this is the quote at the end:
"It didn't matter in the end how old they have been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling [...]" (p. 243).
they blame the girls for their own suicides - they blame them for never turning to them, the boys - not once thinking of the possibility that the girls might not have loved them. that the reason they killed themselves is something they can't understand, simply because they were looking in all the wrong places with all the wrong intentions.
the boys kept inserting themselves in this situation, so much that in the end, they convinced themselves that truly they were the ones that had suffered, turning the attention completely away from the actual suffering of the lisbon girls.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide
Minor: Ableism