A review by happi_mess
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

4.0

“We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.”

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The amount of pain that I felt reading this book is enough to make it seem like it was physical.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Rating: ★★★★

Goddamn. There's a part of me that just wants to rip this book to pieces and burn it. I am so mad as hell. Suicide is not an easy topic. To read about is is one thing, talking about it is another. Still, although the topic is heavy--gruesome at some point--there's beauty in it with the way that it was written.

This book is lyrical, mystical, and paints a clear image of this suburbia that the girls are trying so hard to escape. All of the expectations, fixed images, gender roles, the response on Cecilia's suicide, the media, religious institutions, the elm trees, hell, even the cementery... I got so immersed in this place that looked like it has a VSCO filter. And I got so mad at this place as well.

I honestly don't know where to begin. But let's try.

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The things that I like

☽ The writing. If there's one thing that you cannot clock about this book, it's the writing. I've seen this from Alexandra Roselyn's channel and she has read a passage from the book and that convinced me to give this a try. Seriously, that had been all the motivation I needed to buy this rather expensive copy.

Also, this is written in the collective first person point of view. It added another layer of mystery because you do not really know who was talking and it was a nice counterpoint for the Lisbon girls whom they also talked about almost always as a group.

The other characters were not treated as side characters. It was like everyone mentioned had a little background with him and not just a name--which I appreciated. Reading this book will open all your five senses, mind, and heart. It was that detailed without it being too much.

Even though I hate the boys, I have to say that their passages come off as romantic, hopelessly hopeful, and desparate. And I loved every single piece of it.


☽ The different responses to suicide. I think one of the things that made this book more alive is the incorporation of the different responses--from the friends of the Lisbon girls, the school, all the way up to the large scale of it being a nationwide news.

I just have to say that reading this book with SparkNotes helped me realized how this suburbia mimics some of the popular culture mostly about the American dream. If you have the time, please do check it out. There's more to this novel than you think and diving deeper--especially about a sensitive topic as this one--would bring more enjoyment and layers to your reading experience.


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The things that I DID NOT like

☾ The MALE gaze. As some have already pointed out: these boys ARE NOT IN LOVE with the Lisbon girls. They are OBSESSED. It's sad to think that these girls were suffering--are already dead--and these boys (now MEN) are still fantasizing about them. Some of them are married already and still openly talked about how when they kiss someone they think of the Lisbon girls, or whent they sleep with another, Lux is in the back of their minds.

I swear, they are creepy that way. I think one of them pointed out that they were too infatuated to notice things? AND YES, YOU ARE RIGHT. All of them are collecting these evidences of the girls' lives, but they didn't really do anything about it. They were all bystanders, just watching from their trees and windows while these girls are literally crying for help.

And they still wonder why they could not piece things together? GURL, it's because you didn't get to know the Lisbon girls. How can you really love someone that you do not know?

Listen, I could go on and on, about how I do not like the boys. But here's a little something to think about: no matter how much you are suffering, or dying, there's no goddamn escape from the male gaze. And it fucking sucks.


─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───


In sum:

Everybody aside from the Lisbon girls in this book, SUCKED. I wanted to jump right in and help those girls. I want to punch every single person living in that suburbia. I wanna raze their elm trees (even though it would also break my heart) and let them all suffer in heat.

This is a book of WHAT NOT TO DO in helping an individual, a family, and a neighbor who is dealing with the death of someone who had committed suicide.

At the end, suicide is something that a lot of people still need awareness of.