cameroniandcheeze 's review for:

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

2.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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While this book is written very beautifully, I can’t give it a full five stars. The issue I have with this book is the toxic masculinity shown through the narrators. The boys never once treat the Lisbon girls as though they are real people with real problems. The girls in this book are treated horribly. The author doesn’t make any real attempt to humanize the Lisbon girls or give them any positive personality traits. The girls themselves are constantly misunderstood and honestly no one in the entire neighborhood makes any attempt to help. You’re going to tell me, that when they see four girls taken out of school and NEVER leaving their house again, they did nothing? No one in the entire story lifts a finger, they just have meaningless conversations about the girls. The narrators themselves are creeps. They in their thirties now and are obsessed with teenage girls still? I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t get past the blatant fetishization of these girls or the romanticism of their actions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt