Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

24 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

sad tense 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? No

1.0

i’ve done it folks. i’ve found the worst fucking book to exist. i think i am an avid Hater of this book.

why did i finish this? it ended up being a hate read. plus i was curious if it would redeem itself (spoiler alert: it didn’t. not even close).

now immediately, away from the actual story. why was this book so fucking racist and ableist and pro-pedophilia. a side character is called “Joe the R[-slur]”. what the fuck. the n-word, HARD R, is used for a description when it could’ve easily been omitted. what the fuck. pedophilia is essentially portrayed as admirable in this story, and most of its pages contain grown men fantasising about girls who died as CHILDREN. why are grown men in-text writing about a minor having sex? why is a grown man as an AUTHOR writing about a minor having sex????? lowkey explicitly???? yes i realise YA is written by adults and sometimes contains sex scenes. but my god it’s like a “flash forward” most of the time. why am i reading about luxx sucking off a guy. hey what the fuck this girl is like 15 years old let’s not. what goes through the authors’ mind where he’s like “mmm i’m gonna write with explicit detail this minor having sex! yeah that’s not odd.” and miss me with that “oh this book came out a long time ago it was a different time.” mf this book came out in fucking 93. you’re telling me racism and pedophilia weren’t a thing in 1993. sure i get the casual ableism (miss me with ur comments im disabled) because it’s still very normalised to this day!!! but you cannot convince me the n-word was needed here. or the 75 different scenes describing how promiscuous lux is. i don’t care.

the actual book was less interesting than paint drying. i thought we’d actually get an interesting story. but no. i read about the horny mc and his friends simping over these girls for 90% of the book, with celia’s suicide tackled decently at the beginning & the rest of the girl’s suicides feeling like an afterthought. you set up a book about how all the girls commit suicide, and have 4/5 of the suicides occur with less than 20% of the book left. are you kidding me. the rest of this book was senseless drivel covering the same exhausting song and dance, where we learn absolutely nothing about the lisbon girls beyond their superficial traits and how fucking horny their classmates are. for fucks sake i couldn’t give two shits about how they were “mesmerised” by the “enigmatic lisbon girls”. hey here’s some quick advice go fuck yourself.

pick a struggle ur book can’t be boring AND ableist, racist, and pedophilic. 
i am actually so angry at this book. i am so angry i don’t think i can properly explain how much i fucking hate this book.

what a waste of time. this book has as much depth as my minecraft fanfiction from grade 3. actually no i take that back my fanfiction was better than this. fuck you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, and Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

lauralintunen's review against another edition

challenging reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Slavery, Xenophobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

charlottereadsthings's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

melusinedln's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

alyssapusateri's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

wannabe_lee's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

absolute_gemma's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

paralanguage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

molly_greenshields's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

The title of this book should perhaps have forewarned me of its brutality... but alas, I was blindsided by the beautiful cover (thanks Picador). I can't honestly decide how I feel about The Virgin Suicides... on the one hand, I found myself hooked by what was perhaps one of the best examples of an unreliable narrator I've ever seen done (I *truly* hated those boys... although, what's new?). On the other hand, I did find myself feeling physically sick a whole awful lot (perhaps not totally surprising). Personally, I don't think I should have picked up a book that deals with this topic in such a blasé way, as it was really difficult for me to stomach the romanticisation and sensationalising of suicide (albeit in a sarcastic manner... I get that that was the point, I just didn't like it). Having said that, I do think Eugenides' prose is powerful and worth a read if this isn't something that you'd struggle with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Drug use, Pedophilia, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol