Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

32 reviews

brougham_is_elite's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

The overuse of beautiful prose becomes laborious and slow. There were interesting ideas explored but it was not always clear what the author was trying to comment on; a lot of the book appears contradictory. It was very vivid and evocative at its best, but quite often came across as pretentious and unfocused, especially in the middle of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Death

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Mental illness

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

My library hold expired 😅

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Blood, Sexism, and Body horror

dennyiii's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Sexism, Sexual content, Child death, and Emotional abuse

bookish_bry's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

This is a book I'm going to have to chew on a bit. I really enjoyed the way the story was framed as a group of outsiders' perspectives putting together puzzle pieces of various reliability. The girls were often dehumanized and misunderstood both in the story and by the narrative which was by design. The narrators tried to view the girls as real people but often fell short and I actually enjoyed that part of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Sexism and Toxic relationship

Minor: Religious bigotry

charlies_shelf's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.5

So; The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides is a book. That's one thing that is certain, and while opinions differ on if it's good or bad there's a few things that are again, certain.

This book includes sexism, hypersexuality of minors, racism and Ableism. Some mentioned less than others. 

Now as to my personal opinion, keep in mind there will be spoilers from here on out. 

I liked page 190 and 191 simply because of the music. But that's honestly where it stops. 

The person who's telling us the story seems to end off with anger. Anger because "he was wronged". An example of this is the sentence; "they made us participate in their own madness,...". 

Not only that but there's barely to no build up to the end, which just like everything else has good and bad sections.

Would I call this a bad book? No. 
Would I call this a good book? No.
Because nothing is ever good or bad. 

That's why I rate this book a 1.5/5. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Body shaming, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Racial slurs, Ableism, and Racism

lexigrce's review against another edition

challenging 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? No

4.0

this book is just so tragic, the irony of telling a whole story encapsulating these girls’ lives when they truly didn’t know them at all. i remember first watching the movie when i was maybe 16 or 17 and writing it off. but when i rewatched it a year ago, despite being even further from the sisters’ ages than i originally was, i actually understood. reading the book somehow feels more real, seeing the story as it is without the added glitz of familiar celebrity faces, a bunch of made up stories constructed so that the boys could feel interesting and connected to the girls, as if they could even for a second understand what it felt like to be them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Child death, Alcohol, Child abuse, Grief, Self harm, Sexism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

toffishay's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexism, Fatphobia, and Classism

mgoodrick's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Confinement and Child abuse

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Blood, and Toxic relationship

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

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

neledeich's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

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."

A group of neighbourhood boys grows obsessed with five sisters and recount their suicides. A fantastic portrayal of the delusional view society, especially teenage boys, has of women. They fetishize them and are convinced to know everything without ever properly having a conversation with them. They are beautiful things to the boys, but they're not actually interested in them and their thoughts, if the girls do show parts of a personality, such as in the ultimate act of suicide, the boys are utterly confused. How can a woman have such complex thoughts and feelings? 

It also explores how suicide affects the surroundings and the entire community. Eugenides captures how isolated the girls were to the point where no one could bring them back anymore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Child abuse