Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

19 reviews

natalie3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual content, Self harm, Mental illness, Medical content, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Confinement, Child death, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual assault, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Racial slurs

_dom_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

The first two thirds of the book is so strange, weird and uncomfortable. But the last third is so beautifully written that I’m sure the different voices of the narrators are like that on purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Suicide, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Death, Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Mental illness

Moderate: Stalking and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

bibyabs's review

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, Sexual content, Stalking, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism and Racism

lexigrce's review

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

kibiiiariii's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, Child death, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

lilybisliterate's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Self harm, and Suicide

phillyhufflepunk's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

I cried...but not from sadness. I cried in frustration. This is one of the starkest tragedies ever written, told from the perspective of selfish, inane narrators - under the delusion that they are somehow a part of the story. With each new development, they...and the self-involved upper middle class d bags that they spawned from...fail the Lisbon girls. Over and over and over, the community has opportunity to step in, but they don't. As these boys chronicle the downward spiral of their Manic Pixie Dream Girls, they continuously miss the moments in which they actually could have saved them.

Spoiler

The boys literally run out of the house after finding one of the girls dead without checking on any of the others, in spite of the fact that they were there to save them in the first place AND that they were about to let Lux do one or all of them just 10 minutes earlier.

 The Lisbon Girls deserved better, and although the story would have been 10x better from their perspectives, I still rate it 4 stars because by hearing the story from a bunch of clueless middle aged men, who were clueless teenaged boys, you see just how ignored these girls felt when they were practically SCREAMING for help.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

_eleanorgreen8_'s review

dark informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was unlike any that I've ever read, and had a really interesting, atmospheric quality. The story of the Lisbon girls' suicides was told from the collective perspective of the boys who were weirdly infauated with them, and the immense detail of everyone's feelings was engaging. however, the book didn't have any chapters which made the whole thing feel like a very long and often confusing stream of consciousness. I also felt that most of the plot was just the boys observing the Lisbon girls, and not much happened expect at the very beginning and end of the book. overall, it was an interesting and unusual book, but felt very slow despite its length. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Blood, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

fancymcgee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

you know, i love to emphasize with female characters, but their mother was a villain. the story is told from the perspective of an outsider, but as you read you know something is happening inside those walls that you will never fully grasp. i also don’t love the language the boys use for the girls, but in the end when they realize that they truly didn’t know these girls and romantized people they never truly met, was good. first opening this book, i didn’t know that i would finish it, if i even wanted to. putting it down, i just feel hollow and angry. maybe that was the authors intent, to leave you feeling like even though you were essentially one of the boys looking in on this sad family, you would never understand what happened behind closed doors. can’t say i loved or hated this book. can’t even say i loved those girls, cause did we ever even know them? 
“daughters of the community” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Blood, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Self harm, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Minor: Racial slurs

nenac0's review

dark mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs