Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Αυτόχειρες παρθένοι by Jeffrey Eugenides

12 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

aradeia's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I saw this book at a used book sale months ago, remembered the craze for it when I was a teenager, and thought I'd give it a chance. I wound up really having to push myself to finish this book, even though it's only 250 pages long. Some of the writing is great, but I was grossed out by the narrators.

The book is narrated by an unnamed group of men who, as boys, did a lot of spying on the Lisbon sisters while their lives spiraled after the gruesome suicide of their littlest sister. The boys were obsessed with the Lisbon sisters. Or at least they were obsessed with the so-called "libertine" Lux, the most defined sister of the five. Lux is only fourteen. The sexualization of her body is disgusting. It seems pretty clear to me that the adult men who narrate the story still find Lux as sexy as they did when they were kids. 

The big reveal at the end seems to be that, even though the boys "loved" the Lisbon sisters, it turns out the girls didn't love them back and indeed they were real people the whole time whom the boys didn't actually know, despite all the spying and obsessing. Note that the boys never have real conversations with the Lisbon sisters. They rarely speak at all. The boys-turned-men are not unlike the ineffective, oppressive Lisbon parents. And I suppose this here is the point. I just feel I have heard this point before, and with less graphic description of a fourteen year old kid's sexuality/abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Suicide

kgrace_s's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Stalking, Pedophilia, and Mental illness

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

Absolutely beautiful. Such a thought provoking, lyrical novel. 

Recommend reading this article after finishing: 
“In Defense of the Unsatisfying Ending: The Virgin Suicides” by Janey Tracey 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Rape, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Emotional abuse

pagesoftara's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Rape

lindsaylhunter's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book reads so beautifully. The author has such a way of immersing his readers into a world of melancholy. All things said, I refuse to believe boys actually get on this way. Maybe the whole point was to show the narrators' flaws for what they are, but some of the monologue reads as downright creepy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Child death, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Rape, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, and Suicide

izzyf16's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape, War, and Racial slurs

nenya's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I read this book as the start of manic hot girl summer (and also to celebrate the end of my reading slump) and while I read this relatively fast, I must say I expected it to be far more triggering and manic than it ended up being. And I‘m not gonna lie, I kind of wish it would have been, because I enjoy being creeped out by books - but this was pretty chill actually. I had expected the suicides to be skin crawlingly gore-y but instead they were two pages of slightly disturbing but heavily announced death. What I must say was really interesting though, was the narrative being told in first person plural and, in addition to that, unreliably - something I haven’t encountered before and really enjoyed, but even here, I feel like there was a lot more room for mystery and manipulation of the reader. However, it is most definitely not a bad book - I‘m just not sure whether I‘d like to re-read it one day.
(Oh also: there is the mention of the N-word which really threw me off, as well as casual racism and other problematic themes that were normalized in the novel and not addressed or seen as problematic by the narrators)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual content, Child death, Alcohol, Medical content, Gore, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Pregnancy, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This is a book about the patriarchal tendency of dehumanizing women. Which should be enough to tell you why I didn’t like it at all.

The writing itself is good, but that’s about the only redeeming quality to this book. The rest is just men being… well, men. I get what the author wanted to achieve with this, but why it needed to be written in this way is beyond me.

I keep hoping the next “classic” I read is going to be better, and I keep being disappointed because those “classics” were written by allocishet white men in a time women were seen as little more than property.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, Alcohol, Confinement, Racism, Rape, Stalking, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Drug use, Pedophilia, Vomit, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Infidelity

kayleencyane's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

Very interesting to read such a well written story of obsession and infatuation without heavy romance or any romance at all really 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape and Racial slurs