Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

17 reviews

ejsimpson's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Drug use, and Alcohol

christinewonder's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Blood, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Abortion

Minor: Drug use and Drug abuse

brianna2811's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Confinement

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Medical content, Pedophilia, Drug use, Dementia, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

loyloy_bluesky's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

I'm actually not sure how i feel about this book. also not sure if this is spoiler stuff but i will wrap it just in case:

I have a mix of "this is meant to be voyeuristic and is a commentary on the hypocrisy of the neighbours boys and their delusions of "knowing" the Lisbon girls" and "this is a very creepy view of teenage girls that lacks depth and ultimately dehumanises and oversexualises them". 

i expected the book to be from the perspective of the girls, so was intrigued at the start when i realised it was from an unnamed neighbour's point of view, but then by the end i really wished it was from the girls' points of view. my favourite moments were the little shows of the girls' real nature - the chattiness at the dance, Therese's radio conversations, the sharing of music over the radio. So probably these moments made me enjoy the book, but there weren't enough of them.

I found myself getting bored of the long descriptions of the characters being interviewed who would never be brought up again, and disappointed that there was no "conclusion" or even an explanation of the reasoning of the interviews - were they just being nosy? did he grow up to be a detective? why would people (especially the parents) answer these questions if it wasn't an official thing?

Also, there was so much attention on Lux (obviously as the most outwardly sexual and therefore easiest to sexualise), but i really would've loved more on the other sisters, especially Mary and Therese. it's quite creepy that only cecelia, bonnie and lux, as the youngest sisters, got attention - possibly a commentary on oversexualising young girls? but again i think this book lacked a Moment or Epiphany that showed it really was a commentary on society rather than another piece of the society itself. 

one last thing, there's not really any payoff by reading the book. you don't get any deeper understanding of the girls, why they did what they did etc., and you know even before reading it what the ending will be, and they keep mentioning throughout how the girls will be dead by the end, so it sort of felt unnecessarily long considering you know whats gonna happen. i saw a review though that said it was meant to put you into the perspective of the neighbours who also had no idea of the details, which is a better way of looking at it, but again probably too long of a book (and it isn't even that long, only 240 pages)

The writing was very flowery which was nice at times, i found myself wanting to underline descriptions that stood out to me, but sometimes it was over the top and became hard to read. Mixed feelings and unsure of what rating to put but i will stick with this for now and it might change once i have mulled it over a bit longer

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Confinement, Eating disorder, Stalking, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

i_love_b00ks's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Racial slurs, Alcohol, Drug use, and Drug abuse

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 attempt and Suicide

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

meghanhelent's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Child death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Death, and Grief

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

kathleenjones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Death, Grief, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, Sexual content, Child death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, and Alcoholism

books4em's review against another edition

This book needs so many trigger warnings it's insane.  I thought I could handle it, but not going to happen at least at this point in my life. The warnings below are only from the first 40 pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Blood, Child death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Ableism, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Body shaming