Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

46 reviews

sleepyriv's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, and Drug use

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

morgancleaver's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Grief

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

phantomgecko's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

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

4.0

I thought this book was well written and interesting. But I also didn't love it. 

The question of why these girls killed themselves seems kinda straightforward? They were confined to a house that was actively decaying around them with severely mentally ill parents.

That wasn't really the point though.

The book was a fascinating view into the perspective of boys that idolize and idealize teenage girls.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Stalking

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

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

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

ppp's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, War, Ableism, and Alcoholism

mo0ma's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book felt suffocating, like I was enveloped in the narrative, which is contributed to by the setting and various descriptions of the area in which it takes place. The descriptive writing is excellent—

I liked how the symbol of the solar system can be interpreted to reflect how the suburb and its people seemed to orbit around the events of the Lisbon’s house and tragedies

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I didn’t like how voyeuristic it felt, but I think voyeurism was in some sense the purpose of the author, and I’ve come to realise that I’ve been just as voyeuristic as the characters by having read the book at all. Still, upon reflection, I realise that I didn’t really have much of a choice in this regard. The voyeurism of the narrating boys was a perspective pushed onto me, and it gave me no opportunity nor many resources to understand and appreciate the characters that I actually wanted to—the Lisbon girls. Even the ending focuses on the reflections the boys have about themselves; the Lisbon girls, although staged in the centre, have been staged artificially, illuminated in the light of the boys’ fantasies, romanticisation, and introspection. The girls become tools for the boys to understand themselves, empty shells for the boys to fill with their own conjecture and wonder, rather than full beings. 

Perhaps this irony and/or this dynamic is actually a tool to criticise the boys, and the other characters—neighbours, acquaintances, medical professionals—in the book who are not sympathetic to the Lisbon girls but rather eager to deconstruct and discuss them. If that is the case, then I think it would be a very good narrative, and I have thus given the author the benefit of the doubt in my rating (which would be higher if I could be sure it was what the author intended to do).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, and Suicide attempt