The Virgin Suicides: TikTok made me buy it! (Collins Modern Classics)

It's hard to imagine reading this book without knowing storyline, or perhaps having seen the movie. Whilst the storyline is unique, moody and a startling snapshot into suburbia life and the impact of a series of teenage suicides, the storyline is only the tip of the iceberg for this book. Eugenides prose are out of this world; exceptional and compelling. It's almost reads like poetry, in an unable to step away from the pages style. The anonymity of the narrators is vague yet spark familiarity and the descriptions, prose and metaphors are both vivid and dreamy all at once. This novel is carefully crafted, on every level, from the setting of the scenes, the descriptions of the suicides, the minimal dialogue of the characters, to the reminiscent journey questioning the reason behind the deaths. This book is so picturesque in its language, it feel is like an easy read, this book is anything but simple. This boom has become one of my fat favourites.

Set sometime in the early 1970's in a Michigan suburb, this is the disturbing story of five sisters who all commit suicide over a year. Told from the point of view of a group of neighbourhood boys, now men, who were infatuated by the girls, it is partly a recreation of events and partly an attempt to explain why the Lisbon sisters are still so important to those whose life they shaped. The five sisters are Therese, 17, Mary 16, Bonnie, 15, Lux, 14 and Cecilia, 13. Their father, Mr Lisbon, is a maths teacher at the school that both the boys telling the story and the girls themselves, attend at the beginning of the book. Their mother is a librarian, although there is no mention of her life outside the home and she is seen as a strict woman who attempts to control her daughter's behaviour - although only doing what she feels is right to protect them. Meanwhile, the boys watch and wait and try to learn about the sisters, collecting various objects associated with the girls (mentioned as `exhibits' in the storyline) such as photographs or items of clothing. The whole sense of the novel is oppressive; the girls are kept on a tight rein and outside their door are the neighbourhood boys, keeping a watch on them. This is a novel I have long meant to read and I am glad that it matched my expectations. The writing is simple, yet expressive. Although you know what is going to happen, the story unfolds almost gently. Expected and yet shocking. There is never a real sense that the grown boys expect to fathom what happened, but it is almost like looking back in time and seeing a photograph develop, as the characters are breathed into life. A beautiful novel and one I really enjoyed.

It may be an unpopular opinion, since I was drawn to this book because of it's rave reviews and hype, but whilst I liked the book, I can't say I enjoyed it a lot. I understand that the plot line is almost a backdrop to what is probably the main themes of the book - adolescence. However, I was a little annoyed that we never learn the reason for the suicides - not even one of them! There are theories, but nothing concrete. That was disappointing for me.It felt like the book didn't really get anywhere... I enjoyed the symbolism throughout the book, and the characterization of the girls, and how they are described through the fascinated eyes of the neighborhood boys, is fantastic. I found this a rather slow read because the chapters were so long! The book wasn't long at all, but I found it hard to read chapters that were sometimes 60 pages long! That's not usually an issue, but when there isn't a strong plot line or intrigue, it becomes a little bit laborious. I found it more interesting towards the end of the novel, particularly when the boys begin their communication with the girls. Overall.. the book was good, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. A better book about suicide would be The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I remember watching the film as a teenager (10 years ago) as research for a drama piece on cults and family pressure, but I don't remember that much about it to be able to compare it to the novel. It's no secret that it's dark and the subject matter is clear from the title but the story is interesting and written endearingly by the neighbours of the girls, watching them from afar. This makes the story more believable, at least I couldn't imagine it working as well in a first person narrative or from an unknown detached narrator. While the story is famously morbid, there is humour and heart throughout and it is an enjoyable read and not as heavy as you might expect.

Read this review along with others on my blog by following this link: https://bibliomad.wordpress.com/ A reminiscence of childhood innocence, The Virgin Suicides explores the mystery surrounding teenage suicide, told from the perspective of neighbourhood boys 20 years after the incident. This being his début novel, Eugenides writes in a modern-classical fashion: long, swooping sentences; figurative language; poetic tendencies, and a flowing feel. Personally, this isn't my preferred writing style - for I commonly feel as though it acts as a prevention to fast-paced action, and instead ensures the book is very lethargic, and is read slowly. However, having said that and because The Virgin Suicides is a rather nostalgic novel, this method instead makes it so that one becomes much more thoughtful when reading. This isn't the book to race through, and it isn't a book that will bury its hooks in you and prevent you putting it down. No, this book is slow and thought-provoking, and it works perfectly for the subject matter. Likewise, this plot - despite the book being named for the Lisbon Girls - is also nostalgic. In my opinion, the title and synopsis make it so that this book appears to tell the story of 5 suicidal sisters. It doesn't. Instead, it tells the story of a group of boys, 20 years after the suicides, who are yet to work out why the girls committed suicide. Frankly, I was a little disappointed that this wasn't a 3rd person perspective on the Lisbon household, yet I grew to like the group of boys who instead told the story. One never discovers exactly who the narrator is - he is a nameless male who is as infatuated with the Lisbon girls as his friends are. The book is told from a 1st person perspective, but, instead of 'I', 'we' is used. This offers a more ambiguous feel to who is telling the story, adding to the mystery, and allowing the book to differ from many of its kind. In terms of characters, it is very difficult to pinpoint the singular attribute each of the 5 sisters, due to the fact that the narrator struggles to differentiate them himself. Thus, one cannot form an opinion of any of the girls separately, which, I believe, works well; this isn't a story about the 5 girls separately, but instead one told of them collectively. Having little information of the girls made it feel as though we were one of the neighbourhood boys who wanted to discover more, but enevr could. The girls are: Cecelia, Lux, Mary, Therese, and Bonnie. The order of age is never stated, nor are the ages explicitly stated by the end of the book, and by the night of the suicides. In a nut shell, The Virgin Suicides is, if anything, a coming-of-age story, delving into the exploration of what pushes people to suicide, especially those so young. Whilst it didn't keep me hooked or wanting more, I did enjoy this book, and entirely respect Eugenides writing, thus awarding his début novel 4/5 stars.

The Lisbon sisters had been an obsession for the boys in the local area long before Cecelia’s first suicide attempt but after that it almost runs out of control. What drives the boys’ obsession? What is really going on behind the closed doors of the Lisbon house? I have heard a lot of positive things about “The Virgin Suicides”. It often pops up on lists of books that you “must” read and I will say that I’m glad I have finally tried it but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. What could have been such an interesting subject, what could have driven five sisters to all take their own lives, is somehow rendered unimportant in a story that is instead about the obsession of the local boys. The book is narrated from their viewpoint and with an unreliable narrator it’s obviously hard to trust what you’re told. It definitely feels like the Lisbon family as a whole were massively let down by the system and their neighbours. It was clear that something was going on with the family, particularly after Cecelia’s death, but people prefer to gossip than actually try and help. Eugenides’ writing didn’t grip me at all. I got through it quite quickly because it’s quite a short book but I wasn’t desperate to read and looking forward to the next bit. The writing felt clunky to me and there was no real flow. The story is extremely slow paced and thanks to the narrative style we never really learn all that much about the Lisbon girls who are supposed to be the main characters, which, for me, made it difficult to really be invested in them as characters and left me with more questions than answers. Overall, this one sadly wasn’t really for me.

"The Virgin Suicides" is a highly original novel in both content and writing - Jeffrey Eugenides is endlessly creative in his descriptions of the Lisbon girls and all that's associated with them. Written from the perspective of a besotted neighbourhood boy, many years after the Lisbon girls mysteriously killed themselves, the book deals with the events surrounding this rather gruesome premiss in an investigative way, even to the point of mentioning (but not giving) "exhibit # ...". But a "'Catcher in the Rye' for our times" as a review is quoted on the cover? Most emphatically not. The story could not keep my disbelief suspended, as they say. Despite florid descriptions of the house the girls live in and opinions of all who get their say (interviewed after many years by the storyteller), we don't get to know the main protagonists at all - which may be a way of keeping them 'mysterious' but it's not very satisfying. The storyteller and his friends are quite engrossed and mystified by the girls, but I found it hard to believe that this went as far as watching the Lisbon house for days, weeks and months on end without getting bored by lack of result, especially as we don't get any picture of the years before the tragedy starts. We get a lot of theories thrown at us by the storyteller as to why the girls kill themselves, but the one glaring hugely at you, the enormous dysfunctionality of the Lisbon family, hardly gets real attention. Mrs Lisbon, obviously the main culprit of the whole tragedy, is more like an evil force of nature than a woman of flesh and blood, and her wraith-like husband is equally non-human. What made this couple go so far as to keep the girls at home? There is an extreme lack of background information here. Why didn't the girls, their number being a formidable four (for the main part of the book), react more against the absurd repression of their parents? Why was there no one, not even a single government type, inquiring after the family, like a health and education officer to check why the girls were kept out of school? Not even family members or friends (there must be some, surely!) get past the door. In the end, these and similar questions dissolved my suspension of disbelief, and the girls' characters were too sketchy for me to really bother about their fate and their parents'. I wonder what the impact of this story would have been as a short story rather than a novel.

A book with such deep significance and a sensitive topic. Not toolong and a pretty much short read. The sentances and chapters are quite long (unusual writing story) but I enjoyed reading it so much and is now one of my favourites. I have watched the movie which depicts the lisbon sisters from the female perspective and the book from a more male perspective. I also recommend the movie! This book is truly incredible.

Excelente producto y servicio

Lobed this book

From the title itself and the way this book entails so much about religious stuff I was convinced that this would included some sacrificial shit. But no that's not it. This is a story about how the deaths actually affected the life of people around the Lisbon girls. The fascination that everyone had about the mysterious Lisbon girls leads to their obsession with their lives. This is one of those books which do not give much importance to the plot but to the way it's written and it's vocabulary. Great writing and oddly satisfying. And yes you do get to know why they killed themselves which was expected but still shocking.

Item is in good condition and the delivery was fast.

The book is very dense and different than everything else i have ever read for sure. It is very deep