Reviewed by L. Chapman, September 2023
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is a coming-of-age story that details the heartbreaking tale of the five Lisbon sisters told through the eyes of the boys living in their neighborhood. Over the course of a year, each sister commits suicide and their household becomes increasingly isolated from their local community due to their parents becoming overprotective and withdrawing the girls from school and keeping them in confinement. Despite the story being enticing and filled with beautiful prose, I was initially skeptical of the story due to the narration being done through the eyes of the neighborhood boys, wishing instead to have the perspective of one of the Lisbon’s. However, I now believe that Eugenides’ decision to do so gave the story more depth. The group of boys telling the story act as one, they give out none of their names and have a collective opinion, but their unreliable narration adds more mystery to the story and even makes it more tragic due to the audience not knowing the true feelings of the Lisbon girls. Before reading, readers should be aware of descriptions of suicide and self-harm.