Rating: 
Summary: lame lame lame
Review: i found this book to be a lot of words in search of a plot. after the first suicide, it bogs down and while it could be exploring the sisters, bringing us to understand them, the reader is left looking in the windows at strangers like the young men across the street. we are never given a clue to the parents' obsessive overprotectiveness or how they are able to get such co-operation from 4 teenage girls in what is virtual imprisonment. i suppose that is the "mystery" and allure of the book for some, but i found it a waste of time. the most interesting character is the sister who kills herself in chapter 1.
Rating: 
Summary: Mysteriously and Captivating
Review: The Virgin Suicides is a fascinating tale with a core of characters that we are never really given any concrete information about. This ambiguity creates the mysteriousness surrounding the perplexing suicides of the Lisbon sisters, caught in a purgatory in their suburban American home.The book is written in a prose-like fashion, seemingly re-creating the events of the suicides as if to be presented to a court of law. The author affords us glimpses into the the young lives of the narrators, but only through how they relate to the fascinating Lisbon sisters. The tale revolves around the unknown experience within their home, controlled by an obsessive mother and weak father. Their experience, however, remains largely unknown, as the narrator's position as the interested boy across the street never affords us knowledge of the inner workings of the Lisbon house. Never are our questions resolved. What is amazing about the book however, is how the author is able to evoke our emotions towards the girls without giving us any real insights into their personalities. It is this discrepancy between reality and imagination, written in such a flowing form, that makes The Virgin Suicides a wonderful, quick read.
Rating: 
Summary: I fell in love with this book
Review: I first saw the review for this book in Sassy magazine 6 years ago, when I was in high school. I fell in love with the book when I read it. It is haunting, surreal, and romantic. The story of the Lisbon girls is told delicately by the boys across the street who watch them, study them, and are in love with them. The sisters are going through puberty, the painful experience of having very strict parents, and learning how to grow up. They are caught in a whirlwind of emotions, all feeding off of each other, all in a vacuum. This causes them to implode, one by one. The sisters are like plants in a greenhouse that can only be observed and observe others through glass, never truly experiencing life in the way others know it- without dangerous obsessions, etc. A painfully beautiful, perfect story. Timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Bored in Bethesda
Review: I must be too old for this book. I agree with the readers who found the plot flimsy, shallow, and unsatisfying, with characters like paper dolls (especially the five sisters). The suicides never rise above a plot gimmick, allowing the teenage boys to romanticize the girls, who we never get to know. We read this for our book group and I considered reading it to be a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book, full of depth.
Review: After reading four pages full of praise from twenty sources, how could I resist buying this book? While I found the book easy to read and beautifully written without superfluous detail or drama, the stark simplicity often made the book anti-climatic. Throughout the novel I continually waited for a single sentence that would make this book worthy of the amazing amount of praise it has garnered. Unfortunately I was never able to reach such a point. I doubt anyone ever will. The beauty of this book does not lie in a single moment, or any distinguishable action but in its entirety. Everything this book does is very subtle yet effective. Like the book, my reaction was also subtle and never distinct. The overall effect however is very, very powerful.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, tragic and absolutely brilliant!
Review: This is a bloody brilliant debut novel. Eugenides captures the true excitement and horror behind teenage suburban life -- especially in my little corner of the world. If you truly want to understand the problems of suburban life, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: End of innocence
Review: As everybody else, I was attracted to this novel by the good buzz from Sofia Coppola's film. And a very good read it is. A less skilled author than Eugenides would have stumbled on such a delicate topic, but this is a very beautiful little book, with high aspirations yet delivered in a humble and subtle manner. Although it revolves around the suicides of five sisters, you shouldn't expect any explanations, the suicides become a rather suitable metaphor for the loss of innocence that is inherent in coming of age. There is an element of mysticism in the portrayal of mundane seventies suburbia, and the mystery surrounding the Lisbon girls' suicides clearly represents something in adolescence that you cannot put in words, something that you will never again quite fathom once you enter adulthood. The girls are not even the main characters, told as it is in an anonymous first-person plural voice, the novel give voice to a whole community of youngsters, who later try to recreate their lost adolescence through reminiscing on the Lisbon girls' tragedy. By using a collective "we", the novel is narrated as if it were a choir singing. I was struck by the similarities to Joyce Carol Oates recent novel Broke Heart Blues, which did very much the same thing (although it was a portrayal of early sixties' suburbia, not the seventies) Has she given Eugenides the credit that is due?
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: This book has moved me more than any other book I've read this year. It is beautifully written and a fast and enjoyable read that anyone will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: The Virgin Suicides
Review: I found this book to be quite unexpected. Call me slow, but it all came into focus when I realized it was a love story. I thought it was brilliantly written even though the subject is a little taboo! I couldn't put it down at all. Eugenides did an excellent job of capturing a long year in the eyes of suburban teenagers!
Rating:
Summary: Macabre, funny and yearningly sweet
Review: One of the best things about this book is the yearning feel of the narration, the sense of a collective unrequited crush of years ago. The nostalgia for the bizarre world which included the Lisbon girls is intense to the point of obsession. I personally loved how the mystery of the Lisbon girls was partially decoded to reveal probably your every day kind of girls. I laughed out loud at several points in the novel. The utter helplessness of anyone to change the outcome that we know from the first page lends a certain poignancy that draws the reader onward. I liked how Cecilia died first and then the remaining sisters died in one go instead of having them die one by one. It would have been more interesting if the characters of Bonnie, Mary and Therese were a bit more fleshed out, but then again, by not doin so, the author instills the sense of sameness that is felt about the Lisbon sisters. An imagery I approve of is that of the house literally falling apart as the lives of the Lisbons fall apart. Overall, a wonderful read about drama in the suburbs which are so often portrayed as quiet, boring, and without character.
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