The Virgin Diaries (The Virgin Diaries #1-3)

I\’ve seen the movie multiple times and really wanted to read the book. I was hoping for a bit more detail at the ending than what was shown in the movie but that doesn\’t change. However, as with most movies the book has many other details that the movie doesn\’t. It\’s just impossible to put everything into just a couple of hours on screen. It\’s a good read. I recommend it for anyone, especially those who have seen the film.

This book is beautifully written and I loved the fact that you couldn\’t really understand the Lisbon girls any better than the narrator because how much can we ever truly know or understand about the innermost feelings of others? On the other hand I had a hard time with the misogyny in the book and the frequent dehumanization of the girls through the lens of the boys\’ perceptions of them. I\’m glad I read it and I really loved the style and the dreamy quality of the writing but it was too frustrating a read to rate it any higher.

Engines is a genius. His depiction of young mens longing to bond with and understand the opposite sex is superlative. Summarily, his description of the plight of the adolescent girls wad so adept it made me wonder if Middlesex was an autobiography. Or, had he read my diary? Thats Eugenides. Dont expect to put one of his books down and be done with it. You will reference it in your life and memories for a long time. The characters were so well developed I felt I knew them and remember them fondly. If you havent read Middlesex; you are missing this authors masterpiece.

I absolutely love gothic and mildly depressing stories which are poetic but go nearly nowhere. Coming of age tales where the ending could be anything? Love it. Tragedy on a Shakespearean level where barely anyone is left breathing at the end of the tale? Adore it. I read this book at least once a year and I haven\’t gotten tired of it. It\’s beautifully written, but it\’s a short novel, and a simple tale. I became obsessed with The Virgin Suicides when I saw the commercial for the movie on television at age 10 or 11. I begged my parents to let me see it. They forbid it. I wasn\’t able to watch it until I was fully grown and married, I read the book afterward. I\’m now thankful for that because I think if I\’d seen the seen the movie and read the book as a tween/teen, it would have definitely negatively influenced my adolescence. I did have severe depression and my parents kept watch over me much like the parents in the story. I was definitely the Lux type as a teenager and luckily I grew out of it. Since I see the parallels in my past reflected in the story, when I read it I feel like the sister who lived. Eugenides writes the girls so realistically that I can\’t help but feel so connected to them, like they are my family. I grieve for them at the end of the book after each reading. Especially since I see so many teen girls damaging themselves the same way the sisters did, over bullying in school or other problems. This book definitely shows how suicide can rip families apart. I read somewhere that suicide affects a family for 10 generations. That\’s a long time, and I do believe its true. I don\’t feel this is a YA book, though I\’ve seen it classified as one. It\’s far too dark, and while condemning suicide, Eugenides simultaneously glorifies it. Yes, the survivor\’s hearts were broken. But more is made of the fact that the sisters will be young and beautiful in their memories forever. How irresistible for a young girl is that? Yes, I\’ll be dead, but I\’ll have impacted an entire town for years to come with my death. Yes, my boyfriend will move on and marry, but he\’ll discuss me and my death with his friends at high school reunions…. He\’ll never get over me. To be immortalized is every teen girl\’s wildest dream. If one has to kill herself to do it, she will. For an already depressed and impressionable teen girl, this book is a loaded gun. I have a beautiful blonde daughter of my own now. I\’m hiding this book from her until she\’s at least 25.

The book itself is a good read and I recommend it, but the actual book is ridiculously small and I would not consider a hard cover book. It\’s the size of my palm and does not match my definition of an actual hardcover book.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member