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3rd Apr '13 4:18:49 PM MarkLungo

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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheVirginSuicides_4007.jpg]]
The Virgin Suicides is a novel by JeffreyEugenides about the death of suburbia in the late 60s. The story is told from the point of view of a group of teenage boys who are fixated on the beautiful, sheltered, and enigmatic Lisbon girls: Bonnie, Mary, Lux, Therese and Cecilia. Armed with stolen diaries, photos, an intimate knowledge of the girls' incoming mail, and a telescope, the boys seek to solve the mystery of the girls' existence. The entire book is about the boys trying to find out the motives of the girls and the reason why they come to such an untimely end.

The novel was adapted into a film by SofiaCoppola as her feature-length debut, and the first time she worked with KirstenDunst.
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!!Contains Examples of:

* AdaptationDistillation: Despite setting Lux as the main character, Sofia Coppola's 1999 version is very loyal to the novel.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Trip Fontaine, designated pot-smoking MrFanservice.
* BathSuicide: Subverted. Cecilia attempts this, but survives.
* TheCharmer: Trip Fontaine has shades of this. He is generally [[ChivalrousPervert quite gentlemanly]] about his conquests.
* ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam: The trees in the neighborhood are being cut down because of a spreading disease. The Lisbon girls try to prevent the tree in their front yard from being cut down because of how much it meant to Cecilia.
* CreepyChild: Slightly averted with Cecilia. 
* CynicismCatalyst: Averted, judging by the way the remaining Lisbon sisters are said to have ''winked'' when passing Cecilia's open casket.
* DrivenToSuicide: The motives of the girls are never truly disclosed. Only with Cecilia do we get anything close to insight.
-->'''Doctor''': What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets.
-->'''Cecilia''': Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl. 
* EvilMatriarch: Mrs. Lisbon. Oh God Mrs. Lisbon...
** KnightTemplarParent: Ultimately though, she just wants to protect the girls. She just gets [[LoveMakesYouCrazy a little nuts about it]].
* [[spoiler: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin]]: The novel is about virgins who commit suicide. Subverted, probably intentionally, because[[spoiler: Lux does not die a virgin]].
* FootFocus: Lux is the undisputed champion of this; not only is she almost perpetually barefoot, she gets her first FootFocus scene with a FootsieUnderTheTable, and has one other deliberate focus scene (where she [[spoiler: tries to tantalise Trip, whose eyes remain glued to her foot.]])
* ForegoneConclusion: Look at the title.
* GirlNextDoor: The Lisbon girls, though they are of a particularly hard-to-approach variety.
* GreekChorus: The boys are often described as this, though author Eugenides himself disagrees somewhat and believes the trope only gets attributed to them because of his (Greek) last name. 
* HandsomeLech: Trip Fontaine
* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: By the end of the film, all of the Lisbon sisters committed suicide.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Cecilia. She does it herself.
* InMediasRes: The story begins with [[spoiler:the paramedics taking away Mary's dead body]]
* [[spoiler:KillEmAll: The fate of the Lisbon sisters who all committed suicide.]]
* LadyKillerInLove: Trip develops a intense and passionate crush on the elusive Lux, having previously never had more than a passing interest in any girl. [[spoiler:However, after they have sex on the football field he "just gets sick of her right then and there", leaves, and the two of them have no further contact.]]
* LovingAShadow: For all their supposed love toward the Lisbon girls, it turns out that ultimately the boys know very little about who they really were as people.
* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: [[spoiler: Lux Lisbon]] has a succession of encounters on the roof of her house.
* MamaBear: Mrs. Lisbon. Dear god Mrs. Lisbon.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl: The Lisbon sisters represent a more subdued type to the narrators. 
* ProudToBeAGeek: Mr. Lisbon, at least in the movie. Want to see his model airplanes?
* RiddleForTheAges: Why ''did'' the girls commit suicide?
* StalkingIsLove: The narrators' infatuation with the Lisbon girls.
* StandardFiftiesFather: Subverted with the weak and ineffectual Mr. Lisbon. Any attempt he makes in being this is to no use as his family crumbles around him.
* StartsWithASuicide: Opens with Cecilia's first suicide attempt. Her second, successful one is what really sets the story in motion.
* UnreliableNarrator
* VirginPower: The possible reason why the girls are so fascinating. Well, except that one...
* WomensMysteries
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12th Mar '13 5:42:42 AM Craver357

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20th Feb '13 10:08:11 PM LadyYuki

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