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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheVirginSuicides_4007.jpg]]
2
3->'''Dr. E.M. Horniker''': What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets.\
4'''Cecilia Lisbon''': Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl.
5
6''The Virgin Suicides'' is a 1993 novel by [[Literature/{{Middlesex}} Jeffrey Eugenides]] about the death of suburbia in the 1970s.
7
8The 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.
9
10The novel was adapted into a 1999 film by Creator/SofiaCoppola as her feature-length debut, and the first time she worked with Creator/KirstenDunst.
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12!!Tropes:
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15* AdaptationNameChange: A couple very minor examples. Tim's surname is spelled "Winer" in the book but "Weiner" in the film, but pronounced the same way ("WHY-nurr"). Very minor character Joe Hill Conley becomes ''Jake'' Hill Conley, likely due to [[OneSteveLimit there being another minor character named Joe]].
16* AdultsAreUseless: With the exception of Mr. Lisbon and the psychiatrist, both of whom are rendered impotent by Mrs. Lisbon, everyone older than a teenager in this book [[ApatheticCitizens cares only for themselves]].
17* ApatheticCitizens: The adults of the town are concerned with little more than their own illusion of idyllic living, and when bad things such as [[DyingTown impending economic troubles]] [[spoiler: or a mass suicide]] come along they respond with either denial or [[NeverMyFault finding some "other" to pawn the blame off on]].
18* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The narrator likens the Lisbons' plight to the life cycle of the fishfly, a ubiquitous insect that is born, mates, lays eggs and dies in under a day. Fishflies do exist and are known for their short lifespans, but in real life they live for around a week as adults and spend several years as larvae beforehand. Though it should be noted that in certain regions in the United States and Canada, "fishfly" is also another word for "mayfly"; in this case, however, the trope would be more [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] since, while mayfly ''adults'' indeed only live for one day, their larvae forms do not.
19* BornInTheWrongCentury: The best guess the boys have for the Lisbons' [[spoiler: mass suicide]] - they simply didn't belong in the ugliness of TheSeventies. Indeed, their distaste for buttoned-up authority figures, empathy for nature, and in Lux's case, sexually liberated philosophy make it seem likely they'd have thrived [[TheSixties just one decade prior]].
20* TheCharmer: Trip Fontaine has shades of this. He is generally [[ChivalrousPervert quite gentlemanly]] about his conquests.
21* CompressedAdaptation: In the book, there are quite a lot of neighborhood boys interested in the Lisbons, most of whom just get a name and a character trait or two. The film cuts it down to just Tim, Chase, Parkie, and David, plus Paul Baldino, the gangster's son, who unlike in the book isn't part of the circle of friends. The only other major omissions are [[spoiler: Lux's PregnancyScare and the fallout thereof]], [[spoiler:Mary's [[BungledSuicide survival]] of the mass suicide and subsequent death by overdose]], and a short subplot about the mysterious death of one of the boys' ailing grandmother that may or may not have also been a suicide.
22* CynicismCatalyst: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]], along with every other cut-and-dried explanation for the suicides; it's clear that the death of Cecilia takes a toll on the other four, but whether it [[DrivenToSuicide pushes them to follow suit]] is less clear. A fringe theory, embraced by reporter Ms. Perl, holds that the suicide pact between the sisters was in place all along, and the remaining Lisbon sisters are said to have ''winked'' when passing Cecilia's open casket.
23* DaddysGirl: Inept as he is, Mr. Lisbon does adore his girls and does his best.
24* DeathByNewberyMedal: [[spoiler:Times ''five'', and of a significantly darker permutation than most - unlike the typical use of this trope, the narrators ''never'' move on from the Lisbons' deaths]].
25* DisasterDominoes: With the town's [[EmpathicEnvironment rapidly dying trees acting as an allegory]], [[spoiler:Cecilia's death kills her sisters; their deaths kill the town]].
26* DwindlingParty: [[spoiler:{{Averted}}; the first line ("On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide...") leads you to expect this, but after Cecilia's death as the inciting incident, no one else dies until the climax, when Theresa, Bonnie and Lux all die at once. Mary survives the incident and finally passes away in the epilogue. Interestingly, Eugenides played the trope straight in his initial draft, [[CoversAlwaysLie and the back jacket of several editions still characterizes the plot this way]].]]
27* DyingTown: Detroit has definitely seen better days in this book, and as much as the ApatheticCitizens are loath to admit it, it's starting to affect the nearby suburbs as well.
28%% * EvilMatriarch: Mrs. Lisbon. Oh God Mrs. Lisbon has all the classic traits.
29* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The novel is about virgins who commit suicide. Subverted, probably intentionally, because [[spoiler:Lux does not die a virgin]].
30* FemaleGaze: While much of the film is about the boys trying to sort out the mystery of the girls' deaths, one strong example is Trip's "babe walk" down the hall at school, to [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Heart's "Magic Man."]]
31* ForegoneConclusion: From the very first page it's clear that [[spoiler: none of the Lisbon girls make it]].
32* TheFundamentalist: Mrs. Lisbon is a die-hard Roman Catholic.
33* FutureLoser: Trip Fontaine goes from big man on campus in the '70s to washed up recovering addict in the '90s.
34* GildedCage: What Mrs. Lisbon turns her house into after Lux and Trip's tryst. [[spoiler: With her VillainousBreakdown following Lux's PregnancyScare, she drops the "gilded" part]].
35* 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.
36%% * HandsomeLech: Trip Fontaine
37* HateSink: The majority of the adult cast bar [[HenpeckedHusband Mr. Lisbon,]] [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Dr. Hornicker and Father Moody]] fit this role to some degree, but [[MyBelovedSmother Mrs. Lisbon]] and [[{{Paparazzi}} pestilential yellow journalist Lydia Perl]] stand out in particular.
38%% * HenpeckedHusband: Poor Mr. Lisbon.
39* ILetGwenStacyDie: The narrators feel this way about all the girls, [[spoiler: but most especially Lux, after they discover she was still alive when they fled the house]].
40* InMediasRes: The story begins with [[spoiler:the paramedics taking away Mary's dead body]].
41* IntrepidReporter: Sensationalistic journalist Lydia Perl, who irritates the boys by coming up with nonsensical "explanations" for the Lisbons' behavior.
42* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Tim mentions applying to Yale, because his father went there, despite living in Michigan.
43* IWasQuiteALooker: Mrs. Lisbon is said to have once been a beauty of some renown, much like her daughters, but it's almost impossible to tell now. Crosses into meta as well, as in the film she's played by former sexbomb Kathleen Turner.
44* KnightTemplarParent: It's clear Mrs. Lisbon just wants to protect the girls. She just gets [[MyBelovedSmother a little much about it]].
45* 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.]]
46* 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.
47* [[MafiaPrincess Mafia Prince]]: Paul Baldino, one of the neighborhood boys, is the son of a wealthy man who is [[ObviouslyEvil very obviously a gangster]].
48%% * MamaBear: Mrs. Lisbon. Dear god Mrs. Lisbon.
49%% * ManicPixieDreamGirl: The Lisbon sisters represent a more subdued type to the narrators.
50* MassiveNumberedSiblings: There are five Lisbon children, all girls.
51* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In the film, Mr. Lisbon, Tim, and Chase all in quick succession glimpse a mysterious apparition of Cecilia after her death. Its nature is never explained.
52* NerdsAreSexy: Therese is a science geek who's preoccupied with getting into a good college, but she's considered just as attractive as her sisters.
53* NoNameGiven: Despite being a major character and the closest thing to a main villain the story has, Mrs. Lisbon's first name is never mentioned.
54%% * ParentalFashionVeto:
55%% -->On [Sunday] mornings Mrs. Lisbon assumed a queenly iciness. Clutching her good purse, she checked each daughter for signs of makeup before allowing her to get in the car, and it was not unusual for her to send Lux back inside to put on a less revealing top.
56* ParentsAsPeople: Prior to the lock-down, the Lisbon couple made some effort to give the girls breathing space in the aftermath of Cecilia's first attempted suicide.
57%% * ProudToBeAGeek: Mr. Lisbon, at least in the movie. Want to see his model airplanes?
58* RiddleForTheAges: Why ''did'' the girls commit suicide?
59* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the film adaptation, when Perl's news van drives to their home, the girls suddenly lose interest in protecting their tree and run back inside their house.
60* ShipTease: In the movie Tim gets some with Therese, Parkie with Bonnie, and Chase with both Mary and Lux at different times.
61* TheSmartGuy: Tim is "the brain" among his friends. In the film, the sister he's most interested in is his DistaffCounterpart [[NerdsAreSexy Therese]].
62* SpearCounterpart: With only four main boys in the film, each of the sisters gets one:
63** Chase and Lux, the youngest and most energetic ones who get more CharacterFocus than the others.
64** Tim and Therese, TheSmartGuy and Girl.
65** Parkie and Bonnie, the straight-laced ones who try being "bad" at prom and don't like it. The only pair to get a kiss.
66** David and Mary, the ones who are [[TheGenericGuy just sort of there]].
67* StacysMom: There's a brief scene in the film that implies that, while most of his peers go for her daughters, Paul Baldino has a crush on Mrs. Lisbon.
68* StalkerWithACrush: The narrators' infatuation with the Lisbon girls, though more well intentioned than most examples of this trope.
69* 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.
70%% * SuicideIsPainless: Subverted with Dominic Palazzolo, who jumps off the roof without much thought, then walks away unscathed.
71* UnknownCharacter: TheNarrator. He's stated to be one of the neighborhood boys with crushes on the Lisbons all grown up, but it's never specified which one he is. He tells the story in first-person plural, speaking for all his friends at once. Even with the film cutting the main male cast down to four, the narrator isn't identified, though he's probably David or Chase since Tim and Parkie get referred to in the third person.
72%% * UnreliableNarrator
73* VillainousBreakdown: Mrs. Lisbon completely loses it [[spoiler: after Lux's PregnancyScare, effectively turning her house into a prison for her daughters and husband and letting it go to rack and ruin; the boys describe that the once beautiful house becomes increasingly dilapidated and is surrounded by disgusting smells of never-cleaned-up rotten food]].
74* WrongGenreSavvy: The boys, especially in the film, seem to believe they're in a chivalric RescueRomance setting with the Lisbons. Unfortunately, they live in suburban Michigan.
75* WomensMysteries: The closest we get to a MotiveRant is one of the girls telling her therapist "Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl." The narrative also showcases the Lisbon family's many difficulties trying to keep the girls pure of heart and body and failing miserably.

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