2 Stars because the prose was inarguably captivating… But I wish I could burn every copy of this book. The author seems to hate all women, and perhaps all men. Her condemnation for the upper middle-class life is acceptable, but she seems to torture women on every page of this book. And all of the men, she condescends about as if they are never able to emotionally mature beyond the age of 15. It’s a bleak and horrible Look at Western culture that leaves the reader asking, if this is all that there is, why keep going?

the ex-virgin suicides.

A sort of Looking for Alaska for adults, this novel followed a group of boys and how they dealt with the unexplained disappearance of one of their classmates. It was morose and melancholy, but unique in the sense that this was the first book I'd ever read told from a plural POV. The narrator was never named, it was always 'we' or 'us,' and I found that personable, almost like an unnamed member of this group of boys was sitting down telling me this whole drawn out tale from across the couch or something.

In the end, the book was depressing and a reminder that eventually everyone has to move on from, but I liked it. It was beautifully written, and while some of the boys' explanations for what happened to Nora seemed a little far-fetched, it worked.

Loved it. Brilliant. Rarely am I moved to write a review here but this was an amazing book. Wish I had written it.

Reminded me of The Virgin Suicides.

On the fence about this one...between three and four stars...

This is a dark book, filled with all the depravity of human existence, sexual and otherwise. There are scenes that are so painful to read about that you keep hoping for a little comic relief that just never comes.

The noteworthy aspect of the book is the author's narrative and perspective -- it's the collective "we" of the teenage boys in the novel whose friend goes missing. We get a perspective that is all of them and some of them at the same time. What I find most fascinating about the narrative is that it is written by a woman; there is no flowery prose or feminine musings of any kind.

The brillance of the novel starts in the middle and works its way toward the end. I won't spoil anything, but the reader begins to lose sight of what really happened to Nora, and what is in the imaginations of the boys. The author skillfully weaves details that could be read in multiple ways and the details keep building until you think you know what happens. Pittard isn't trying to hide that the stories are all conjecture, but the reader can't help trying to solve the mystery anyway...

3 1/2. From about 60 pages in, I was pretty sure I'd read this before. I kept with it and now that I'm done I'm about 90% sure I read it before, with the 10% being the possibility that it's just that similar to The Virgin Suicides. Either way, decent but derivative, loved the use of first person plural narration. Will probably read more from her.

As with most books that I dislike my major issue is with the lack of description of characters, and in this case the narrator. I realize the author was likely trying to maintain the mysterious tone she set for the novel but I found it tiresome. I found it both annoying and refreshing that there wasn't more closure, very atypical.

A meandering novel with characters that may have been interesting -- but they were almost too flawed, or introduced with their flaws front and center, to really enjoy reading about them.

I was confused a lot.