Cecilia's First Attempt

The Lisbon family's troubles begin when thirteen-year-old Cecilia, the youngest of five sisters, attempts suicide by slitting her wrists in the bathtub. The paramedics arrive, familiar with the house from previous calls, and save her life. Cecilia's act is met with confusion and denial by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon, and the community. The event is witnessed and mythologized by a group of neighborhood boys, who become obsessed with the enigmatic Lisbon girls. Cecilia's only explanation—"Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a thirteen-year-old girl"—haunts everyone, hinting at a deep, unspoken despair.

The Party and the Fall

In an effort to help Cecilia recover, the Lisbons host a chaperoned party for the neighborhood boys. The event is awkward and tense, with the girls and boys separated by invisible barriers of shyness and expectation. Cecilia, detached and otherworldly, asks to be excused and soon after jumps from her bedroom window, impaling herself on the iron fence below. This time, her suicide is successful. The neighborhood is stunned, and the boys' fascination with the Lisbon girls deepens, as they try to make sense of Cecilia's death and the family's growing isolation.

Aftermath and Obsession

Cecilia's death is met with silence and denial by her parents, who refer to it as an "accident." The neighborhood boys, now narrators of the story, collect artifacts and evidence, piecing together the girls' lives from a distance. The community gossips, theorizes, and blames everything from strict parenting to unrequited love. The boys' obsession grows as they try to understand the girls' inner world, reading Cecilia's diary and watching the family's every move.

The Girls Withdraw

The remaining Lisbon girls—Lux, Bonnie, Mary, and Therese—become increasingly withdrawn. Their mother tightens control, and the house grows darker and more unkempt. The girls' presence at school diminishes, and they become objects of both pity and fascination. Attempts at therapy and school interventions fail to reach them. The boys, still captivated, watch as the girls become more isolated, their individuality fading into a collective, unreachable mystery.

Lux's Rebellion

Lux, the most rebellious and sexual of the sisters, begins sneaking out at night, having clandestine encounters with boys on the roof. Her behavior is both a cry for help and an assertion of agency in a stifling environment. The neighborhood boys hear rumors and witness her escapades, further fueling their obsession. Lux's actions contrast sharply with her sisters' passivity, highlighting the different ways the girls cope with their confinement and grief.

The House Grows Sick

The Lisbon house physically deteriorates, mirroring the family's psychological decline. The yard becomes overgrown, the house smells of mildew and neglect, and the girls' rooms are filled with relics and shrines. The community's attempts to help—removing the fence, cleaning up fish flies, offering sympathy—are superficial and ineffective. The boys continue to collect evidence, but the girls remain elusive, their suffering hidden behind closed doors.

The Neighborhood Watches

The boys' surveillance becomes more intense as the girls disappear from public life. They watch for signals—lights, music, gestures—from the Lisbon house, interpreting every detail as a clue. The community, meanwhile, grows weary and resentful, blaming the Lisbons for the neighborhood's decline. The girls' isolation becomes total, and the boys' longing to save them is matched only by their impotence.

The Homecoming Dance

Trip Fontaine, the school heartthrob, becomes infatuated with Lux and convinces the Lisbons to let the girls attend the Homecoming dance as a group. The night is a fleeting moment of joy and connection, with the girls briefly reclaiming their individuality and happiness. Lux and Trip share an intense, doomed encounter, but the night ends with the girls being locked down again, their brief taste of freedom snatched away.

Lockdown and Isolation

After the dance, Mrs. Lisbon imposes even stricter rules, pulling the girls out of school and cutting off all contact with the outside world. The house becomes a prison, and the girls' mental health deteriorates. Lux's rebellion continues in secret, but the sisters grow increasingly despondent. The boys, desperate to help, receive cryptic signals and letters from the girls, but are unable to bridge the gap.

Lux on the Roof

Lux's nightly escapades on the roof become legendary, both a symbol of her longing for escape and a manifestation of her pain. The boys hear stories of her encounters with various men, but these acts bring her no solace. The house's decay accelerates, and the girls' isolation becomes unbearable. The boys' obsession reaches its peak as they sense a crisis approaching.

The Final Signals

The girls begin sending more direct signals to the boys—flashing lights, music, secret notes—culminating in an invitation to help them escape. The boys, electrified by the possibility of saving the girls, prepare for a midnight rendezvous. The sense of impending tragedy is palpable, as the girls' desperation becomes clear.

The Pact Unfolds

On the appointed night, the boys sneak into the Lisbon house, guided by Lux. She distracts them while her sisters prepare. The boys believe they are about to help the girls run away, but the atmosphere is heavy with foreboding. The girls' actions are precise and purposeful, hinting at a plan beyond mere escape.

The Night of Escape

As the boys wait for the girls to join them, they discover Bonnie's body hanging in the basement. The realization dawns that the girls have orchestrated their own deaths, using the boys as unwitting accomplices to buy time. The boys flee in horror, unable to save the girls or themselves from the trauma.

The Suicides Revealed

The remaining Lisbon sisters—Mary, Therese, and Lux—are found in various states of attempted or completed suicide. Only Mary survives, briefly, but eventually succeeds in ending her life. The neighborhood is shaken, but quickly moves to rationalize and forget the tragedy. The boys, now men, are left with the burden of memory and guilt.

The Town Responds

The community and media descend on the Lisbon house, offering explanations ranging from mental illness to societal decay. The girls become symbols, their individuality erased by the need for closure. The house is emptied, sold, and renovated, erasing physical traces of the family. The boys' collection of artifacts becomes a private shrine to the lost girls.

The House Empties

The new owners of the Lisbon house renovate and sanitize it, removing all evidence of the girls' existence. The neighborhood changes, trees are cut down, and the sense of community fades. The boys, now adults, struggle to hold on to the memory of the girls, even as time and change conspire to erase them.

Memory and Meaning

The narrators sift through their memories and collected evidence, trying to make sense of the girls' suicides. They consult experts, read reports, and debate theories, but no explanation is sufficient. The girls remain an enigma, their pain and motives ultimately unknowable.

The Enduring Mystery

In the end, the boys—now men—are left with only fragments and questions. The Lisbon girls become a symbol of the unknowable depths of adolescence, suffering, and desire. The story closes with the narrators still calling out to the girls, haunted by love and loss, forever unable to put the pieces together.

Characters

The Lisbon Girls (Cecilia, Lux, Bonnie, Mary, Therese)

The five Lisbon sisters are the heart of the novel, each distinct yet ultimately merging into a collective symbol of adolescent mystery and suffering. Cecilia, the youngest, is ethereal and otherworldly, her suicide setting the tragedy in motion. Lux is rebellious, sexual, and desperate for freedom, her defiance both a survival mechanism and a path to destruction. Bonnie is pious and withdrawn, Mary is proper and hopeful, and Therese is intellectual and detached. Their relationships with each other are intimate and insular, shaped by shared trauma and confinement. Psychologically, they embody the confusion, longing, and despair of adolescence, their individuality gradually erased by the weight of their circumstances and the community's projections.

Mr. Lisbon

Mr. Lisbon is a high school math teacher, gentle and ineffectual, overwhelmed by the emotional needs of his daughters and the rigidity of his wife. He loves his children but is unable to protect or understand them, retreating into passivity as the family unravels. His grief and helplessness are palpable, and his eventual withdrawal from work and life mirrors the collapse of the household.

Mrs. Lisbon

Mrs. Lisbon is strict, religious, and emotionally distant, enforcing rules that suffocate her daughters. Her attempts to maintain order only deepen the girls' isolation and despair. After Cecilia's death, her control tightens, leading to the girls' withdrawal from school and society. She is ultimately as much a victim of the tragedy as her daughters, her suffering rendered in silence and denial.

The Narrators (Neighborhood Boys)

The unnamed group of neighborhood boys serve as collective narrators, piecing together the story from fragments, memories, and artifacts. Their fascination with the Lisbon girls is part adolescent longing, part detective obsession. They are both voyeurs and would-be saviors, haunted by their inability to understand or rescue the girls. As adults, they remain trapped by the mystery, their lives shaped by the unanswered questions of their youth.

Trip Fontaine

Trip is the school's most desired boy, whose infatuation with Lux leads to the girls' brief return to normalcy at the Homecoming dance. His relationship with Lux is intense but ultimately shallow, and his abandonment of her after their encounter is a pivotal moment in her downward spiral. Trip's later life is marked by regret and addiction, his memory of Lux haunting him.

Dr. Hornicker

Dr. Hornicker is the family's psychiatrist, tasked with evaluating Cecilia and later the other girls. He offers psychological explanations—repression, trauma, serotonin deficiency—but ultimately admits the limits of his understanding. His reports and theories become part of the community's attempt to rationalize the tragedy.

The Community

The neighbors, teachers, and townspeople form a chorus of speculation, gossip, and failed interventions. Their responses range from sympathy to blame, but their actions are largely ineffectual. The community's need for order and explanation leads to the erasure of the girls' individuality and the sanitization of their story.

Paul Baldino

Paul is a local boy with a reputation for mischief and voyeurism. His attempts to infiltrate the Lisbon house and his role in spreading rumors reflect the community's invasive curiosity and the boys' own desire to penetrate the girls' mystery.

Trip's Father and Donald

Trip's father and his partner Donald represent a more permissive, modern form of parenting, contrasting with the Lisbons' rigidity. Their advice to Trip is pragmatic and emotionally distant, highlighting the generational gap and the failure of adults to guide or understand the younger generation.

Ms. Perl

Ms. Perl is a journalist who covers the Lisbon suicides, shaping public perception through her articles. Her reporting simplifies and distorts the girls' story, turning them into symbols and erasing their complexity. She embodies the media's role in commodifying tragedy.

Plot Devices

Collective Narration

The story is told through the collective voice of the neighborhood boys, blending nostalgia, obsession, and detective work. This device creates a sense of shared memory and communal guilt, while also highlighting the unreliability and subjectivity of recollection. The boys' perspective is both intimate and limited, emphasizing the unknowability of the girls' inner lives.

Artifacts and Evidence

The boys collect diaries, photographs, clothing, and other objects, using them to reconstruct the girls' story. These artifacts serve as both evidence and symbols, their meanings shifting over time. The accumulation of evidence underscores the futility of trying to fully understand another's suffering.

Foreshadowing and Circularity

The novel is suffused with foreshadowing—references to death, decay, and the girls' fate are present from the beginning. The narrative circles back on itself, with events and images (the fence, the party, the house's decline) recurring in different forms. This structure reinforces the sense of inevitability and the impossibility of escape.

Symbolism

The Lisbon house, the dying elm trees, and the physical environment mirror the psychological states of the characters. The house's decay parallels the family's collapse; the loss of trees represents the loss of innocence and community. These symbols deepen the novel's exploration of confinement, loss, and the passage of time.

Unanswered Questions

The novel resists easy explanations, leaving the girls' motives and inner lives ultimately unknowable. The boys' investigation yields only partial answers, and the community's theories are shown to be inadequate. This ambiguity is both a narrative device and a thematic statement about the limits of understanding and the complexity of human suffering.

Analysis

Last updated: May 7, 2025