Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Fra Drømmehuset by Carmen Maria Machado

366 reviews

capacity4wonder's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Machado's style is unique and pulls you deep into the "Dream House." She seamlessly ties lived experience, existing media about abuse and love, and research about abuse in queer relationships into an exquisite story.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Stalking

lucymbriggs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

ana_bane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gaslighting

bookdragonkatie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Lesbophobia

droggelbecher42's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

Very unique writing style.
The many short vignettes showcasing different moments of her life and her relationship with the dream house woman partly through layered metaphors worked very well for me.
Particularly loved the use of footnotes and I'm glad that I didn't opt for the audiobook because they apparently omit them.
Will probably reread this at some point, I think it's a book that might profit from a reread, going in with all the information you have from the first read through

 

The repetition of "Deja Vu" sections and the choose your own adventure chapter were very haunting highlights of the book.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

chels_ro's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.75

a harrowing book that chronicles a queer abusive relationship with each chapter built around a prompt/trope that lands just personal enough to make you feel as though you are reading her diary. the unique structure through which the story is told is reason to read it alone. the only reason it wasn’t quite 5 stars for me is because i felt a few chapters didn’t add anything to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Infidelity

wothmings's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

wardenred's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view.

This was a really difficult read for me, mostly because of the subject matter. The other did an excellent job conveying how it feels to be living in an abusive relationship: the visceral lack of safety, the walking on eggshells, the losing touch with what's real about your own self. This is a prime example of why memoirs as a genre fascinate me: I can't imagine how brave a person must be to write about these experiences so candidly. 

The narrative isn't quite linear, just like both the recovery from this sort of trauma and the trajectories of  getting into this sort of situations are never quite linear. The whole book reads almost as a collection of essays or journal entries, but they do form a complete story of a terrible, awful, no good relationship. There are a lot of metaphors and similes here, and the prose is flowery and lush; in some ways, all of that provides a kind of barrier between what's being described and the reader, but in other ways, it makes the subject matter hit harder.  

I don't expect to ever re-read this book, because getting exposed to some things once is perfectly enough, but I believe it will live rent-free in my head for a while. Especially the part about fantasizing about death because you forget just leaving is possible. Or the cockroaches in the clock. Or that poor snail. Or the phone that call that wasn't, after all, a break-up. Or, or, or.

And I've also written out a number of quotes, because damn, the prose here is so unfairly beautiful, with those perfectly placed words, and the rhythm, and the alliterations. I wish I was capable of crafting sentences like that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

madpalestinian's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

3.25

An important piece of queer literature that brings up the often forgotten same sex domestic violence. I especially loved how the author included analysis of domestic violence through movies and book and other forms of media. Some points seemed a little like rambling or off topic but it was still an amazing read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Physical abuse

biscuitpin's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use and Homophobia