Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Her Body and Other Parties

I had huge expectations going into Her Body and Other Parties. This collection has been praised so highly to me and the themes it explores are ones that I naturally gravitate towards in literature. Carmen Maria Machado blew those expectations to smithereens within the first short story. Honestly one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Her Body and Other Parties discusses the many forms of violence enacted towards women’s bodies through the use of magical realism. Machado writes with rage, heartache, and beautiful symbolism. This is not a collection that tells the audience what the purpose of the pieces, or the many takeaway, was. Instead Machado encourages her readers to interpret their own meanings from the stories she shares.

This collection left me feeling ripped open. I had to take some time to process it before I could write this review.

Machado’s writing in Her Body and Other Parties makes me eager to pick up another of her works. I think that’s the mark of really excellent writing. Machado plays with tone and pacing in a way that enhances the overall feel of each story and the collection as a whole. Her use of language appeals to the readers empathy and makes for a moving experience. I found the writing accessible but themes can often be a bit more abstract, which might detract the overall interpretability of the writing for some readers. Personally, I enjoyed this.

Her Body and Other Parties tackles themes of identity, the body and violences enacted upon it (be it at the hands of others or the self), motherhood, toxic relationships, and the idea of The Mad Woman. All in all, I think Machado does a powerful job of expressing the complexities of womanhood. She leaves the reader with a lot to think about. These themes are explored through the use of magical realism, which I thought drew attention to themes in a subtle but impactful way.

This book challenged me as a reader to really apply my critical thinking skills and decipher what the message of these stories were and what I took away from them. Her Body and Other Parties addresses such important themes with nuance, in a way that does a very respectable level of justice to the themes of the stories. I also loved just how queer this book was and the way Machado never addresses its queerness. It is so refreshingly normalised within this book.

The only reason I withheld the 5-star rating from this book was because the story ‘Especially Heinous’, which conceptually was cool but the execution did not live up to it. I did not enjoy reading it at all. I found it boring and far too long for what it was trying to achieve. Maybe if I already had some sort of investment in Law and Order SUV, I would’ve enjoyed it more. As it stands, I skimmed most of that story to get it over with. I might even recommend just skipping it if within the first few pages, you find its not your thing, because it really doesn’t get better. I think my overall enjoyment of the book would’ve been higher had I not attempted to read it. I also think I would’ve finished the book faster if that one short story hadn’t single-handedly sent me into a reading slump.

That being said, every other story was really really good and so worth reading. I think Machado is a fantastic writer and Her Body and Other Parties is an exceptional debut. Anyone that enjoys feminist literature, magical realism and a slightly eery feeling to their fiction will enjoy this collection. It is well-paced and interesting. Her Body and Other Parties stays with you after you’ve closed the last page.

Content Warnings

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It's hard to put into words just how striking Carmen Maria Machado's writing is. I read In The Dream House at the start of the year & was left bereft yet craving more. I wanted to immediately dive into Her Body & Other Parties but waited a few months as I wanted to appreciate it in its own right & in its entirety.

What I found in the pages behind the striking cover was another world of brilliance which captured my imagination fully & left me wondering with every carefully chosen word.

As with any collection of short stories some will have more resonance than others with every reader but overall I found that even if I didn't necessarily 'enjoy' each short story while reading, every single one left me pondering for quite some time after. The perfect example of this was Especially Heinous which felt almost a little bit tedious at times as I was going through the individual episodes, but eventually unfurled into a creepy & oppressive portrayal of the indeed tedious, relentless & pervasive acts of violence against women.

In all honesty there isn’t a story within the collection that didn’t leave some kind of a mark on me or didn’t leave me sitting struck & deep in thought but some of my favourites which really struck a chord with their brutality & honesty were The Husband Stitch, Inventory, Real Women Have Bodies, The Resident & Difficult At Parties.

The whole book is bursting full of so many moments and quotes to relish, digest and just linger on that I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy to reread and devour again and again. I rarely buy books due to fortunately receiving ARCs & having the use of a fantastic library system but I need, not even just want, to have a copy of Her Body & Other Parties on my shelf to return to.

Carmen Maria Machado is a writer like no other & Her Body & Other Parties conveys her innate ability to write pieces which are visceral, haunting, brutal & deeply thought-provoking.

Powerful, surreal and simply stunning.

(It is a book I want to recommend to everyone but due to its dark thematic nature & at times perplexing story arcs I can admit it may not be for everyone so I’ve included TW in comments & happy to chat about these if you’re considering reading it.)

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