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Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Na casa dos sonhos by Carmen Maria Machado

31 reviews

jaiari12's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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saintsunshine's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

Deeply engaging and often emotionally challenging, Carmen Maria Machado has crafted a wholely unique memoir in In the Dream House. Machado places her story of domestic abuse amid historical and cultural contexts that often ignores queer women. Dream House is as informative as it is personal, and I deeply enjoyed it. Though difficult to get through at times, Machado's poignant memoir will likely become a classic in the genre in years to come.

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rosalind's review against another edition

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5.0

Still 5 stars the second time round!

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whentheresteeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book is brilliantly written and so important. I loved the poetic writing. I loved the extremely short chapters. I loved the footnotes. I... have no words. Oh my God.

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beforeviolets's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

In the Dream House is a profound and thoughtful memoir exploring Carmen Maria Machado’s experience in a queer abusive relationship. The narrative is broken up into short chapters that explore different storytelling perspectives and styles, sprinkled through with thoughtful discussion of abuse, villainy, and queer history, and all while connecting tropes of folklore and symbolism to weave a cautionary fairytale of her own.

This book is the literal definition of poignant. I’m afraid to say too much, like speaking on the book in something so trivial as a review on the internet will pop the bubble of its magic. It feels insulting to try to put my reading experience into a summary of judgments. I could speak for days on its mastery. I can’t wait to read more of the brilliance that is Machado’s writing.

TW: intense discussion and portrayal of toxic relationships and domestic abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual), assault, homophobia/lesbophobia, sexism, grooming, panic attacks, eating disorder (mention), alcoholism, abusive parental figures (emotional), vomit , murder (mention), blood (mention)

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embervleo's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I found it. The perfect memoir. The writing throughout this entire book is so beautiful even while describing the most harrowing details that I couldn't believe I was allowed to read it. It is beautiful and horrifying. There is also a lot of important commentary throughout about how women can easily be monsters in lesbian relationships, that abusive relationships are not exclusively a heterosexual phenomenon and the myth of the "lesbian utopia" is just that, myth. In reality, lesbian relationships have the capability to be just as toxic as any other relationship, that we should believe queer women when they come forward with their stories and not dismiss them. Abuse is abuse, be the perpetrator a man, woman, or gender nonconforming. I think this one is gonna stay with me for a really really long time.

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umerabab's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75


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leahlovesloslibros's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

I'm not really sure how to write this review. On the one hand, I don't feel right in giving a lower rating to a memoir because I didn't love reading the writing style; on the other hand, I thought the writing style was kind of brilliant. Overall, I believe that Machado was incredibly brave for writing this memoir, as any victim of abuse typically deals with trauma, and that can be so difficult to put into words of any format. The fact that she is in a WLW relationship makes her abuse that much less common to read about, as many people don't even believe that abuse can occur within same-sex relationships [although it absolutely can, and does, occur]. The existence of this book is so necessary, and brings to light an important topic in our society, whether or not you identify as part of the LGBTQIAP+ community. The style of writing won't be for everyone, and there are many difficult topics within the book (which shouldn't be surprising, given what the book is about), but if you can get through those two main aspects, this is a solid read.

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kestrel's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0


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