Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

1094 reviews

erks's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

The author found a unique way of reflecting and documenting her personal experience in a queer abusive relationship, and pulled it off beautifully. Her raw, devastating, and poetic writing shows off the author's strength in taking writing tropes and genres and using it to dissect her experiences, and make her own archive about a narrative that is traditionally dominated by straight, cis white men

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

kimayasaijpal's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

 Carmen Maria Machado's "In the Dream House" is a masterpiece in structure. Written completely from the second perspective, this memoir on the breakdown of the author's queer abusive relationship was an immersive experience from the first line to the very last. The queer community often doesn't like talking about abuse because we feel that it would vilify us in the eyes of those who already don't want us to exist. But stories like Machado's are important. The perspective makes it unlike any other memoir I've read. "You follow her in because you don’t know what else to do,”  makes the reader feel like they're experiencing exactly what Machado does, in real time. I will always recommend this book. It is a heavy read, and at times I felt I would not be able to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

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

maggie_falk's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Biphobia

laurenleannereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Biphobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

arj's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

errie's review against another edition

challenging dark

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

cheyennedowls's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

Minor: Lesbophobia

lil_owl_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

This has the potential to be one of, if not the, best book of my 2024 reading. I flew through In The Dream House; I don't think I've ever read a memoir that could so adequately be called a page-turner. What drove me to keep reading was not what might happen next, but how Machado might portray it. It truly felt not just that I had been invited into her world, but that I had been invited into her surreal dreams. Machado draws the reader into her retelling of a queer abusive relationship so beautifully that if you didn't know where the story was headed, you might be just as tempted by the Dream House as Machado was. 
Not only does Machado have a grasp on writing that I have seen rivaled by only a few other authors, she has a grasp on history and the place her story will occupy within the canon of literature. She is self-aware; she references and cross-references and builds up nearly a library of works discussed just within this ~200 page book.
If you need your heart broken, read this. If you need your heart mended, read this.

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Content Warnings

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

beefbourguignon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

hall of fame

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship