Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

89 reviews

dexlud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

In The Dream House is a beautiful memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. The writing style is beautifully poetic and the vocabulary that Machado uses is absolutely stunning. I will say that this is easily read in mass chunks, and I ended up taking a break from this book because the vocab was just a lot. It’s incredibly complex and at times hard to understand. Overall, a very good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Sexism, Suicide, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal death and Vomit

harrimyers's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

i am absolutely overcome with emotion. i cant say i’ve read many memoirs but this was maybe one of the most imaginative, deeply feeling and evocative approaches to a memoir i’ve ever come across. every piece of description and dialogue was so heart-wrenchingly personal and impactful.

the academic tone that underlined some of the chapters mixed with machados introspection and detail of her own experiences was a beautiful, haunting, and sensitive choice. the tone remained strong all the way through and the choice to advocate throughout this book was done very well. the metaphors, literary choices, and overall approach were just fantastic. the sources she used, the media that she critiqued and used to tell her own story along side of it were beautifully picked and j now have a list of essays, movies, and topics to go through. the choice to format each chapter in short vignettes centred around one theme, motif or technique was brilliant and i especially loved the use of footnotes to the folklore motif reference book, as reading them following the passage only heightened the point she was trying to make. some of these footnotes were so powerful, even if the reference was only 2 words. one that stood out to me was when she was describing her inability to masturbate, and she likened it to the motif of ‘losing magic power’, alongside the themes of sexual relation and her own acknowledged high sex drive and the power she personally got from sex, was a really insightful choice. 

the last two lines of thr acknowledgement. were beautiful. and i’m so grateful to have read this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

scifi_rat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

Minor: Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Biphobia, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cursing, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Torture

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

A memoir filled with beautiful metaphors, analogies and cross-boundaries genres and experimentation. Despite being a brief read, the contents of the book makes it harder to consume it in one sitting. The book mainly deals and details an abusive relationship between two queer women, how it starts, develops, how it destroys her but is unable to bolt, and the long-lasting effects of trauma due to said abuse. It is horrifying but highly important as, stated by the author in the book, there aren't many sources that discuss this topic and show light in how, no matter which type of relationship you are (poly, monogamous, same-sex, opposite-sex, etc), abuse is abuse and can happen and has happened. I am glad we are at a time in which we can discuss these topics among the community.

The gaslighting, the jealousy, controlling behaviour, abusive patterns, "happy" moments to overcompensate, the physicial, emotional and sexual harrassment, the consequences... they are all difficult themes to tackle and read, but Carmen María Machado does a marvelous job.

My only complaint is that i'm not the biggest fan of the second person pov in books. Nonetheless, a harrowing, necessary read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Violence, Biphobia, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

southernselkie08's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Biphobia, and Infidelity

cestarimm's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

“a verdade é que não há lugar melhor para se viver que à sombra de uma montanha bela e furiosa”

acho que esse livro mudou a minha vida! 🥹

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

camilleion's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

remimicha's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Alcohol, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Lesbophobia

kayaisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Drug use

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, and Body shaming

shaylac's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

I don't read memoirs at all but for some reason reading the description on the back of the book made me want to read In the Dream House and it did not disappoint. At certain points in the book I would forget that it was based on the authors real life experience, I'm not sure if it was because the writing style was almost fantastical (like you're in a dream), so it didn't seem like it was real. In the Dream House is a tale of love, abuse, and navigating through a toxic relationship.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good emotional read that will take you on an emotional rollercoaster. The one thing I didn't like about this book was the title for each piece and how repetitive it is, I feel like it would be fine if it was named "Dream House as..." for the first part instead of having it as the title for each new "chapter".

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Sexual content