Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

93 reviews

karelovesbooks's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

5.0

Memoir is of a relationship gone bad and a breakdown of the pieces within that relationship that form a pattern of psychological abuse. The author wraps in narrative tropes that are supported by film, fiction, queer history, and more. It was a very compelling read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, Violence, Vomit, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Blood

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Murder, and Body shaming

Minor: Vomit, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

veeples's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.75

The beautiful, dreamy prode Machado employs is a brilliant and sharp contrast to the devastation that she experiences. It reads like poetry, though it’s not. It’s fluid and heartbreaking and gorgeous, and I am so glad to have read it. If you are a queer person, and even if you’re not, I think it’s a valuable read as a narrative that describes a mentally and emotionally abusive relationship and how its just as harmful as a physically abusive one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Biphobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood, Dementia, Car accident, and Body shaming

sapphicmuscaria's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

love book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Murder, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Car accident, Blood, Sexual content, Homophobia, Bullying, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Cursing, Colonisation, and Suicidal thoughts

madsmccray's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

Machado has such a poetic way of writing prose, which is one of my favorite things about reading her work. This memoir is written like no other I've encountered, and it's easy to understand why: in telling sharing her own experience of domestic abuse, Machado is pushing against cultural notions that women cannot hurt each other, that abuse only comes from men, and if queer women admit their queer women partners have hurt them, then they're damaging the community's reputation. In the Dream House does an excellent job grappling with All Of That and more. I've read many stories that feature abuse (both nonfiction and fiction) and none have so radically changed my perception of it as this book has.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Cursing, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Biphobia, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Minor: Dementia, Death, and Physical abuse

pobaw24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

murrderdith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

This memoir was so beautifully and unsparingly devastating. Machado is unflinching in her account of (as Machado notes herself) all of the "legal" ways a partner can abuse and diminish you while also rooting the narrative within a folkloric framework (she never names the Woman in the Dream House, the only character without one in the way that the villains of those first stories we learn never have names as we recognize them)--returning again and again to the tropes of these ur-texts. Her language moves from ethereal and gauzy to razor-sharp in a way that reinforces the whiplash experience of having a volatile, erratic partner. 

**I would recommend looking at the content warnings from other users before reading this book if you are at all concerned it may be a difficult read for you to work through. I will add some but it is a likely an incomplete list**

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

This is a memoir of domestic abuse. It is beautifully written but not necessarily something everyone is in the right place to read. That said, it could also serve as a text the reader recognizes themselves in. I think it can be worth reading painful, recognizable texts for this reason. Proceed with caution.

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Confinement, Grief, Homophobia, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Rape

Minor: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Animal death, Car accident, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Eating disorder, Vomit, Murder, and Medical content

chaotic_bibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence