Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

621 reviews

drgnhrt968's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

frozenheartv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

5 stars 
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 

Please note that I rate this book based on the literary side of the book not the author’s story. 

“Putting language to something for which you have no language is no easy feat.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“The trouble with letting other people see you at your worst isn’t that they’ll remember; it’s that you’ll remember.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“Queer folks fail each other too.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“…you can be hurt by people who look just like you. Not only can it happen, it probably will, because the world is full of hurt people who hurt people.” – Carmen Maria Machado

🧠 My thoughts
If I want to describe this book in 1 word it’s definitely “Wow”. Domestic abuse has been a hot topic that many people look into and write about but this book stands out due to its creative and fantastic writing style. The prose was beautiful, poetic, and lyrical which made me feel like I was reading a fictional book but “unfortunately”, the story was real.

First of all, I have to comment on the incredible writing style. I felt that the way the author used the third-person narration was so smart. It made me feel like she might have overcome the trauma and now she was telling us her own story, detached (not completely) from it to give us an objective view of the Dream House. The chapters were bite-sized and that made the story fragmented like memories, like her heart, clear but also unclear, damaged but also already mended.

By inserting some educational chapters, I felt that I had a better understanding of not only her life story but also the issues related to the LGBTQAI+ community. The author raised a very valid point that domestic abuse (of queer or not queer) is very ambiguous. How much psychological torment a person has to suffer to be considered as abuse, for everyone to realize it and help them?

The only drawback I saw was that jumping from the informative chapters to other ones too abruptly made it sometimes just a bit hard to follow.

👍 What I like

• Creative writing style and gripping narration
• Educational and informative
• Powerful and memorable

👎 What I don't like

• Sometimes the informative chapters jump too abruptly back and forth to the author’s own story ones makes it a bit hard to follow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

laur_astor's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

This is a masterclass in crafting an entirely original memoir. Carmen's writing is raw and heartbreaking and sucks you into the feelings she feels so deeply. Also, her audiobook narration is so poetic and mesmerizing.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual content and Homophobia

zerinasahar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

readbycarina's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

frogbabies's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Homophobia

bebidocrimes's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

This feels like it should be required reading for every young queer person. It really expresses the importance of breaking the utopian lense with which we regard queer relationships. It feels especially poignant to me as someone who sees herself as less desirable and has accepted whatever attention she could get in the past. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

beccadyerhair's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

carmentxx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

my second reread of this book and it is just impossible to not sit and reflect on the world in tears. machado is just so incredibly talented, you feel her excruciating pain, her debasement, humiliation, the unflinching trauma of a hidden domestic abuse. in the dream house is so good because machado provides a hidden archived memory. she provides us as much of the archived memory and invited us to think about how much is hidden- in this way, a form of un-memory- we are aware of how much memory is missing because we cannot even comprehend the extent of the memory. machado’s memoir is genre breaking, a historical and literary feat because she shows us the potential of how much is missing. there is so much missing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

coffeedumps's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Such an important book for the queer literary canon. Intermingles memoir with history which breaks up the sorta poetic style of writing very nicely. I’m knocking down half a star bc I didn’t like the narrator sorry it was literally the author but like jdhdhhd 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia