Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

W domu snów by Carmen Maria Machado

25 reviews

klsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

In the Dream House is a masterpiece. Told in vignettes structured around literature tropes, this memoir follows the rise and fall of a profoundly abusive relationship. Machado is brave, vulnerable, and unflinchingly honest as she exposes the abuse she suffered across a 2 year relationship with another woman. She asks: if we view queer relationships as utopia divorced from patriarchy and hierarchy, are we being homophobic? Are lesbians not humans - complex, hurting, and capable of inflicting extreme harm? If we flatten a group of people into a monolith, we dehumanize them. This book is a necessary addition to the growing work on the incidence of abuse in queer relationships.

I've never read anything quite like this - I loved the vignette narrative structure. The book moved quickly because most sections were short. A couple of the tropes dragged on for me/didn't hit 100%, but I was enthralled and could hardly put it down. A few standouts for me - "Dream House as Deja Vu" (x3), "Dream House as Queer Villainy" (!!!), "Dream House as Bluebeard", "Dream House as the River Lethe", "Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure" ...... ok, I have to stop or I'm going to quote half of this work.

Even more wild: I was in Iowa City as an undergrad during the events of this book. Did I see Carmen and the Woman from the Dream House at a coffee shop, at Obama's speech, in a bookstore? It makes me shiver, the ways people suffer out of view.

Brilliant. Carmen Maria Machado is an absolute force and a genius of prose and innovative structure. I HIGHLY recommend this book, but mind the CW's. Machado doesn't shy away from the gore at the heart of her story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Blood, Violence, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Biphobia, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gun violence

ellornaslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Infidelity

Minor: Death and Fire/Fire injury

aestinson's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Vomit, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Cursing, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, Body horror, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Violence, Bullying, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Dementia, Pregnancy, Racism, and Gun violence

blackbird300's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Sexual content, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Lesbophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

toyin_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

It can be tricky for a survivor to read another survivor's experience, laid out like this, and not feel in some sense that it is too much, or too similar. Dream house as choose your adventure is my favourite section of the book, it feels like a closed loop and it is confrontational. When you try to stop the abuse, there's an aside between reader and author that is challenging, the idea you think you can when you can't. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, 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

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

I absolutely adore this book. Right off the bat I would have given it 5⭐, but I listened to it on audiobook. And as much as I love listening to especially memoirs read by the authors, this text was a bit hard to follow at first on audiobook. I plan on reading a paper copy soon and will likely give it a full 5. 

I loved the narrative style and tropes of the Dream House once I got used to the flow. I really appreciated how Carmen held the complexities of domestic violence and the topic and experiences within the queer community. This text will absolutely remain an important work in queer narratives. So well done. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Homophobia, Death, Hate crime, Alcohol, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, Body shaming, and Stalking

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Fatphobia

eib_21's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail