Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Στο σπίτι των ονείρων by Carmen Maria Machado

154 reviews

literally_mint's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Biphobia, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Cancer, Abandonment, Vomit, Alcohol, Rape, Dementia, Hate crime, and Fatphobia

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

abyissmal's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 

Carmen Maria Machado’s “In The Dream House” is a piece of work that unravels you—wood by wood, brick by brick, wound by wound. Her exploration of the complexities of abuse in queer relationships is layered with issues of societal expectations, stitched together with folktales and media alike that paints exactly why it is complicated.

Once you've unraveled a layer, you realize you've barely scratched the surface. You realize that the house is a maze.

“I broke the stories down because I was breaking down, and I didn't know what else to do.” (181)

The memoir poignantly illustrates out a specific that comes by merely existing as queer. There's an unspoken double standard enforced onto queer people. The need to uphold us to an impossibly high moral standards that strips away our humanity. 

Because the second one of us makes a mistake (or in many cases, being human), it is the entire group that takes the blunder. Taking away that we, too, are people.

“The irony, of course, is that queer folks need that good PR; to fight rights we don’t have, to retain the ones we do. But haven’t we been trying to say, this whole time, that we’re just like you?” (268)

I had to really let this book stay in the back of my mind. 

My heart was aching. Every page, every annotations, every breakdowns. 

Machado’s writing is vivid. It is present. You can feel the wound itself still pulsing from her prose and you’re left to accompany her in the isolation, in the hurt. 

This memoir has completely engraved itself in my mind, my heart, and my soul. It left me gutted. I was left trying to untangle the knots of my thoughts and feelings yet ultimately, it was all for naught. 

I'll let this memoir haunt me a little longer. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

mpurdy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This was a devastating book about a abusive relationship. Told in fragments of memories. I loved the experimental style and thought her writing style was duper fluid. I got through this book so quickly as the chapters are short and leave you wanting to get through some of the harder sections. But it added so much to the experience because it was like you were trying to escape the relationship with her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Body horror, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cursing

melmoony's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

A haunting and terrible tale about domestic abuse. Machado writes about her own experience being in a queer relationship and going through the ups of falling in love and finding who she really is juxtaposed with the downs of being gaslighted and abused. It read like a fever dream, each chapter a disjointed exploration of “the dream house.” I’ve never read a memoir like this and is the only book I’ve read of hers, yet you can tell she is a poet because of the lyrical style of her prose. I cannot say I enjoyed it in a true sense, but I think her writing is lyrical, her voice is unique, and that more discussions about same-sex domestic abuse and across all relationship types should be had.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

colorsinautumn's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Violence

lisbethleftwich's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts

lizlikesfrogs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Rape, Biphobia, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

catatlanta's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, Drug use, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, and Violence