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moss_martii's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, and Domestic abuse
cryptidcas's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Rape
hannibanani29's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Drug use, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Biphobia, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Dementia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
jurizprudence's review against another edition
4.75
“ . . . 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.”
so beautifully-written, brutal in its honesty, and heartbreaking.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Biphobia, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Alcohol, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
Minor: Racism, Classism, Bullying, Confinement, Dementia, and Pregnancy
daisydoolie's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Vomit, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
han__turner's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Mental illness
cianarae's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Sexism
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Dementia, and Infidelity
saintsunshine's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcohol, Homophobia, Drug use, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Vomit, Sexual harassment, and Fire/Fire injury
joyful_patatas's review against another edition
4.5
I was quite intrigued at her decision of writing the story of her abusive relationship in the second person, which I had first just thought of it being her trying to put some distance between the author's past self from her current self, but only realized a little later that it could have also been used to have the readers picture themselves in the situation.
It is definitely not a light read, but I would be lying if I said this book didn't make me think. I do recommend this book to fellow queer folks because the subjects tackled in it is problems within our own community and that we need to care enough to fix it, otherwise, no one else will.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Homophobia
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
heynonnynonnie's review against another edition
4.5
In the Dream House is a bold and experimental memoir unlike anything that I've read before. But like all things new and experimental, there's a strong element of confusion. What was the author's intent? When did the story begin? Why was this chapter here? What was the importance of this metaphor? Of this citation? Sometimes I sat with a chapter and read it over and over again to try to make sense of its meaning. Now that I'm done with the book, I think the author's intent is much more clear. It's not a linear story. It's a collection of short pieces that circle around and around a subject, a thesis, and only sometimes about an abusive relationship.
The author has a story to tell but has no language for it. She must invent one. The point of the story isn't her abusive relationship, it's that she has no way of framing it. She tries over and over again in each chapter to fit it into various tropes - like holding up a jewel to the light to inspect all its facets. Yet, she finds over and over again that there is no one narrative to tell her story. Every one explains an aspect but ultimately fails to fully contain her story.
We feel that something wrong has happened to her, but there is no law broken. There's no legal case to refer to. There's no piece of writing that explains what happened. No character archetype to fall back on. No narrative to allude to. And so her goal is to imagine an archive, a house, a structure in which her story can live. A place where her story exists among literary devices, allusions, and metaphors that build legitimacy that the story is seeking.
I think it's easy to mistake the sometimes second person tense as a weak attempt to create empathy. But it's not an attempt to blur the boundary between author and reader. It's a necessary disconnect in the text. An "I" author and a "you" victim that Machado switches between. A wall between the person she was and the person she is. A classification for her feelings and thought patterns. An Othering to in order to create the many character archetypes the victim falls into.
The book feels like both the building and the unravelling. It seeks to teach you how to read its text and keeps you away from its core. It's discovering the why of a ghost through the means of a haunted house.
Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Sexual harassment, Drug use, Lesbophobia, and Alcoholism