Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

16 reviews

ahappyhallowqueen's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Blood, self-harm, suicide mention, abuse, sexual assault mention, sexual content, medical content/trauma disordered eating 

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is an 8 story horror collection that focuses on women and the monstrous things men and society do to them. It's also about how your own mind can be the villain. 

I have to say, these were some weird stories. They were very creepy and unsettling in a psychological horror kind of way with some body horror thrown in. Most of the stories are either sapphic or bisexual. The first story was my favorite, about a girl with a ribbon around her neck. She had one rule for her partner: never touch the ribbon and never remove it. It's a story about love and trust and consent that ends exactly the way you'd expect. 

Others were more disturbing or confusing. There were a couple of stories that I didn't really get what was happening. Some of the stories felt like I needed more context, more background, which is always my problem with short stories. I always want them to be longer. Machado also capitalizes on her use of the common horror trope of the unreliable female narrator who is out of her mind. The woman in the attic type of thing. 

Machado's prose is stunning and delicious. Definitely pick this up if you are a literary fiction fan or a fan of female horror in general.

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krispiefries's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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ilovepastaandpizza's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

mir fehlen die worte aber ich versuche mal ein paar aufzukratzen.
insgesamt fand ich die meisten geschichten gut. es ist sehr viel up-to-interpretation und mysteriös, weshalb ich für manche interpretations ansätze googeln musste.
es geht sehr viel um sexualität und körperlichkeit, und besonders um deren verknüpfung zur psyche. ich muss sagen, beim lesen habe ich oft echten ekel, tiefe scham, verzweiflung und traurigkeit gespürt, und manchmal auch einfach angst, frustration oder plain anger. manchmal auch ein punch in the face oder ich musste laut gaspen. die geschichten sind genial geschrieben.
ah und es ist sehr queer-normalising which was nice.
i saw someone make a ranking so i will do that too.

Stories Ranked

1. Real Women Have Bodies
2. Eight Bites
3. The Husband Stitch
4. Inventory
5. Difficult at Parties
6. The Resident
7. Especially Heinous

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the_harlequin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0


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k_aro's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Basically a lot of it went over my head. Especially the story about Bad and the child, and the bits about the SVU. I've never watched SVU, so maybe that's kind of just a corner of something I'm totally unaware about. That said, the bits that I got, they really struck my bones; Machado is really talented at making you feel seen even when you might not be the exact person she's describing.

I think the one that rang most closely was "Eight Bodies", especially given that it came right after reading I'm Glad My Mom Died, a lot of which revolves around McCurdy's eating disorder (that has to do with her mom and how they are mirrors of each other). And also recently listening to Lucy Dacus' "My Mother and I". I've had a lot to think about with regards to me and my mom - especially since I've been away from her for a long time, now, when compared to the rest of my life. I also think about Rayne Fisher-Quann's Tiktok about being thankful for having mommy bloggers to see that moms truly do have lives that exist beyond their children, and how so often when you become a mother it seems to become the hinge of your life.

Especially since "Eight Bodies" is written from the painful perspective of a mother and a daughter who'll never really see eye to eye. It's painful, to simultaneously be the mirror of your mother but also to hate it. It's weird.

That aside, Machado is also a beautiful author, with the prose flowing as smooth as butter. Also, this book is so horny. And that's great. Maybe I'll read it again and appreciate it better the second time!

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taylorsevalia's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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