Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

208 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

julsreadinglist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Sexual assault

filisia's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Sexual assault

cow_png's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This was an incredible read and I wish that everyone could read this book! I kept thinking about and wanting to read most times in the day. 
The narrative lens were such an interesting way to write!! and I loved seeing how the way of writing would changed with it!
Definitely look at the content warning before reading if you are a sensitive person (Such as I) 
Amazing book, so happy that I read it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, and Cursing

errie's review against another edition

challenging dark

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

lil_owl_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

This has the potential to be one of, if not the, best book of my 2024 reading. I flew through In The Dream House; I don't think I've ever read a memoir that could so adequately be called a page-turner. What drove me to keep reading was not what might happen next, but how Machado might portray it. It truly felt not just that I had been invited into her world, but that I had been invited into her surreal dreams. Machado draws the reader into her retelling of a queer abusive relationship so beautifully that if you didn't know where the story was headed, you might be just as tempted by the Dream House as Machado was. 
Not only does Machado have a grasp on writing that I have seen rivaled by only a few other authors, she has a grasp on history and the place her story will occupy within the canon of literature. She is self-aware; she references and cross-references and builds up nearly a library of works discussed just within this ~200 page book.
If you need your heart broken, read this. If you need your heart mended, read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

ems_book_shelf's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

5.0

This book was a masterpiece. From the start, it was hard to put down. The writing is so lyrical and the way the author writes metaphors for things that can’t be put into explicit words was amazing. There were many parts of this book that dug up past my traumas, put things into words that I have been struggling to myself, and made me reflect on my own thoughts and feelings and remembrances. 

Recommending this book a million times over 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Blood, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

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

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

alexijai98's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

5.0

Beautifully written and a modern classic of queer writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity