Reviews tagging 'Blood'

In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

42 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

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

booksandbesitos's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.75

A beautifully written memoir about an unfortunate and abusive relationship.

The symbolism of the dream house was very powerful and I loved how the chapters put the dream house as different things to explain the story. The short chapters made it a little easier to consume the heavy topics.
Every chapter is like fragments to show  the big picture. I think that other survivors of abuse can also relate to telling their stories in fragments at first. Until you’ve ready to tell the whole thing. 

Due to the nature of the story, the content in the book is very heavy. I encourage everyone to look at the content warnings before reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Pregnancy

abigailstone10's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Biphobia, Blood, Grief, and Homophobia

breadbummer's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

LOTS of literary/cultural references that flew way over my head, mainly in terms of "chapter" titles and, maybe it's because of the ADHD troubles when listening to an audiobook without text, but there were some passages that I was confused about how they related to the story. Otherwise, I'm speechless; horrifying events that were beautifully written.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, Alcohol, Physical abuse, and Animal death

Minor: Biphobia, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Blood

buttercat42's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

Somewhat difficult to get into at first, and then impossible to put down. I love the fragmented format and found it very readable. The writing was deliciously intelligent. An important queer story I didn’t know I needed. One quibble— of course I understand the importance of the more educational passsges at the end, but they felt poorly incorporated with the rest of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol and Homophobia

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

maess's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Outing, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

remimicha's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Alcohol, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Lesbophobia

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

(I no longer give star ratings to memoirs)

This was so well-written and Carmen's story will stay with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Blood, and Xenophobia