Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

26 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

laurenleannereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fatphobia and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death and Body shaming

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Rape, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Confinement

Minor: Dementia, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Bullying, Gun violence, and Stalking

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

dexlud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

In The Dream House is a beautiful memoir by Carmen Maria Machado. The writing style is beautifully poetic and the vocabulary that Machado uses is absolutely stunning. I will say that this is easily read in mass chunks, and I ended up taking a break from this book because the vocab was just a lot. It’s incredibly complex and at times hard to understand. Overall, a very good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Sexism, Suicide, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Moderate: Animal death and Vomit

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

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

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