Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Nella casa dei tuoi sogni by Carmen Maria Machado

58 reviews

cassidyzang's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Physical abuse

angievansprang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow. This book was written in such a unique short-snippet style that I have not seen before in a memoir. Machado is a masterful wordsmith, even when telling a devastating tale. Parts of this book resonated with me a lot, I think I will need to sit with it more before making a truly complete review.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Mental illness, Car accident, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

millibear's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

How do I put this. This book made me pace a lot.

God. It's Machado's memoir of being in an abusive queer relationship. Each chapter is stylized or themed after a named topic; it worked for me because it was great framing for the (usually upsetting) content.

A later cluster of chapters lives rent-free in my head still.

The Choose Your Own Adventure section? Oh my God. What a great use of form. It really hammered home how 1. bleak the relationship was by then 2. how repetitive the abuse was 3. how inescapable the abuse was (all of the page choices making you go back to the start of the day or a time of the day!!) 4. the extra meta chastisement from Machado if you just read the pages through straight, goddamn ("not following the CYOA rules doesn't mean you can escape that this happened").

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Rape

mecmccann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Bullying, Biphobia, Fatphobia, Grief, Rape, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

literally_mint's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Biphobia, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Cancer, Abandonment, Vomit, Alcohol, Rape, Dementia, Hate crime, and Fatphobia

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

chaotic_bibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence

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

mermellie's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

neverlandpages4's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I have not felt this immersed in a book in a long time. This book broke me down and taught me so much at the same time. I felt like I was there with the author because of the intimate use of second person POV. The intense and honest details of the relationship were terrifying to read, knowing that this is biographical. I don’t have the right words to describe what this book made me feel, but I think that it’s one everyone should read because it’s life changing. 

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠
• I’ve already raved about this author’s writing but I’m obsessed with her writing!! I was mesmerized by the vivid imagery and the creative and unique metaphors. I could try to describe how good the writing is but I don’t think I would do it justice. And I loved the second person POV and how it addresses the reader.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬
“How do we do right by the wronged people of the past without physical evidence of their suffering?”

• A lot of this book centers around domestic abuse, psychological abuse, and abuse in queer relationships. It talks about how so many people aren’t believed when they speak out about their trauma because it isn’t physical or visible. 

• I went into this expecting a story about an abusive relationship, but it was so much more. There’s a lot about queer history, queer characters, stereotypes, and much, much more. I felt like I learned a lot from this. It immensely changed the way I view so many different things from abusive relationships, to heteronormative relationships, to villains, and a lot of other things I never thought about. 

𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭
• This book has the most genius format ever. The author was able to capture how abusive relationships are a never ending cycle through the format of this book and it’s one of the most creative things I’ve ever seen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Rape, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, and Sexual assault

Minor: Racism, Sexism, Gun violence, Vomit, Torture, Murder, and Pregnancy