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karinamae's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.5
I love this book. read it a long time ago. gonna re read soon i think. i LOVEEEE this author, i’ve read a few short stories from her other books too and AH.
lynndeeslibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
evanlorant's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
this was such a beautiful and motivated memoir, i loved it! when she referenced venus in two acts, i gasped and immediately knew that this book would be a great one. this book at its core is railing against the erasure of lesbian domestic abuse, especially the non-extreme cases. it blends essay with personal experience in a way that is really truly creative nonfiction. and machado’s writing is so beautiful in tying those two poles together.
the form was a little experimental and in a lot of ways, it added to the book—it helped make really punchy statements cohere with the larger body of the text—but it was also a little bit unnecessary at times. almost as if there were some pieces written before the dream house theme came into the picture and were kept anyways because they were good chapters anyways (which they were!) i also loooove meta commentary, of which this memoir has a fair bit, and all done really really well. she adds nuance to an already complicated narrative without seeming trite or virtue-signally, thinking specifically of her chapter on the queer villain.
i also loved the cadence of the audiobook, read by the author. she treated each word with care, in the way that many creative writing students read their own writing. like there’s really good and consistent meter and rhythm to the writing and you can tell that she’s thought it through at that level. but it’s also a little hypnotic, which i think adds to the tone of the book as well.
overall, a fantastic memoir that i would definitely recommend and can see myself revisiting in the future!
the form was a little experimental and in a lot of ways, it added to the book—it helped make really punchy statements cohere with the larger body of the text—but it was also a little bit unnecessary at times. almost as if there were some pieces written before the dream house theme came into the picture and were kept anyways because they were good chapters anyways (which they were!) i also loooove meta commentary, of which this memoir has a fair bit, and all done really really well. she adds nuance to an already complicated narrative without seeming trite or virtue-signally, thinking specifically of her chapter on the queer villain.
i also loved the cadence of the audiobook, read by the author. she treated each word with care, in the way that many creative writing students read their own writing. like there’s really good and consistent meter and rhythm to the writing and you can tell that she’s thought it through at that level. but it’s also a little hypnotic, which i think adds to the tone of the book as well.
overall, a fantastic memoir that i would definitely recommend and can see myself revisiting in the future!
pheyreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
scoopydoisgood's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
i was really obsessed with the concept of this & find the way carmen maria machado writes it to be very captivating. that's all