Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

156 reviews

kaki4forks's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Dementia

cheerstochels's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Fatphobia, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

finnthehuman217's review

dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Carmen María Machado is incredible and her writing speaks for itself but her voice in the queer world being a survivor of DV, I am so proud of her getting out but also being brave enough to tell her story. It’s fucked up that this happens at all but the people who are bringing it to light are amazing for making this issue visible. The first time I heard about this book I put it off because it is jarring and I recognize those moments of anger from a childhood of a parent with a short fuse and bipolar. I hope the woman from the dream house got help because she seems very unstable and it makes me want to cry my eyes out thinking about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

slimygf's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

rafdee13's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

5.0

Domestic violence is difficult to write about coherently. Nevermind the complications of lesbian domestic violence In a system that perpetuates the invisibility of both. This book serves as a witness and a warning, and is beautifully written to boot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

enyltiak's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

A book review in snippets of thoughts I sent to my friend I was buddy-reading with as I went:

- “!!! genuinely so good. i didn’t realize it was in 2nd person (or, well mostly anyway) and honestly how did i not see that coming. just Works. i don’t think i finished all the stories in her body and other parties but even so, as much as i was enjoying that i feel like this is even better! also noted the way that even chapters focused outside of “her” are still “dream house as…” painting this representation draped over the whole thing of how this relationship has reflected on/effected her whole life reaching backwards”

- “genre defying and unique and yet makes perfect sense. of course [a memoir] should be written this way. why would it be any different? you can see she is SUCH a skilled writer. i can’t wait to see a novel from her. like holy shit, can you imagine?”

- “i get lost in the pov shifts and it’s all one. its me and you and her and wow. also the footnotes !!!!!!! i am not coherent but wow”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

mamareadstuff's review

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

I would give Carla six stars for this book if I could. Ten? I listened to her read her story on hoopla, but I'm going to have to buy a physical copy so I can go back and underline and cry all over the pages. There were moments so vivid I had flashbacks to my own experience 15+ years ago, so similar, in too many ways to count. This wasn't some afterschool special. This was falling in love and out of love and feeling powerless and somehow, eventually, slowly, finding your power again, trusting yourself again, loving yourself, for once. I don't know that I could have read this book 15 years ago, but I wish that I had been able to read it before... Or maybe I wish that I had been able to reach across state lines back then, and find her, and that we could have shared our stories and gotten each other out sooner. Or maybe not. Maybe we couldn't get out until we could, until we did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

fayemomodu's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely love this book. As someone who attending college at the University of Iowa I loved reading this as it takes place in Iowa City at the college. The book almost reads as poetry and is very beautiful written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

lpogo16's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Machado had a lot of courage in talking about her story and a lot of heart in telling the story of other queer women. This book really opened my eyes to a topic I never thought to look at head on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Blood, Vomit, and Dementia

The vibe of this book is really sad. The energy is very depressing though it does take a hopefully turn at the end.

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: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Gun violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis