Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

31 reviews

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

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

remimicha's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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: Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

3.5

This book deals with an extremely important topic that needs to be voiced and discussed. That said, as a piece of work itself, I liked it so-so. 

I did not get along with the narrative structure, I found the rapid-fire succession of chapters (supposed to show different genres and narrative styles) too much disjointed and confusing. The writing style is a bit too much experimental for me.

I liked much more the chapters that were "essay-like", exploring queer history and theory. However, I think that this mixing of informative chapters together with more literary and elaborately written ones was a bit jarring, it felt like two different books mashed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Biphobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

aleshiabev's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

meleac07's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

As a queer, predominantly lesbian individual, this gave me perspective and made me feel, in a way, safe.
Seeing a woman so openly and explicitly talk through her experience with queer domestic abuse, it both hurt me to the very core of my being and gave me hope that some day, we could as a society, fully acknowledge and accept that queer people are not a different species, somehow immune or shut off from the experiences of heterosexual people.
I find a part of myself reflected in this story, and the author so eloquently told it in a way that made me feel a part of it somehow, like I could feel a mere fragment of her suffering and heartbreak. 
This story is both brave and powerful in every way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood and Lesbophobia

Minor: Animal death and Fatphobia

hannibanani29's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Biphobia, Cancer, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

3.5

in the dream house is a singular memoir, one w/ a unique - even ingenious - structure that masterfully distills the volatile and oscillating emotions, particularly tense fear, of the abused. 

machado recounts and examines her personal experience of an abusive relationship through the lens of various artistic genres, objects, things, ideas, lending each chapter an eerie, tense, sometimes detached feeling. the aforementioned is also framed against the larger historical backdrop of overlooked and non-mainstream subject of abuse in queer and lesbian relationships, and i learned a lot from the existing canon that's included in the book.

overall, a distinctive memoir on an oft under-discussed experience that's also able to critically discuss larger historical and social contexts.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, Infidelity, and Vomit