Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

37 reviews

maxgdy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

vaaaleriechen's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

4.0

devastating yet hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

mary_wyrd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

In the Dream House you are a prisoner to your own heart; trapped, wanting to leave. But you can't, because the house is part of you now, a house that haunts. A dream that became a nightmare. This memoir is part exorcism part rebellion and a full-throated yell against the tyranny of abuse. Machado's full range of creativity is used in excising this chapter of her life and analysing its impact. The format is inventive. Each section is told in a different genre style or trope. Each section is also short, like a glimpse through the windows of the Dream House, seeing a tense, intense relationship from various angles, before the curtains are drawn. Many chapters are told in second person present tense, placing you in the author's position, living through that relationship.  You are both victim and witness. You are Machado. You are all the women in this position who couldn't get out until they did - fatally or finally free. This is a personal study of abuse with reflections on how society has historically treated both lesbians in love and lesbians in abusive situations; with silence, disgust and distrust.  In the Dream House as personal journey is certain to join the canon of lesbian non-fiction exploring love and loathing within a lesbian context.  In the Dream House as memoir already plays a part in unravelling the lie that women can't abuse other women. They can, and those abused need to be believed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

bookwormsinmybrain's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Abandonment

missinfermiera's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

greenleafclarke's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Outing

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

mybetzfriend's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

ems_book_shelf's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

5.0

This book was a masterpiece. From the start, it was hard to put down. The writing is so lyrical and the way the author writes metaphors for things that can’t be put into explicit words was amazing. There were many parts of this book that dug up past my traumas, put things into words that I have been struggling to myself, and made me reflect on my own thoughts and feelings and remembrances. 

Recommending this book a million times over 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual assault, Blood, and Abandonment

amyhasel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Heartbreaking, informative, and brilliant, with circular narrative that will just keep punching you in the gut. Thank God Carmen Maria Machado is also hilarious, or every reader would be breathless with horror. Not a love story, except maybe with herself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Fatphobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship