Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

110 reviews

nialiversuch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcohol

triple_m's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

The message was good but I felt the writing was pretentious at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol

laurenleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This has been on my TBR ever since I saw @junebuganddarlin make a beautiful cross stitch kit with a phrase from the book. I highly recommend listening to the author read the audiobook. It feels like a spoken word poetry memoir. While not an upbeat feel-good summer read, this is an important piece of literature on abusive relationships in the queer community, which is evidently highly underrepresented in the field. I imagine the author also did a lot of healing through the writing process, and I felt honored to get to hear her intimate stories. While perhaps not the main focus, my favorite element of the text was Machado’s exploration of literary generes and motifs. My heart was happy to see words like picaresque and Bildungsroman. The opening section on the topic of archives is particularly sticking with me. I wish I had a classroom to go discuss that section in!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing and Alcohol

winterdevil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

 A cleverly structured memoir reflecting on abuse in a lesbian relationship—each chapter in the story is a different genre or concept with its own convention and angle.

The ending, however, felt rushed and less "complete" for lack of a better word. There are a few moments in recounting the abusive relationship where Machado says that she doesn't know how she'll learn to trust a lover again, how she'll grow comfortable in her body, how she'll let anyone touch her. Then the relationship ends, and suddenly she just does all those things all in the same chapter without reflecting on how or why. It's especially stark because she doesn't ever make a choice to walk away from the relationship (and I understand why, but if you aren't choosing to leave, the choice is made for you, and you stumble onto someone else's lips, we never actually see her regain agency on the page). She kisses someone and then marries someone else, but we don't hear anything about how she got from point A to point B emotionally. And I wouldn't expect it at all if she hadn't brought up how difficult it would be in the first place.

Especially since her craft in the beginning 85% was so meticulous and well-written, the end felt unpolished by comparison, like she was tired and just wanted to get it done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

mkwreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

cemeterygay's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

5.0

I cannot sing the praises of this book enough, It is such a hauntingly thorough retelling of the author's experience with domestic violence. I adored the greater structural analysis of Intimate Partner Violence and how it relates to homophobia, biphobia, and lesbophobia and how the author made sure to connect her story to the stories of many IPV survivors in the community. I cannot praise enough how much care and sensitivity was taken to the issues discussed in this book. I definitely don't think the author's writing style is for everyone as it can be very experimental at times but I personally adored it. 

If you are looking for an unusual exploration into domestic violence in queer relationships, I could not recommend this enough

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Vomit, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Additional CW: Sexual abuse, assault, grooming, emotionally abusive parents,

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

snowydaze's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Words cannot describe how deeply I enjoyed this book. The strange format flowed nicely and worked well when listening to the audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood and Alcohol

toffishay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

What an amazing, powerful, interesting, and informative read. The formatting of this book pulls you in, with each "chapter" representing the story of this relationship from a different literary genre or device. I read this book so quickly and you are pulling in with every word. It is certainly emotional and I teared up more than once. This is a memoir about domestic abuse, so I would certainly look up trigger warnings. But, I find this to have been such a valuable and engaging reading experience that I absolutely have to recommend.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol