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edgaranjapoe's review against another edition
4.75
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
tersirat's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Homophobia
floatinthevoid's review against another edition
5.0
"A reminder to remember: just because the sharpness of the sadness has faded does not mean that it was not, once, terrible. It means only that time and space, creatures of infinite girth and tenderness, have stepped between the two of you, and they are keeping you safe as they were once unable to."
Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Fatphobia and Lesbophobia
dizzyindecision's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Sexual content
emily_lloyd's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Fatphobia, Infidelity, Violence, Vomit, and Stalking
lisbethleftwich's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
faefires's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Fatphobia
xfallenxnightx's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Fatphobia
elwirax's review against another edition
3.0
I speak into the silence. I toss the stone of my story into a vast crevice; measure the emptiness by its small sound.
As this is a memoir my rating is not based on Machado's experience but rather the way it was structured and written as a whole. Please do not take this as direct criticism of how the author has chosen to cope and portray her trauma (despite how contradictory that sounds).
I don't really have any profound criticism of In the Dream House just minor personal dislikes. Something I couldn't really click with was the writing style particularly when it switched between first person and second person. I understand that this was used as a way to put the reader in the author's shoes and while I appreciate that, I also didn't feel connected due to the lack of internal monologues and in depth look into emotions. Another thing were the constant footnotes and references to media. There were clear parallels in say, Stranger by the Lake and Gaslight but I couldn't always connect them with the context of the author's experiences (although, maybe that was just me not looking deep enough into their significance). It's definitely an interesting addition to a memoir but sometimes the book didn't know whether it wanted to me a memoir or a critical analysis/ dissertation on how same sex relationships and violence have been portrayed in media. This resulted in choppy writing that ranged from really formal to rather simple and took away from the flow of the text. I think that while the references added a bit of nuance to the text and supported the author's experience, they also took away from it through the pages and pages of description that sometimes felt like filler. As a side note, what was that mouse stomping scene about and the narcissism after finding out friend's roommate died in a fire?! A bit weird to me.
Nevertheless, writing about her experience with an abusive, queer relationship must not have been easy. Hats of to Machado for writing about a topic that deserves more recognition than it recieves in the media. I also really liked the choose your own adventure part, though that is obviously not as important as the subject matter.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Biphobia, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
lizlikesfrogs's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment