Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Nella casa dei tuoi sogni by Carmen Maria Machado

143 reviews

jazhandz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

5.0


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lpogo16's review against another edition

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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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klsreads's review against another edition

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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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ellornaslibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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kiatlyns's review against another edition

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Well-written, but I went in blind (book club book) and the events detailed in this book are perfect mixture of my worst nightmares that I would prefer not to relive. If DV, toxic poly situationships, or same-sex DV are any of your triggers I would not recommend you read this book.

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_fictionalreality's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.75


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kpully13's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0


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mmccue1997's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

3.0


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sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0


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zerinasahar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0


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