Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Nella casa dei tuoi sogni by Carmen Maria Machado

106 reviews

ninaszewczyk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcohol and Homophobia

baguettegay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Carmen’s writing is something truly out of this world, they make you feel every single. damn. thing. 
This memoir cuts you open. No other way to describe it or encapsulate what it will make you feel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

One of the best books I’ve ever read. Don’t get me wrong, this story is heart-wrenching and awful, but the way Machado writes about her experiences is nothing short of genius. I learned, I felt, I gaped — at some parts in horror, at others in awe. Truly stunning in every sense. A chilling, tense, emotional genre-bending memoir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Cursing, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sylvestra's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Fatphobia

felixreads0321's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Alcohol

raisinreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Misogyny, Alcohol, Racism, Infidelity, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Drug use

nialiversuch's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol and Drug use

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: Alcohol and Cursing

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