A review by frozenheartv
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

5 stars 
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 

Please note that I rate this book based on the literary side of the book not the author’s story. 

“Putting language to something for which you have no language is no easy feat.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“The trouble with letting other people see you at your worst isn’t that they’ll remember; it’s that you’ll remember.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“Queer folks fail each other too.” – Carmen Maria Machado

“…you can be hurt by people who look just like you. Not only can it happen, it probably will, because the world is full of hurt people who hurt people.” – Carmen Maria Machado

🧠 My thoughts
If I want to describe this book in 1 word it’s definitely “Wow”. Domestic abuse has been a hot topic that many people look into and write about but this book stands out due to its creative and fantastic writing style. The prose was beautiful, poetic, and lyrical which made me feel like I was reading a fictional book but “unfortunately”, the story was real.

First of all, I have to comment on the incredible writing style. I felt that the way the author used the third-person narration was so smart. It made me feel like she might have overcome the trauma and now she was telling us her own story, detached (not completely) from it to give us an objective view of the Dream House. The chapters were bite-sized and that made the story fragmented like memories, like her heart, clear but also unclear, damaged but also already mended.

By inserting some educational chapters, I felt that I had a better understanding of not only her life story but also the issues related to the LGBTQAI+ community. The author raised a very valid point that domestic abuse (of queer or not queer) is very ambiguous. How much psychological torment a person has to suffer to be considered as abuse, for everyone to realize it and help them?

The only drawback I saw was that jumping from the informative chapters to other ones too abruptly made it sometimes just a bit hard to follow.

👍 What I like
  • Creative writing style and gripping narration
  • Educational and informative
  • Powerful and memorable

👎 What I don't like
  • Sometimes the informative chapters jump too abruptly back and forth to the author’s own story ones makes it a bit hard to follow.

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