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A review by 124smilehd
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
slow-paced
3.5
It's one of those books that you should read due to its informative and cultural significance but it's not something that I particularly enjoyed on its own.
It did have a massive impact on how I view queer relationships in a social context, especially as a queer person myself. Early in the story I did lowkey think that this was not the best political time to talk about such a dark subject that could be used as evidence as to why queer relationships are inherently not good, but Machado seems to have taken this into account as she constantly talks about how we as minorities tend to glorify and idolize our identity as a form of survival and this inherently opens the door for abuse. It was a hard reality to swallow but I do think she made a valid and very important point, that our biggest resistance as a community is to be allowed to just be human, flaws and all.
I will say though that the writing style threw me off, it was just hard really commit to the micro chapters. The other big flaw was that she depends a lot on footnotes which seems odd for a memoir type of book. It almost felt as if she had to prove her own existence and memory by using other sources, even though by her own admittance there are very few written works on queer abuse? Idk I felt like this weakened her own voice by depending too much on outside validation.
It did have a massive impact on how I view queer relationships in a social context, especially as a queer person myself. Early in the story I did lowkey think that this was not the best political time to talk about such a dark subject that could be used as evidence as to why queer relationships are inherently not good, but Machado seems to have taken this into account as she constantly talks about how we as minorities tend to glorify and idolize our identity as a form of survival and this inherently opens the door for abuse. It was a hard reality to swallow but I do think she made a valid and very important point, that our biggest resistance as a community is to be allowed to just be human, flaws and all.
I will say though that the writing style threw me off, it was just hard really commit to the micro chapters. The other big flaw was that she depends a lot on footnotes which seems odd for a memoir type of book. It almost felt as if she had to prove her own existence and memory by using other sources, even though by her own admittance there are very few written works on queer abuse? Idk I felt like this weakened her own voice by depending too much on outside validation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Gaslighting and Fatphobia