Review by serenspace - Her Body and Other Parties

serenspace 's review for:

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

4.25

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

womanhood is a horror story. that is the central theme of this collection of short stories, molding the literal from the metaphorical. it is violent in its truths about the woman and her choices, her experiences as they differ from her counterparts. each tale is tragic as we know our lives can be. there is no escape, we feel. only forward through the muddy waters.

the first story in this book tells the uncomfortable story of a woman and her husband becoming acquainted, and the overwhelming sense I got from this story was that of loss. the narrator details her encounters with her husband, such as her first time and her entire motherhood until her untimely death. machado easily portrays the sense of loss that women must endure as they mature. while her husband gets all he desires, all he needs, the narrator sacrifices greater and grander parts of herself until her life is all she has left to give. and he takes it. this absence recurs throughout the collection of stories, and it reflects something inside of me that scares me. are we the women, the feminine, the unmasculine, defined by what we do not have or no longer claim as our own?

so the book continues into the lives of many women, many victims and many incidents so easily avoided if not for the culpability of cruel men. the women in these stories live rich lives that bleed empty through their living and telling. every history is drenched in misery and misfortune, no successes or victories to be found amongst them. like life itself, womanhood itself, each character’s story ends unresolved.

though the dampened mood of the stories forces one to read them in a miserable mindset, the writing style is superbly controlled to portray such a variety of sad emotions that serve to further the stories through feeling alone.

Content Warnings