Scan barcode
A review by miffybooks
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
3.0
”Will I ever be done, transformed in the past tense, or will I always be transforming, better and better until I die?”
what i love most about this collection is how effortlessly Machado blends tender sexuality with visceral emotional and physical violence. its the clear engine behind each of these stories and that fusion is what gives each of them so much life. i also love how sustained the magical realism is across all the stories, but at times it felt TOO magical to the point where i would lose my connection to the characters or the plot. “Especially Heinous” and “The Resident” are two stories that i think had so much going on that i struggled to stay focused with the story. still, its the sort of roughness and ambition that i love seeing in debut works, even if it doesnt make for the smoothest reading experience. this is a great collection, but i think i liked processing these stories more than i liked reading some of them if that makes sense. i definitely saw how she built on this collection with In The Dream House which to me is a much more precise work that does a better job of finding clear ways of grounding the same magic thats present here. good book overall! i think the first three stories and “real women have bodies” are particularly great. would recommend !
what i love most about this collection is how effortlessly Machado blends tender sexuality with visceral emotional and physical violence. its the clear engine behind each of these stories and that fusion is what gives each of them so much life. i also love how sustained the magical realism is across all the stories, but at times it felt TOO magical to the point where i would lose my connection to the characters or the plot. “Especially Heinous” and “The Resident” are two stories that i think had so much going on that i struggled to stay focused with the story. still, its the sort of roughness and ambition that i love seeing in debut works, even if it doesnt make for the smoothest reading experience. this is a great collection, but i think i liked processing these stories more than i liked reading some of them if that makes sense. i definitely saw how she built on this collection with In The Dream House which to me is a much more precise work that does a better job of finding clear ways of grounding the same magic thats present here. good book overall! i think the first three stories and “real women have bodies” are particularly great. would recommend !