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mediaevalmuse 's review for:
Her Body and Other Parties
by Carmen Maria Machado
This book came up on a recommended page or something, so I borrowed it from my library. I was intrigued by the proposed feminist themes and was curious as to how the supernatural elements would manifest. Overall, I did enjoy this collection; the stories were strange enough to keep me wondering, and the writing was evocative. I do think some of the themes could have been pushed a bit more, so for that reason, this collection gets 4 stars from me.
WRITING: Machado's prose doesn't change enough between stories where I think I can confidently comment on it, but I can say that overall, I enjoyed the style. Machado has a knack for forging compelling metaphors and vivid descriptions; I particularly liked comparisons that were unexpected or featured images I wouldn't normally put together.
PLOT: Since this is a short story collection, there are a number of different narratives. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to go through all of them. I do think that for each tale, Machado gives us a premise that makes readers want to dig in, and she sits a wonderful job of weaving feminist themes into her work.
I do think, however, that those themes (and others) could have hit a little harder. There are a few stories where I walked away wandering a bit more, like Machado was building towards something and then left the reader hanging. I don't mean that I want every story explained to me - there's enough ambiguity in these stories to allow the reader to piece together things for themselves. But some of the themes could have hit much harder.
CHARACTERS: I'm not going to go over every character, and many of them are unnamed, so things could get confusing real fast. But I will say that I think Machado does a good job taking us into the minds of her narrators and protagonists. The characters felt real and multi-faceted, and I liked the psychological realism blended with the sense that maybe things aren't quite right.
TL;DR: Her Body and Other Parties is a well- crafted short story collection that blends psychological realism with unsettling - perhaps even supernatural - worlds. While I do think Machado could have pushed the themes in her stories more for greater empirical impact, there was enough to keep me invested in the characters and just the right amount of ambiguity to leave me puzzling things out for myself.
WRITING: Machado's prose doesn't change enough between stories where I think I can confidently comment on it, but I can say that overall, I enjoyed the style. Machado has a knack for forging compelling metaphors and vivid descriptions; I particularly liked comparisons that were unexpected or featured images I wouldn't normally put together.
PLOT: Since this is a short story collection, there are a number of different narratives. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to go through all of them. I do think that for each tale, Machado gives us a premise that makes readers want to dig in, and she sits a wonderful job of weaving feminist themes into her work.
I do think, however, that those themes (and others) could have hit a little harder. There are a few stories where I walked away wandering a bit more, like Machado was building towards something and then left the reader hanging. I don't mean that I want every story explained to me - there's enough ambiguity in these stories to allow the reader to piece together things for themselves. But some of the themes could have hit much harder.
CHARACTERS: I'm not going to go over every character, and many of them are unnamed, so things could get confusing real fast. But I will say that I think Machado does a good job taking us into the minds of her narrators and protagonists. The characters felt real and multi-faceted, and I liked the psychological realism blended with the sense that maybe things aren't quite right.
TL;DR: Her Body and Other Parties is a well- crafted short story collection that blends psychological realism with unsettling - perhaps even supernatural - worlds. While I do think Machado could have pushed the themes in her stories more for greater empirical impact, there was enough to keep me invested in the characters and just the right amount of ambiguity to leave me puzzling things out for myself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore
Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Murder