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

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House is elusive and defiant in so many ways. Packaged as "memoir" yet it clearly chucks the idea of it solely as one when it sits in a genre limbo. Machado researches and comes up against evidence of queer domestic abuse similar to her own experience yet the world still gets confused, and at times even downright refuses, the idea of a woman inflicting abuse on their partner, another woman. I, myself, marvel at all the feelings this book has evoked in me--stomach churning fear, relief, confusion, surprise, confusion again, bewilderment, not wanting to read on but simultaneously not wanting to flinch and unable to look away. Despite the stew of confusion and seeming half-formed understanding, it was clear very early on that this book is a 5 star, that Machado is a brilliant writer, and that I will not be able to not think about this book for a long time. Also, that I will reread this one day. It's like the thrill of reading horror or watching it and its effects after it's over, the inescapable haunting: what will I see/imagine/hear/dream up once I close my eyes?
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