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A review by lolajh
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It’s hard to rate this because I found some of the stories, like Real Women Have Bodies, Inventory, and Mothers, so memorable and good, whilst the rest were either not as memorable, very difficult to read, boring, or just unappealing.
The Husband Stitch was predictable for me mainly because I am familiar with the ribbon story, and I get what the story was trying to do by making the husband the physical embodiment of every unlikeable quality a man could ever have, but it just ended up irritating me that the main character continued to be with him. I would have loved to see more women with ribbons as I’m intrigued on whether their location affects the outcome of pulling it off, like if that woman in the story with a ribbon around her ankle wouldstill have her head fall off from it being pulled off
Inventory I loved, as it was a story told through each of the main character’s sexual encounters throughout her lifetime, and still manages to convey a post-apocalyptic setting of a deadly virus spreading over the world whilst portraying various types of relationship partners that exist, such as those who are respectful and use consent, or those that are violent and manipulative and don’t i.e. literal rapists. The main character’s resilience through it all and the fact that she continues to have relationships with people throughout the apocalypse without letting it get to her enough to give up was really nice to see. And even through her relationships with both men and women, there were never instances of homophobia to be the factors breaking the pair up, which was lovely.
Mothers opened with two cisgendered lesbians somehow conceiving of a child, followed by looking back at the pair’s relationship and its eventual toxicity. I loved this one, but I have to be honest, “My uterus contracted in protest“ sounds so much like it was written by a man and I do hate it I’m sorry.
Especially Heinous was the only story not in first person from the persective of a woman, and was a rather confusing mess of a psychological horror twist being put onto each episode of Law and Order SVU, which just felt totally like a fever dream and would maybe be enjoyable if it was readable and not based on Law and Order SVU maybe? Like the ghosts and hallucinations and overall insanity things were so cool, but impossible to piece together in a way that made sense.
Real Women Have Bodies. Wow. The ‘fading body’ malady was done in a way that made it so creepily good, and portraying it in a very modern context allows for the darker plot points likedresses being sewn onto the faded women, and the condition spreading to the romantic partner of the main character made it a scary and reflective tragedy, which I loved.
I could hardly read Eight Bites; it was way too heavy on eating disorder themes, and so I could hardly review the content as every page I found myself having to skip several graphic paragraphs.
The last two stories were okay, but not at all memorable for me. The Resident reminded me slightly of Plain Bad Heroines at first, which I liked, but Difficult at Parties was far too sexual-assault graphic for me, and its whole plot is about being able to hear the thoughts of the actors in porn that the main character was watching was hardly as eerie as the other stories.
The Husband Stitch was predictable for me mainly because I am familiar with the ribbon story, and I get what the story was trying to do by making the husband the physical embodiment of every unlikeable quality a man could ever have, but it just ended up irritating me that the main character continued to be with him. I would have loved to see more women with ribbons as I’m intrigued on whether their location affects the outcome of pulling it off, like if that woman in the story with a ribbon around her ankle would
Inventory I loved, as it was a story told through each of the main character’s sexual encounters throughout her lifetime, and still manages to convey a post-apocalyptic setting of a deadly virus spreading over the world whilst portraying various types of relationship partners that exist, such as those who are respectful and use consent, or those that are violent and manipulative and don’t i.e. literal rapists. The main character’s resilience through it all and the fact that she continues to have relationships with people throughout the apocalypse without letting it get to her enough to give up was really nice to see. And even through her relationships with both men and women, there were never instances of homophobia to be the factors breaking the pair up, which was lovely.
Mothers opened with two cisgendered lesbians somehow conceiving of a child, followed by looking back at the pair’s relationship and its eventual toxicity. I loved this one, but I have to be honest, “My uterus contracted in protest“ sounds so much like it was written by a man and I do hate it I’m sorry.
Especially Heinous was the only story not in first person from the persective of a woman, and was a rather confusing mess of a psychological horror twist being put onto each episode of Law and Order SVU, which just felt totally like a fever dream and would maybe be enjoyable if it was readable and not based on Law and Order SVU maybe? Like the ghosts and hallucinations and overall insanity things were so cool, but impossible to piece together in a way that made sense.
Real Women Have Bodies. Wow. The ‘fading body’ malady was done in a way that made it so creepily good, and portraying it in a very modern context allows for the darker plot points like
I could hardly read Eight Bites; it was way too heavy on eating disorder themes, and so I could hardly review the content as every page I found myself having to skip several graphic paragraphs.
The last two stories were okay, but not at all memorable for me. The Resident reminded me slightly of Plain Bad Heroines at first, which I liked, but Difficult at Parties was far too sexual-assault graphic for me, and its whole plot is about being able to hear the thoughts of the actors in porn that the main character was watching was hardly as eerie as the other stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death, and Sexual violence