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

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

A truly haunting book and so well done. She describes the mindset of being in an abusive relationship really well for people who haven’t had those experiences and give a lot of insight. I found the chapters weaving in information about queer history and media portrayals of abuse fascinating, and the author expertly applied those academic texts to her own life story adding to full reality of domestic abuse. The contrast of how she writes the initial romance chapters to the dark emotionally manipulative chapters of the relationship is so well executed and will stay with me for a long time. It’s so informative and insightful and heartbreaking and in some ways hopeful too. Brought me to tears highly recommend