Book Review: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Book: 151

Rating: 5/5

Wow! What an absolutely exquisite book. I read this one in 24 hours, which is rare for me to do on a weeknight. So incredibly well thought out, but also so effortless on Machado's part. In her memoir, she uses various literary devices and tropes to tell her story of being in an abusive relationship with a woman. You have "In the Dream House as Murder Mystery", "In the Dream House as Plot Twist," "In the Dream House as Chekov's Gun", etc. etc. The chapters ranged from one sentence to six pages which made it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to put down.

This book consumed my life for the time I spent reading it. I couldn't stop thinking about her writing, storytelling, and what I was going to read next. Her writing is intoxicating and SO creative.

On top of her personal experiences and details of the abusive relationship, Machado also cites resources on same sex domestic abuse (focusing on women, because it's what she felt most comfortable writing about) because there is a lack of resources that compile all of this information. She did this in a really smooth way that only fleshed out her story.

I immediately ordered Her Body and Other Parties (her debut novel which is a collection of short stories), and can't wait to spend an evening with that one.