Reviews

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado

ninawinter's review against another edition

4.0

Oft erwarten wir von Romanen eine eindeutige Botschaft, doch diese acht Erzählungen zeichnet gerade das Uneindeutige aus.

Die Autorin erzählt von Gefährdungen und Zurichtungen, Begehren und Lust, und all das aus einer queeren Perspektive.

So richtig weiß ich nicht, wie ich dieses Buch bewerten soll, aber ich denke ständig darüber nach und das ist auch eine Kunst für sich.

liznank's review

5.0

painful queer experiences told through surrealist epic poems and campfire stories (emphasis on CAMP) obviously I love it

reviews_with_rach's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

ephilips23's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A

3.5

sharktownwoman's review

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was eerie and unusual in a wow-some way. I read it before bed and found myself dreaming of patriarchal horrors. This book creatively illuminated the exacting toll of beauty standards & other pressures on women's bodies, and it also explored the complicated experience of pleasure. Overall a great, if discomfiting, read about the messiness of living in a body in this world.

phire's review

4.0

How do you rate a book that was spellbinding from start to finish, and that you never ever want to read again because it filled you with an unspecified sense of dread that you couldn’t shake the entire three months it took you to read it?

ashleyb19's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

skoppelkam's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Why did I put off reading this for so long? It's an incredible short story collection, and I loved it nearly as much as I loved "In the Dream House." The characters are complex, the plotlines creepy, the structures creative, and the influences vast. It's really cool to see some of the foundations of "Dream House" in stories like "Especially Heinous" and "Mothers." "The Husband Stitch" was a masterful reference to "The Green Ribbon," a story everyone from my generation read and was haunted by. Machado is certainly one of my favorite contemporary writers, and I'll read whatever she does next immediately. 

shanleonie's review

4.0

I still often think about this book even 10 months later

jesperfaheyluvr's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0