Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

172 reviews

bchantele15's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

kheinekamp's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Violence

buttercat42's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

Somewhat difficult to get into at first, and then impossible to put down. I love the fragmented format and found it very readable. The writing was deliciously intelligent. An important queer story I didn’t know I needed. One quibble— of course I understand the importance of the more educational passsges at the end, but they felt poorly incorporated with the rest of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol and Homophobia

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow. I don't know how to adequately describe this book. It was beautifully written and explores the important topic of abusive relationships and, more specifically, queer abusive relationships, though Machado's recollection of her experiences interspersed with commentary on literature, media and a societal perception of what constitutes as abuse. The short chapters made it easy to get through, which balanced out the heavy topic matter. PLEASE check your trigger warnings before reading this, but it was a very powerful and important read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

rahrahjay's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault

bibliophage_teamage's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative reflective sad tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

17kmcollins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

harrimyers's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

i am absolutely overcome with emotion. i cant say i’ve read many memoirs but this was maybe one of the most imaginative, deeply feeling and evocative approaches to a memoir i’ve ever come across. every piece of description and dialogue was so heart-wrenchingly personal and impactful.

Spoiler

the academic tone that underlined some of the chapters mixed with machados introspection and detail of her own experiences was a beautiful, haunting, and sensitive choice. the tone remained strong all the way through and the choice to advocate throughout this book was done very well. the metaphors, literary choices, and overall approach were just fantastic. the sources she used, the media that she critiqued and used to tell her own story along side of it were beautifully picked and j now have a list of essays, movies, and topics to go through. the choice to format each chapter in short vignettes centred around one theme, motif or technique was brilliant and i especially loved the use of footnotes to the folklore motif reference book, as reading them following the passage only heightened the point she was trying to make. some of these footnotes were so powerful, even if the reference was only 2 words. one that stood out to me was when she was describing her inability to masturbate, and she likened it to the motif of ‘losing magic power’, alongside the themes of sexual relation and her own acknowledged high sex drive and the power she personally got from sex, was a really insightful choice. 

the last two lines of thr acknowledgement. were beautiful. and i’m so grateful to have read this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

scifi_rat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

Minor: Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Biphobia, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cursing, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Torture

fi_nikki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Child abuse, and Sexual assault