Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

29 reviews

cianarae's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I read this entire book in one sitting and could not put it down. It’s beautiful, tragic, splintered, poetic, visceral, unique. I loved the references to movies and books throughout that really gave context to the author’s thoughts and experiences. I want to share this book with everyone I know!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

saintsunshine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

Deeply engaging and often emotionally challenging, Carmen Maria Machado has crafted a wholely unique memoir in In the Dream House. Machado places her story of domestic abuse amid historical and cultural contexts that often ignores queer women. Dream House is as informative as it is personal, and I deeply enjoyed it. Though difficult to get through at times, Machado's poignant memoir will likely become a classic in the genre in years to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Drug use, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

pirate's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Minor: Death, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

marabdelmageed's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

mallory10100's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

5.0

wow this book was amazing. heartbreaking yet quick. i highly recommend. i really liked the unique format. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Vomit, Dementia, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

this book really doesn’t feel like non fiction, but it’s a chilling true story and i highly recommend it

rashi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

5.0

I have found it difficult to put this narrative into words. All I can say is that I really felt it, not just the big bad stuff but all those small moments that seem to tally up into your psyche and be the most difficult parts to shake. I’m grateful for her willingness to share. For some reason I can’t rate this 5 stars and I’m not sure why.

Update: this has been moved to a 5 star rating out of sheer will, because I don’t know what else to do with my thoughts about it. Will have to read it again and maybe revise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

5.0

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I feel weird about rating nonfiction, but I'm giving this book five stars anyway because I loved it so much.

I know this won't be for everyone. If you don't like experimental writing or you're not already familiar with queer theory or queer history to some extent, this book isn't a great starting point.

But if you know that you like those things and you want an examination of queer abuse—specifically abusive sapphic relationships and the archival silence that surrounds them—you should definitely read this book.

Certain chapters felt like crawling into my own brain if I'd lived different experiences, which was very surreal.

Carmen Maria Machado was already a favorite author for me after Her Body and Other Parties, but she's even more of one now. I love what she does with her writing, and I can't wait to read more of it.

2023 REREAD THOUGHTS:

This hurts now. When I read this the first time, a lot of stuff resonated, but mostly I found it brilliant on the level of structure. I thought it was doing brilliant and important work. I still do, for sure, but now I’ve been in an abusive queer relationship, and reading this was very very painful. I’m honestly not sure why I did this to myself. Hopefully, maybe, it will help. We’ll see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Death, Fatphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I found it. The perfect memoir. The writing throughout this entire book is so beautiful even while describing the most harrowing details that I couldn't believe I was allowed to read it. It is beautiful and horrifying. There is also a lot of important commentary throughout about how women can easily be monsters in lesbian relationships, that abusive relationships are not exclusively a heterosexual phenomenon and the myth of the "lesbian utopia" is just that, myth. In reality, lesbian relationships have the capability to be just as toxic as any other relationship, that we should believe queer women when they come forward with their stories and not dismiss them. Abuse is abuse, be the perpetrator a man, woman, or gender nonconforming. I think this one is gonna stay with me for a really really long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

sweetmusic22's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I thought this was an amazingly beautiful and tough book. It destroyed this narrative that all queer relationships weren't abusive. This is a rare story for me because I never knew that domestic abuse can happen in same sex relationships. In The Dream House was just so powerful and poetically beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Abandonment