In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

 

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado is part poetry, part memoir about being in an abusive lesbian relationship. Machado discusses just how isolating and traumatizing being in an abusive relationship is. She mentions how there is very little literature written about abusive women, how these stories are often overshadowed by abusive men. Machado brings a new perspective to the table by being open and honest about her experience with the unnamed woman.

I thought it was interesting how the genre changed with each chapter, as the author attempts to tell her story as many ways as she can. Sometimes it was a little difficult to follow, but I feel that it really adds to the hurt and confusion Machado must have felt. She is an incredibly brave individual for being able to share her story like this. Framing the memoir around the Dream House creates a powerful metaphor, allowing the reader to enter into Machado’s state of mind throughout the entire relationship.

Overall, I think this was an incredibly emotional novel to read and would highly recommend it to anyone who’s in the headspace to experience it. I’d personally rate this a 5/5.

  Quotes

• Page 24
• Part of the problem was, as a weird fat girl, you felt lucky.
• When you started writing about fatness- a long time ago, in your LiveJournal- a commenter said to you that you were pretty and smart and charming, but as long as you were zaftig you'd never have your choice of lovers. You remember feeling outrage, and then processing the reality, the practicality of what he'd said. You were so angry at the world.
• How many times had you said, “If I just looked a little different, I'd be drowning in love?” Now you got to drown without needing to change a single cell. Lucky you.
• Page 77
• Afterward, I would mourn her as if she'd died, because something had: something we had created together.
• Page 86
• You did something and now she's unhappy, and you need to find out what it is so she will stop being unhappy.
• Page 111
• Love cannot be won or lost; a relationship doesn't have a scoring system. We are partners, paired against the world. We cannot succeed if we are at odds with each other.
• Page 149
• That's just how it is. I cannot find what's missing.