Thank you so much @serpentstail for gifting me a copy of In The Dream House to read and review! I’m so happy to say that this incredible memoir broke my no-five-star-reads rut that I’ve been stuck in for over a month. With this one, there was no hesitation over how much I loved it and what I’d rate it, and I definitely think it’s one that needs to be on everyone’s radar!
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In the Dream House is Machado’s contribution to breaking the stifling wall of silence that still surrounds domestic abuse within queer relationships. Peeling back the layers of a past abusive relationship via a myriad of narrative lenses, Machado examines the stigma around women hurting other women, and why it’s so difficult for people to get their head around.
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This book is so damn clever, sometimes I’d read a paragraph and then read it again just to appreciate once more. The chapters are all very short yet bursting with intelligence and research paired with heartbreak and raw honesty. Some parts of it just punch you right in the stomach, like the one line chapter ‘Dream House as Epiphany’: ‘Most types of domestic abuse are completely legal.’ The surrounding white space of the page only heightens the slow horror of the sentence, the blank space speaking louder than more words would.
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I don’t think I’ll ever get over the ingenuity of the chapters with the footnotes sprinkled in, all displaying the folkloric traits Machado identifies in her own life. I’m so glad this book exists and that Machado has taken the brave step of opening up a dialogue about a topic that isn’t given enough attention or taken seriously enough. Just read it!
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And now I really need to get my hands on a copy of Her Body and Other Parties because I’m convinced of this woman’s genius!