I'm a big fan of short stories. Especially dark surrealist feminist ones. Carmen Maria Machado ticks all of these boxes and more. Her brand of unsettling horror reminds me a bit of 'The Dominant Animal' by Kathryn Scanlan, though Machado has more fleshed out stories and a greater breadth of narrative. I particularly enjoyed the bisexual/lesbian representation, and many of her stories were painfully personally relatable in how society (especially men) access and control women's bodies.

There were a couple of stories I don't think I really understood (Mothers and Difficult at parties), but I thought were good nonetheless. Contrary to most other peoples' reviews, I loved 'Especially Henious'! I found it worked well by reading through it very quickly, so you absorb everything all at once, rather than reflecting on each tiny individual entry. Like binge watching TV. My overall rating is an average taken from individual ratings, listed below. 

The four stories I rated the highest are probably notable in that they had less explicit sexual content. This may be a personal preference in where I'm at mentally now, but I'd also offer a small critique on this point. Although the sexually explicit content clearly serves a purpose in describing these acts of/against/to women and their bodies, I would like to see some attention given to women and their bodies beyond the sexual and reproductive. How else are they and their bodies exploited for labour or pleasure? How else are women maimed/limited e.g. through hyper-feminity such as false nails and long hair? How about a story about an asexual woman, is she seen as invisible because explicity because she is not sexual? (Thinking of 'Real women have bodies'). Overall, I'd recommend to feminists, LGBTQIA+, and fans of the disturbing short stories genre. 

The husband stitch 3.5⭐️
Inventory 4⭐️
Mothers 3⭐️
Especially heinous 4.5⭐️
Real women have bodies 4⭐️
Eight bites 4⭐️
The resident 4.5⭐️
Difficult at parties 3⭐️
=3.81 average