A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it’s that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope—the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman—through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

One of the most notable things about Machado's memoir to us was how often we had to remind ourselves it was true. Machado uses a number of techniques to destabilize the reader: jumping around in time, entering scenes without context, breaking the narrative up with thought pieces and essays. All of this led us to question her and try to extrapolate and explain, which we believed is exactly the troubling position she wants the reader to occupy. We all agreed it was a devastating look at what domestic violence is, not just in lesbian relationships (which we observed is a very underreported topic), but as a uniquely powerful look at what emotional abuse can be. We made a lot of the title, and talked about how 'dream house' is such powerful multifaceted metaphor -- a house you dream about, an unreal place, a thing you need to wake up from. It was impossible to read this book and not talk about personal experiences with abuse, and that perhaps is the most potent thing about In the Dream House. Machado's honest storytelling and skillful observations make her extremely sympathetic, even when you don't understand why she took the actions she did, and that paints a picture of abuse that is impossible to ignore. We simply couldn't praise this book enough. If you are at all interested in how troubled relationships manifest or what the mindset of someone in an abused situation could be, this is an essential read.