In the Dream House

Although this book is about so, so much more, the premise itself pulled me in—I mean, a memoir about an abusive lesbian relationship? Yes, please.

But of course, Carmen Maria Machado, with her incredibly lyrical prose and frighteningly sharp intellect, takes the memoir form and turns it into something unique and surprising, a reflection on her relationship that somehow involves cultural history, film, fairy-tales and even—I kid you not—Disney’s The Little Mermaid. I was so moved and learned so much that I read it twice within a month.

Until I read In the Dream House, I thought books had rules. Carmen Maria Machado expanded my understanding of storytelling with her intensely poetic, genre-bending memoir about enduring an abusive queer relationship while having no language for what was happening to her.

I was moved, shocked, tickled, uplifted, and moved again in rapid succession. Her diction shifts from colloquial to epic and back again at a speed that took my breath away but always brought me along for the ride. I wanted to hold this book’s tiny chapters under a microscope to better appreciate all the intricate beauty packed… show more.

This book smashed everything I thought about memoirs into pieces. Here is a vivid retelling of an abusive relationship that grabbed me not only with its pain but with its form.

From chapter to chapter, Machado hops and skips through genres, utilizing a treasure trove of styles and formats to evoke the best and worst parts of her experience. It’s a masterful experiment that works on every page. That achievement in and of itself makes this book worthwhile.

But also factor in that it’s a queer story. It’s a groundbreaking narrative that never forgets all of the elements that arise… show more.

Carmen Maria Machado’s fiction kicked open the back of my skull. But In the Dream House, her devastating memoir about psychological and domestic abuse, engaged me on such a primal, physical, and emotional level.

It is profoundly engaging—each chapter takes the form of a different narrative trope, so we read about abuse through the lens of a haunted house, or a choose-your-own-adventure story—but also deeply felt and socially necessary. Just when I felt the need to look away, Machado would do something so narratively brilliant that I was drawn in all over again.

The book is a testament to the… show more.

This memoir is told in a unique and gripping way. The chapters are short, creating the effect of a fragmented memory piecing together the trajectory of an abusive relationship. Though heavy in its topic, I couldn’t put the book down.

The intimate moments captured are so poignant that my breath is physically caught many times over. Machado’s writing is stunning.

The author, who visited one of my classes this past spring (a thrill for us all!), writes about an abusive love affair in a series of short prose-poem-style vignettes about what happens when a relationship falls short of our romantic fantasies. I love she draws in creepy fairy tales such as “Bluebeard,” among other made-up stories with true emotional cores. 

This raw and heartbreaking memoir is told in prose that is sometimes stark, sometimes lush, and always riveting. It is a story of domestic abuse that especially highlights the way an abuser can affect so much more than your physical health. The dream house Machado speaks of is a haunted house in and of itself, a metaphorical place that the abuser has infiltrated, its unwelcome and ever-present guest. This is not an easy read, but it has stayed with me long after I finished its last page. 

The other books are fiction but this one is a memoir. If there is such a thing as a magic realist memoir, In the Dream House is it. It's a poetic account of an abusive queer relationship with one woman in love and one woman in control. Each tiny chapter has a quirky title: "Dream House as Memory Palace." "Dream House as Telenovela." But over time I paid more attention to the story and less to the titles and I found myself being drawn deeper into the narrative. I kept my eyes peeled for the abuse but it was… show more.