In the Dream House cover art

In the Dream House

A Memoir

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In the Dream House

By: Carmen Maria Machado
Narrated by: Carmen Maria Machado
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About this listen

Nominated for The Rathbones Folio Prize.

In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Each chapter views the relationship through a different lens, as Machado holds events up to the light and examines them from distinct angles. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction, infusing all with her characteristic wit, playfulness and openness to enquiry. The result is a powerful book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

©2019 Carmen Maria Machado (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books LGBTQ+ Studies Lesbian Studies Memoir Heartfelt Dream

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Critic reviews

"A dark jewel reflecting something startling - familiar and strange." (Guardian)

"Ravishingly beautiful." (Observer)

"Excruciatingly honest and yet vibrantly creative." (Irish Times)
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I feel like the author must write or perform a lot of poetry. Hearing her read her own words brought a poetics to it that I'm not sure I would have picked up reading it myself - a beautiful and unique experience. Others have noted that the narrated intonation can be a bit flat at times but this didn't take away from it for me. As a survivor of trauma myself, I imagine it's hard to write a book like this, let alone read my experiences aloud for an audience. Brave, beautiful and brilliant - from one traumatised lesbian to another!

Fascinating structure and poetic writing

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I’ve never read a memoir quite like this. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, the structure of the book took me by surprise, but what a wonderful surprise.

The author’s use of language is a delight. This is a woman who knows words, who loves words, and uses them to paint a picture that is beautiful and horrifying and frightening and eye-opening and beautiful all over again.

The way the abuse unfolds is sinister, and almost camouflaged, and you can see it happening and as the reader you want to stop it, but you can’t, so you sit as a horrified and helpless spectator and watch it all play out. Wishing you could do something, anything, to help.

This is an incredibly brave and important piece of work. I feel honoured to have been able to read it.

Beautiful and heartbreaking

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As a queer woman who grew up with an emotional abusive parent this made me feel seen in many ways. I was worried it would be triggering but I didn’t find it so (just my personal case - always take caution!), and I actually found it healing in many ways. I listened to it in 2 days, I was gripped. Thank you for a beautifully written book!

Beautifully written

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An important book beautifully written. Really good portrayal of the silent and blood chilling reality of domestic violence in lesbian relationships.

Beautifully written

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Machado's writing and narration are both extraordinary, so to have them together is a special treat that cannot really be described, only spoken about in barely coherent shrieks because it is just that fucking good. listen to this book if you have broken heart. listen even if you haven't. listen for the exquisite, clever, sad, funny, terrifying prose. listen for yourself.

The best audiobook you will ever buy

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I absolutely adored Machado's story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, and her memoir and discussion of abuse in lesbian relationships is incredibly important, moving, and inspiring.

Haunting, Beautiful, and Heartbreaking

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Absolutely gorgeous book! Carmen reads it very well and I totally understand why she’d want to voice it but I feel like her vocal performance is a little same-y !!! Definitely got used to it though and the book has definitely shot right up to my top 10

Beautiful book

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Fantastic plot and beautifully written book. But the vocal fry and the reading cadence always with the same intonation at the end of every sentence made it impossible for me to listen to it. I'll pay for the paper version and I'll read it. I know every penny will be worth it, as it is, no doubt, a tremendous book.

Read, don't listen

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I know it’s the author narrating this, and I really admire her talent as a writer, but I don’t love her voice on this. It found it difficult to listen to for five hours - her narration style is very one note and also quite depressing.

I did love the book, but wish I’d bought a physical copy and read it that way, rather than listened to it on audible.

A section of this book was on the podcast This American Life, and the actor who read it did a great job. I could have done with that sort of narration reading the whole memoir.

A stunning memoir - but the narration wasn’t capturing

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Machado asks, “If a tree falls in the woods and pins a wood thrush to the earth, and she shrieks and shrieks but no one hears her, did she make a sound?”

My answer is that the woods are full of wood thrushes, and full of trees falling on them, and maybe if enough of us shriek then eventually the sound will be so loud that it can no longer be ignored by those who walk among the trees.

Thank you for having the courage to share your story, and for validating my experiences, albeit as a straight woman. You have given a voice to those too afraid to speak, and hope to those who are still inside their own Dream House.

Validating, heartbreaking, hopeful

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