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A review by max63815
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
reflective
5.0
There are so many full chapters that I’d love to not just quote, but fully excerpt.
Dream house as lesbian cult classic. Dream house as dreamboat. Dream house as noir. Dream house as house in florida. Dream house as fantasy. Dream house as ambiguity. Dream house as natural disaster. Dream house as unexpected kindness. Dream house as Schrödinger’s cat. Dream house as self-help best seller. And more, and more, and more.
Essentially, the whole book.
One quote I will pull is from Dream House as Fantasy, as someone who has needed to hear it:
Dream house as lesbian cult classic. Dream house as dreamboat. Dream house as noir. Dream house as house in florida. Dream house as fantasy. Dream house as ambiguity. Dream house as natural disaster. Dream house as unexpected kindness. Dream house as Schrödinger’s cat. Dream house as self-help best seller. And more, and more, and more.
Essentially, the whole book.
One quote I will pull is from Dream House as Fantasy, as someone who has needed to hear it:
Acknowledging the insufficiency of this [queer] idealism is nearly as painful as acknowledging that we’re the same as straight folks in this regard: we’re in the muck like everyone else. All of this fantasy is an act of supreme optimism, or, if you’re feeling less charitable, arrogance.
Maybe this will change someday. Maybe, when queerness is so normal and accepted that finding it will feel less like entering paradise and more like the claiming of your own body: imperfect, but yours.