{"id":1009,"date":"2026-03-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2026-03-25T18:55:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:55:49","slug":"dream-house-as-book-review-a-review-of-carmen-maria-machados-in-the-dream-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/2026\/03\/18\/dream-house-as-book-review-a-review-of-carmen-maria-machados-in-the-dream-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream House as Book Review: A Review of Carmen Maria Machado’s “In the Dream House”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reviewed by Abby Lavery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nonfiction | Memoir. 272 pages. Graywolf Press. Available here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carmen Maria Machado\u2019s In the Dream House<\/em> is more than a memoir; it dissects queer history, repurposes literary structures and tropes, and masters the use of setting, all while skillfully pushing against the boundaries of genre through fractured chapters spanning anywhere from a sentence to a dozen pages. The narrative centers on Machado\u2019s abusive relationship with an unnamed woman, focusing on her responses to the manipulation and, eventually, how she comes to find her freedom. She tells her story through fragmented reflections, flashbacks, and scenes; each chapter is titled \u201cDream House as<\/em>\u2026\u201d followed by the topic of the section, examples being \u201cDream House as<\/em> D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu\u201d (a chapter title that appears three times over the course of the memoir) or \u201cDream House as<\/em> Heat Death of the Universe.\u201d Some chapters are lighthearted, some quite the opposite, and Machado weaves them all together in a way that reflects the ups and downs of her relationship with her unnamed abuser. Machado ensures the cohesiveness of her musings by connecting her chapters through recurring themes and images, filling in the gaps in her narrative with allusions and careful research. <\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort Machado has put into her research is clear, especially in her sections devoted to uncovering queer history. One of her first sections discusses the concept of the abused woman and how \u201cit\u2014and she\u2014did not exist until about fifty years ago,\u201d which she follows by mentioning how \u201cthe conversation about domestic abuse within queer communities is even newer.\u201d She writes about the idea of queer villains and her simultaneous love for their theatricality, juxtaposed against her understanding that \u201cthe system of coding\u201d is problematic in \u201cthe way villainy and queerness become kind of shorthand for each other.\u201d On queer villains, she concludes that she appreciates their moral complexity, as it suggests that being queer is not \u201cequal good or pure or right\u201d but that it is \u201csimply a state of being.\u201d Some of Machado\u2019s research is specific to the experiences of women in queer spaces, like in the chapter \u201cDream House as<\/em> Ambiguity,\u201d which identifies \u201cthe curse of queer women\u2014eternal liminality.\u201d Machado does not shy away from critiquing the queer community\u2019s tendency to ignore toxicity as a result of minority anxiety, which creates the pressure to be pefect and any failure is perceived as reinforcing stereotypes (\u201cif you\u2019re not careful, someone will see you\u2014or people who share your identity\u2014doing something human and use it against you.\u201d) Her own doubts and hesistances shine through as she asserts rather sarcastically that \u201cwomen who were women<\/em> did not abuse their girlfriends; proper lesbians would would never do such a thing.\u201d Her role as a queer woman gives her the space to make these criticisms, and Machado takes the opportunity to back up her own experiences with research to prove that her story is not unique.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machado also pays homage to her background as a writer with sections that play with literary genre, structure, and tropes. She begins with an overture declaring that she hates prologues, followed by a prologue. One of her first chapters\u2014\u201cDream House as<\/em> Picaresque\u201d\u2014sets the narrative form for the memoirs, as a picaresque is an episodic story that typically involves travel and that follows a flawed by likable protagonist. Her awareness of story structures allows her to play with form; she titles her chapters with \u201cDream House as <\/em>Inciting Incident\u201d and \u201cDream House as <\/em>Plot Twist\u201d to show precisely those devices. She messes with genre, too, having a chapter titled \u201cDream House as <\/em>Bildungsroman\u201d that details her \u201ccoming-of-age\u201d story when it comes to love and \u201cDream House as<\/em> Choose Your Own Adventure,\u201d a section that allows the reader to make choices from Machado\u2019s life, all of which, of course, lead to a singular outcome. Her understanding of genre allows her to frame her life through other lenses, like fantasies, murder mysteries, spy thrillers, and romance novels, and demonstrates her literary prowess. <\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machado uses the same techniques with common literary tropes, representing her life as a series of clich\u00e9 yet nuanced events. She remains true to some of these tropes, like in her chapter \u201cDream House as<\/em> a Stranger Comes to Town,\u201d acts as a second inciting incident, and \u201cDream House as <\/em>Meet the Parents,\u201d where she, as expected, meets her girlfriend\u2019s parents. Other tropes she skillfully subverts, an example being \u201cDream House as <\/em>Star-Crossed Lovers,\u201d when her girlfriend asks (demands, really) that they be polyamorous, or \u201cDream House as<\/em> Mystical Pregnancy,\u201d in which there is no true pregnancy but rather the fear of \u201cthe radical body modification that is pregnancy.\u201d Again, this masterful usage of tropes and clich\u00e9s illustrates Machado\u2019s experience as a reader and a writer, which plays a central role in her recovery process.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final recurring theme is more subtle: Machado frequently titles her chapters after settings. In some way, this is a reference to dislocation, which Machado defines as a common abuse tactic where the victim \u201cis made vulnerable by her circumstance, her isolation. Her only ally is her abuser, which is to say she has no ally at all.\u201d Settings also play into the \u201cpicaresque\u201d style of fiction, as it often involves large amounts of travel, which, by default, requires various locations. However, Machado also clarifies that \u201cplaces are never just places in a piece of writing\u201d and \u201csetting is not inert.\u201d Some of her settings are real-life locations (\u201cDream House as<\/em> Cottage in Washington\u201d and \u201cDream House as<\/em> 9 Thornton Square\u201d) while others are metaphorical (\u201cDream House as <\/em>Inner Sanctum\u201d and \u201cDream House as<\/em> Sanctuary). Her focus on setting feels reminiscent of Jane Eyre<\/em>\u2014and many other beloved classics\u2014in the importance placed on settings. Then again, the memoir is titled In the Dream House<\/em>; the reader is introduced to the main \u201csetting\u201d of Machado\u2019s story before they even pick up the book. In the Dream House<\/em> is a genre-bending memoir written as an act of healing. Machado\u2019s vulnerability is striking, and her knowledge of literary structures and tropes allows her to push against the boundaries of what is expected of a memoir with masterful precision. Her message is powerful and laced with warnings. \u201cA reminder, perhaps,\u201d Machado says, \u201cthat abusers do not need to be, and rarely are, cackling maniacs. They just need to want something, and not care how they get it.\u201d<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abby is a third-year English, creative writing, and history student at Lebanon Valley College. She can usually be found reading, writing, or yearning for a fantastical adventure. You can follow her creative journey on Instagram at @abbyaceofbooks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Abby Lavery Carmen Maria Machado\u2019s In the Dream House is more than a memoir; it dissects queer history, repurposes literary structures and tropes, and masters the use of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,6],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abby-lavery","tag-book-review","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}