Karen Nordrum of our Tamworth Branch recently read In the Dream House, a heart-wrenching memoir by Her Body and Other Stories author Carmen Maria Machado. Here is Karen's review:

In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s heart-wrenching account of a relationship gone bad, and a candid and compelling 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.

A reminder to remember: just because the sharpness of the sadness has faded does not mean that it was not, once, terrible. It means only that time and space, creatures of infinite girth and tenderness, have stepped between the two of you, and they are keeping you safe as they were once unable to.

This memoir would be a great read-alike for other emotional intense memoirs such as Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett.

Reserve it here from the digital library