Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House (2019) is a unique and innovative memoir that chronicles Machado's abusive relationship with her abusive partner while studying for her Master of Fine Arts at a university in Iowa. In the memoir, which is told in the second person (a rarity in contemporary times), Machado refers to herself as "you" and her abuser as "the woman in the dream house."
Machado starts her memoir by describing the person she was -- and where she lived -- before the arrival of her abuser. She talks about her roommates, John and Laura, and how the two grew close to each other. Machado also discusses her childhood, her parents, her past relationships, and what shaped her into the person she was prior to meeting her abuser. Finally, Machado spends much of the book discussing her relationship with her abuser and how that abuse made her feel.
Reviews for In the Dream House were almost universally positive. Many critics were left stunned by what Kirkus Reviews called a "fiercely honest, imaginatively written, and necessary memoir from one of our great young writers." Publisher's Weekly felt similarly about the book. They called it "an affecting, chilling memoir about domestic abuse."
