In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

This is both harrowing and brave of the author to write this account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ‘petite, blond, Harvard graduate’ lover. It is equal parts horrifying and beguiling. It’s hard to describe exactly what this book is, because memoir does not capture the experience this slightly mind-bending retelling of two young, ambitious writers whose passionate relationship sours when one begins to subject the other to emotional and, at times, physical cruelty. But that doesn’t quite capture how it haunts the grey areas of abuse, how it alters the memoir form, or how like a dream it shapeshifts. It’s literature as gaslighting, taking the reader through the often painful and complex emotional experience that the author herself goes through. It ensnares and unsettles, tantalizes and haunts, and puts us all in the experience of begin abused. I wouldn't say I understand what it is like, but this book brings you one step closer to that knowledge.