On the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the book received a cumulative 'Rave' rating based on 44 reviews: 32 'Rave' reviews and 12 'Positive' reviews. After Machado and the 'woman in the dream house' broke up, Machado got in touch with Howlett and the two later got married in 2017. Eventually, woman broke up with Howlett to pursue a monogamous relationship with Machado. At first, the woman dated both Machado and Howlett. Val Howlett: Both Carmen Maria Machado and Val Howlett dated the woman who provoked the memoir In The Dream House. Throughout the work, the woman in the dream house abuses Machado however, she is never directly named.

The 'woman in the dream house': This woman is Machado’s ex-girlfriend in the book. The book is told from her perspective as she recounts her memories of her relationship. She goes on to discuss instances with her previous lovers, leading up to meeting and falling in love with 'the woman in the dream house' who domestically abused her.Ĭarmen Maria Machado: Machado is the person the text is centered on. Machado then elaborates on experiences in her childhood and environment while growing up.

In the first chapter, Machado reflects on her childhood years and tells a story about her time in grade school. Carmen shares a small two-bedroom apartment with her roommates John and Laura. In the Dream House begins with Carmen Maria Machado's living situation in Iowa City prior to her meeting the Dream House woman. The author never directly names her abuser and only refers to her as 'the woman in the dream house'. Machado utilizes a different narrative trope for each chapter. It is predominantly a second-person narrative, with Machado referring to her victimized self as 'you'. The book details Machado's emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive relationship with another woman while studying for her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in Iowa City, Iowa. It was also longlisted for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The book was awarded the 2021 Folio Prize and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction. It was published on November 5, 2019, by Graywolf Press. In the Dream House is a memoir by Carmen Maria Machado.

Carmen maria machado in the dreamhouse