In the Dream House

I am not really a Memoir person. Maybe because I find reading about somebody else's life rather daunting; are they being truthful either in a negative way to make themselves look better or purposefully holding back information that may harm? And I usually only see memoirs from celebrities that I truly do not care about.* However,this was a whole experience in a roughly 2200-pagebook about emotional abuse in a same gender relationship. And it was harrowing, and heartbreaking, and sometimes a little funny ,ut dread seeped it's way in though some of the early chapters. And it is told in such a unique way.

Many of the chapters are told in second person, with us as the reader directly in the authors shoes, one time we were an squid. Each chapter is told, for a lack of a better way to phrase it, in a different lense or writing style or topic all starting Dream House as. One chapter is Dream House as Famous Last Words, the ex girlfriend asking for a physical relationship but wanting nothing more and is a scentence of dialouge, another is Dream House as Queer Villany going over the authors thoughts, as well as providing context through film, of queer coded villains, as well as the history of the term “gaslighting.” Another chapter handles the limited history that is currently available of court cases regarding queer women in abusive relationships.

Dream House as a Choose Your Own Adventure made me feel like I was drowning and hated every second of it.

Dream House as Unexpected Kindess made me cry.

Dream House felt very personal to me, but for different reasons I won't go into here. But having her voice the thoughts that sometimes to show people that hey it was real I have photos to prove it! But you can't do that with the emotional damage that she received is just crushing.

I would reccomend this to everyone to read, but please look Into any TW for this book before doing so.