Bookshop.org Affiliate Link I read this during Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon in the last hour before I went to sleep, and I think this is a perfect choice for a horror graphic novel to read on an October night. El and Vee are two queer teens living in the small town of Shudder-To-Think. As theyRead More
Meagan Kimberly reviews Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
In this collection of short stories, Carmen Maria Machado does what skilled horror writers do best: she examines real-world beliefs through a lens that highlights that real horror isn’t monsters, but our own societies. This collection grapples with the trauma and horror women and women’s bodies are put through by a patriarchal society that wantsRead More
Bringing the Lesbian Vampire Home: Carmen Maria Machado’s Reclamation of CARMILLA
Carmilla is a lesbian vampire story that predates Dracula by decades. It’s a story I’ve come back to over and over, in the same conflicted way that I am drawn to lesbian pulp. In fact, I wrote a post about queer culture’s tendency to reclaim toxic representation, and how Carmilla and lesbian pulp fits into that. On the one hand, it’sRead More
Danika reviews In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Trigger warning: This review discusses emotional abuse. I have been simultaneously excited for and dreading reading In the Dream House since I first heard of its existence. I absolutely loved Her Body and Other Parties as well as Machado’s edition of Carmilla, so those put her books on my automatic must read list. This memoir, though, is about aRead More
Danika reviews Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado
The act of interacting with text—that is to say, of reading—is that of inserting one’s self into what is static and unchanging so that it might pump with fresh blood. Having read this introduction, I hope you will enter into Carmilla thusly, using your fingertips and mouth and mind to locate the lacunae where LeFanuRead More
Danika reviews Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
What a book. What a journey. Her Body and Other Parties is a short story collection that blends feminism, queerness, and fabulism into a haunting read. I have to say, when I saw this book included on queer book lists, I kept my expectations low. I was already sold on reading it (feminism & fabulism &Read More