In this groundbreaking memoir, Carmen Maria Machado recounts her experience of falling in love — and then being trapped — in an abusive same-sex relationship. Told through a kaleidoscope of narrative forms, In the Dream House transforms memory into myth, blending the real and the surreal to explore the ways trauma takes shape and lingers in the body.

Each chapter becomes a room in the “dream house,” a shifting space where love curdles into fear and obsession. Through fierce honesty and inventive storytelling, Machado confronts the silence surrounding queer domestic abuse and reclaims her own story from its shadows.

Brilliant, unsettling, and profoundly human, In the Dream House is both a memoir and a revolution in form — a powerful meditation on storytelling, survival, and the courage it takes to name what haunts us.