Where genre bending could feel gimmicky, the use of experimental form and nods to troupes within the many experiments feel one step ahead of tacky. The Cuban-American author is no stranger to genre experiments, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop graduate’s latest book ‘In the Dream House’, a memoir about an abusive relationship, is told and retold in various genres from lesbian pulp novel to stoner comedy. Machado uses genre mashups to her absolute advantage, flitting between horror, sci-fi, fan fiction and psychological realism to terrifying avail on the right side of camp. Cutting stories between 90s American suburbia and a burrowing insect infestation with sharp social commentary. Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection takes the folk tales of childhood and paints them in millennial punk rock bisexual acid tones for our reading pleasure. These words uttered from the first story of ‘Her Body and Other Parties’ may be the collection’s most apt as it kicks off a spooky queer chain letter of eerie secrets in shopping malls, folk horror, creepy Hitchcock-esque artists retreats, nightmares and TV shows retold with the familiarity of ghost stories that is near impossible to put down.
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