Machado goes through several emotionally turbulent and brief breakups with her partner. Her partner is accepted to the Iowa MFA program and plans to move to Iowa City and live with Machado. Machado begins to daydream about death as it seems the only realistic escape for her. She struggles to find an example that coincides with her own experiences of abuse. She becomes increasingly isolated and, in parallel, increasingly interested in studying representations of queer abuse in literary theory, media, and legal cases. Machado’s partner claims that she blacks out during her episodes of violent rage, but Machado has no means of corroborating this. In several instances, her partner acts violently toward her, and she must lock herself in the bathroom to avoid being assaulted. While in Florida with her partner’s parents, her partner grips Machado’s arm aggressively, the first sign of potential physical abuse. The couple takes a road trip along the East Coast to meet their respective families. Her partner’s abusive behavior is initially hidden from her, and it is only through the expressed anxieties of her roommate, coworkers, and other friends that Machado begins to recognize her experience as psychological abuse. Machado often drives back and forth between Bloomington and Iowa City to spend time with her partner. Not long after, Machado receives a phone call from the partner stating that she and Val have broken up and that she wants to begin a monogamous relationship with Machado. Machado helps her partner and Val move in together in Bloomington, Indiana. Machado’s partner applies to MFA programs and is accepted to Indiana.

The two begin seeing each other sporadically the partner claims she is in an open relationship with her long-distance partner Val, whom Machado also meets and becomes close friends with. The author begins her story: While living in Iowa City and beginning her MFA program, Machado meets her partner (who will remain unnamed) through mutual friends. As Machado is a recognized writer and graduate of the Iowa Workshop MFA program, In the Dream House features different modes of narration, using the memoir genre to break this “silence.” The narrative follows her initial meeting, relationship, and breakup with an abusive woman. To address “archival silence”-the absence of queer abuse stories in contemporary culture and academic archival evidence-Carmen Maria Machado writes her experimental memoir In the Dream House. This guide is based on the 2019 paperback version published by Graywolf Press.Ĭontent Warning: This guide discusses physical and psychological domestic abuse.

Machado in the dreamhouse