I received this book as a birthday present for my 20th birthday last November. I was a little daunted by it at first. It seemed like it might be a bit intense for my taste and I would find it difficult to read. Because of this, I put the book off.
Recently, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and read this book. Let me say, I was pleasantly surprised. Even though it is short stories I really expected it to take me a long time to read. However, this book read like poetry. I found myself falling into the pages.
I will say, just because it read like poetry did not mean it was an easy book to read. It deals with the violence women experience in their lives. There are mentionings of body dysmorphia, sexual assault, and domestic violence (this is just what I can remember). I can definitely see that for some people the themes present would be too triggering for the book to be enjoyable. I, myself, checked out in the last story "Difficult at Parties". I would definitely recommend acknowledging the possible triggers present in the book before deciding to read it.
My favorite of the stories was "The Husband Stitch". I really liked the writing in this one. It somewhat reminded me of my own writing style, so that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. I also thoroughly enjoyed "Inventory" which looks at the narrator's relationships throughout their life. Something about the writing style was appealing to me.
Each of the stories had a different tone and a different issue that they dealt with. The style of writing also differed. I really liked how Machado decided to set up the pieces.
I highly enjoyed this book and I am glad I finally took the time to read it. I would recommend it, but of course, make sure that this is a book you are comfortable with considering the intense themes.
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