The directions begin as voices for the characters and evolve into full on actions almost as devastating to read as they would be to perform, for example, “If you are reading this story out loud, prepare a soda can full of pennies. It is narrated as though orally, a modern retelling of ‘The Green Ribbon’ with directions for the reader throughout. The narrative intermingles campfire horror stories and other urban legends with a woman’s journey through life and marriage. ‘The Husband Stitch’ is the book’s most cited and memorable tale (its rise to discussion largely due to pushing forward debates on the surgical procedure from which the story takes its name). Her writing is endlessly elegant and self aware as it brims with sexuality and a tone that strikes the perfect balance between current conversations and guttural human experience in this collection.
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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