I hope you're reading this one on the metro, on your way to the bookstore. If you've been counting down the days until the release date of In the Dream House as eagerly as I have, you surely are. Even if you're staunchly against cracking the spines of your books, Carmen Maria Machado's latest is sure to crack your heart wide open, like the attic of the V.C. Andrews style cover (itself a dream for Machado).

This book has as many faces as a haunted mansion has rooms. Each chapter is a different iteration of what a Dream House could be, and through these vignettes the story of an abusive lesbian relationship gradually unfolds. Just as the Dream House resists easy categorization, Machado's story seems to at first resist its own telling, or at least its history. There are no clear histories of abusive lesbian relationships for Machado to use as a foundation, but many instances of these stories trying, with limited success, to be told. Along the way, Machado excavates the fears that have held back stories like her own and finds new lineages and structures in an encyclopedia of motifs from folk stories and fairy tales.

We're beyond excited to announce that we'll be hosting Carmen Maria Machado at La Sala Rossa on December 9th. Tickets are available now through eventbrite, and you can get one for free when you buy a copy of In The Dream House at our bookstore!