Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado: Book Review

The book I chose for the month of October from Literati was Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. If you don’t know what Literati is, it is a company where every month you select a book club to participate in. Literati then sends you a copy of the book to read. You also get access to an app where you are able to discuss the readings with other bookworms. You can see my full post about Literati here!

This is my second month with the “Gathering of Voices” book club curated by Jesmyn Ward. I have been loving the new and interesting stories that I have been experiencing. Literati has certainly made my goal of expanding my reading horizons easier!

Last month I read Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins, and I really enjoyed it. The characters were so well-written, I felt like they could have shown up at my doorstep, or I could have bumped into them at the grocery store. The plot was different from anything I had ever read before, I really enjoyed reading this unique story. You can see my full review of this book here.

This month’s book, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is a short story collection that includes elements of horror and feminism. This story tells very grim stories of the realities of holding the identity of being a woman.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed some things and didn’t enjoy others. All will discuss in my full book review!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Content Warnings: Rape, sex, gore, porn, pandemic talk (not COVID), disordered eating

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is the first short story collection I have ever read. As I was reading, I found that some of the stories were fantastic, while others made me want to put down the book entirely. I imagine that this is normal with short story collections. Some things work, while others don’t.

First, I want to talk about the overall mood of the book. Each story was laced with elements of horror, from ghosts to a pandemic taking over the world (don’t worry, it wasn’t COVD). So, while the author is discussing the hardest parts of identifying as a woman, the reader is experiencing tropes from the horror genre. The mix of the two creates a really unsettling reading experience, which was no doubt intended.

I also want to talk about how different each of the stories were. Each story brought on new character types, settings, and structures. I was impressed by the author’s ability to tell completely different stories. I know, That sounds like the bare minimum for writing. But there are some authors who have the same tone and characterization in each of their books or stories. So reading each new narrative in Her Body and Other Parties was a completely new experience, and I really enjoyed this aspect of the collection.

Now, I want to talk about some of the stories because I feel that will be the best way to explain my 3-star rating. I will talk about both ones I loved and the ones I hated.

Starting with the negative, “Especially Heinous” was stuck right in the middle of the collection, and with the amount of space it took, almost 25% of the book, it felt utterly pointless. Although the structure was interesting to me, a remake of Law & Order: SVU, written as recaps of episodes, the story felt disjointed. It was hard to relate to the story when the majority of it didn’t make sense. Truthfully, it made me feel stupid as a reader, and nobody likes that. It took me a solid three days to read this story because I was incapable of reading more than a couple pages at a time before I needed to put the book down.

Although I didn’t love them all, there were stories that I did enjoy. “The Resident” was about a group of artists who secluded themselves in a hotel in the mountains to work on their art. This story took a really interesting look at what it means to be an artist, and how much of yourself you need to actually put into your work. Are we all just putting our own issues into our art? Are we all the “madwoman-in-the-attic?” The narrator of the story puts her own trauma into her work, but at the expense of her mental health. The storytelling was fantastic, I never wanted it to stop. Very different from “Especially Heinous.”

Another story that I loved was “The Husband Stitch.” Do you remember being young, and hearing that story of a girl who wore a ribbon around her neck because if she took it off, her head would fall off? Maybe that was just me sitting around the campfire with all my friends when I was young but I distinctly remember this story. Machado’s version of it takes the story and adds some depth to it. It brings to light the pressure that women go through in society in order to appease everyone. All the way down to the husband stitch.

Overall, there were some fantastic aspects of this collection and some not-so-great aspects. However, as I was reading, I could appreciate what the author was doing with each story, and I found the unsettling nature of the collection to be exactly what I signed up for when choosing to read this book. I would definitely read more from this author.

Her Body and Other Bodies by Carmen Maria Machado is a fantastic read for October. The mix of horror tropes was fantastic, and many of the stories grasped my attention. Although some of this collection didn’t work for me, I would still recommend it.

I also had a much better time reading this book because of the discussions held on the Literati app. The other bookworms in my book club gave me a better and deeper understanding of what Machado wrote.

Although I usually read for escape, I enjoyed intellectualizing what I was reading. But don’t worry, if you also feel like escaping there is a book club for that too! Click here to see all the book clubs, including one dedicated to beach reads!