At the moment, I'm mostly reading things as a writer -- what can I use, what do I like, where does my own style fit into all this, etc. I read "Especially Heinous" and "In the Dream House" earlier this year and thought that Machado and I had the exact same style/interests (and was genuinely worried about it), but she's more Kelly Link and I'm more Brian Evenson/Samanta Schweblin. Not disappointing, but surprising. Machado's stories are saturated with detail; they revel in themselves for quite a bit of time before "starting." (I cannot picture writing something with this much detail, so I am a little impressed/daunted by it, in a mostly good way.) I do think "Especially Heinous" is the best story here. I loved it so much I asked our Arts Desk if I could write a book review article just to talk about it. TL;DR: Read "Especially Heinous," if nothing else.

Machado is really good at form. See, again: "Especially Heinous," but also "Inventory" and "The Husband Stitch." I'm starting to think that messing with form is my primary interest, and Machado is so fluid with form. I thought she was going to pull an Ogawa and connect the last two stories by some thin thread, but if it was connected, I couldn't tell. Reading this entire collection was interesting -- I expected more external horror than characters experiencing some form of intense anxiety or outright madness. I read "In the Dream House" first, and I can tell these stories are deeply personal and, as Machado seems to hint in "The Resident," a concealed autobiography. ("Mothers" is even more depressing after reading "Dream House.") Anyway, these are all well done, though I don't feel I have a ton to say about them.