Is there an audiobook of Her Body And Other Parties?

Yes. Her Body And Other Parties has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Amy Landon.

How long is the Her Body And Other Parties audiobook?

The Her Body And Other Parties audiobook runs 8 hr 42 min.

Is Her Body And Other Parties on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes. Her Body And Other Parties was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 18, 2026.

Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado book cover for the Book of the Day short stories book review

Our score

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Her Body And Other Parties free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

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EDITION PUBLISHEDDecember 2017

Genres

Fiction Short Stories LGBTQ+

Themes

Women's bodies and bodily autonomyQueer desire and identityViolence, fear, and survivalThe fairy tales we inherit and rewrite

Her Body And Other Parties

Name: Her Body And Other Parties
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado

A debut story collection that fuses queer desire, horror, fairy tale, and the surreal into something genuinely new, where women's bodies become haunted houses and the danger is always coming from inside. Wildly inventive and impossible to shake off.

The Review

Our take

Every so often a debut arrives that doesn't just announce a talent but seems to expand what the short story can do, and this is one of those books. Across eight stories Machado writes about women's bodies the way horror movies write about old houses: as places where something terrible has been locked in the basement, and where the architecture itself remembers what was done to it. She is interested in desire and dread as the same nerve, and she keeps her hand on it for the length of the collection, refusing to let you settle into the comfort of a single genre or a single tone. Just when you think you have her measured, the floor drops out and you are somewhere stranger.

The opening story, "The Husband Stitch," retells an old campfire legend about a woman with a ribbon around her neck, and braids it with the lived texture of a marriage, an erotic life, a motherhood. It is sensual and frightening at once, and it sets the terms for everything after: bodies that are wanted and feared and never quite believed. "Inventory" catalogs a narrator's lovers as a plague spreads across the country, a list that becomes an elegy almost without your noticing. And "Especially Heinous," the showpiece, recaps twelve seasons of a Law & Order-style crime show in fake episode summaries that spiral into something hallucinatory and grieving. It should not work. It works completely.

What holds it together is a queer interior life rendered without apology or explanation. The women here love women, want women, are haunted by women, and Machado never pauses to translate that for a straight reader, which is exactly why it feels so alive. The eroticism is frank and the tenderness is real, and the horror grows directly out of how dangerous it has always been to live in a body that other people feel entitled to.

The collection is uneven by design, and a couple of the more experimental swings will land harder for some readers than others. "Especially Heinous" in particular asks for patience, and if you bounce off its format you may find yourself wanting back the more grounded mode of the early stories. But that restlessness is also the point. Machado would rather risk a misfire than repeat herself, and even the stories that strain are doing something no one else was attempting at the time. Machado is a writer testing the walls of every room she enters, and even the experiments that strain teach you something about the ones that soar.

Why you should read

Readers who love literary horror and the surreal
Anyone seeking frank, unapologetic queer storytelling
Fans of fairy-tale retellings and formal experiment
Those who want short fiction that takes real risks

What to expect

Eight stories spanning horror, fable, and erotica
Bodies, desire, and dread as a single subject
Formal experiments, some more demanding than others
A vivid, unapologetic queer interior life

Read it for the language, which is gorgeous and exact, and for the rare sensation of a writer inventing her own form in real time. It is scary, sexy, funny, and sad, sometimes within a single paragraph, and it lingers like a dream you are not sure you were supposed to remember.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.4/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Her Body And Other Parties free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Her Body And Other Parties?: Yes. Her Body And Other Parties has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Amy Landon.
Listen to Her Body And Other Parties free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Her Body And Other Parties audiobook?: The Her Body And Other Parties audiobook runs 8 hr 42 min.
Is Her Body And Other Parties on Kindle Unlimited?: Yes. Her Body And Other Parties was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 18, 2026.
How much does Her Body And Other Parties cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $9.55, Hardcover $229.93. Prices as of August 25, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is Her Body And Other Parties about?: Every so often a debut arrives that doesn't just announce a talent but seems to expand what the short story can do, and this is one of those books. Across eight stories Machado writes about women's bodies the way horror movies write about old houses: as places where something terrible has been…
Is Her Body And Other Parties worth reading?: We scored Her Body And Other Parties 4.4 out of 5. A debut story collection that fuses queer desire, horror, fairy tale, and the surreal into something genuinely new, where women's bodies become haunted houses and the danger is always coming from inside. Wildly inventive and impossible to shake off.