This is an epic story set in 20th Century Argentina.  Part historical fiction, detailing the unrest and political turmoil of the time, and part supernatural fantasy.  A very original, richly detailed story that is extremely sad and unsettling.  Recommended.

Our Share of the Night by Marinia Enriquez


This is my first time reading Mariana Enriquez so I was not sure what to expect. It is a slow paced booked. The atomhphere takes time to get into. Our Share of Night features Gaspar and his family, notably his father Juan. Juan is a medium for the Order, a cult-like organisation that communicates with the ever-hungry Darkness in order to attain immortality. Following the death of his wife, Juan flees the Order with Gaspar, concerned that Gaspar has inherited his abilities and is thus doomed to a life of misery at the hands of the Order, whom he also suspects of orchestrating his wife's death.Thank you very much to Netgalley and Granta Publications for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange of an honest review.

#NetGalley #bookstagram #mythology #bookreview #horror @Granta Publications

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Granta Publications for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange of an honest review

This is my first time reading Mariana Enriquez so I was not sure what to expect. I think it wasn't bad but it was just not for me. I did enjoy the atmosphere but it was just...not very fun to read for me personally.
I would recommend this to someone who likes a slow paced, very quiet horror that's very atmospheric.

I loved Mariana Enriquez's short story collections and so when I heard of a full blown novel I was very excited.

Our Share of Night is dark and quiet, it's paced quite slowly but Enriquez builds so much atmosphere and suspense you're not sure where it could go.

I definitely have my preferred sections in the book, for myself part 3 was by far my favourite. But I also really loved how she brought things around from the first part into the last, every event had purpose.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Our Share of Night follows Gaspar, along with some family members including his father Juan. Juan is a medium used by the Order, a cult-like group who communicate with the ever-hungry Darkness in an attempt to gain immortality. The story opens with Juan fleeing the Order with Gaspar, following the death of his wife, worried that Gaspar has inherited his abilities and therefore destined to a life of suffering at the hands of the Order, who he also suspects of orchestrating his wife's death.

I'll be honest, I've struggled to rate this one but have settled at 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 for Netgalley. Is it a good book? Absolutely yes. Did I enjoy it? Uhh... Sometimes.

If you pick this up, you're in for a long, atmospheric ride. If you like a slow-burn horror with brutality, creepiness and tension interspersed with exposition, politics (this is set against the backdrop of the Argentina of the 70's-90's), trauma and sacrifice, then this is for you. It's beautifully written (and translated - kudos to the translator), with descriptive prose that was borderline TOO descriptive at times.

As another reviewer has pointed out, a lot of the horror is front-loaded into the first half, meaning that by the time we reach its crescendo towards the end, it feels repetitive as we have already seen most of the horrific violence the Order is capable of. At around the 60% mark it decides to turn into a sociopolitical book for 200 pages, which is well-done in and of itself but interrupted the flow of the book. At the same time we are left with a sudden ending with some unanswered questions.

Overall this definitely will have its niche of readers who will love it, and I can truly see its potential, but for me it was just a bit too long with both too much and too little going on, and it ended up being a bit of a slog to get through.

Well one thing is making me happy about this book. I’ve finally finished it.

A gothic horror set in South America based on the relationship between a “chosen” father and son, this book is bloated in the extreme.

Containing sections rather than chapters, they happen in slightly different timelines and they just go on forever.
The first 100 or so pages of this book is bonkers. It feels like the middle or the ending of the book. Crazy occult “god worshipping” sacrifices to “the darkness”, extreme violence, mad ideas, I was reading and wondering how this book was going to stretch to 700+ pages.
Well it did. Completely changed pace and seemed to be somewhat of a melodrama, political commentary and social commentary section.

The final section felt like treading over old ground, any shock value or surprise gone as it stuttered(literally)towards its disappointing conclusion.

There is some interesting, if not straight forward ideas here for the horror genre. A lot of the “family” sections reminded me a lot of the French film Martyrs with its ideas. The problem was all the shock value was gone on the first 100 pages. The rest relied on the authors craft and storytelling and creation of characters and the world they inhabited. All I felt ultimately failed. Characters felt extremely weak, unlikeable to a tea and hard to empathize or connect with any of them.
The rambling descriptive passages were incessant even in the the most tense sections, totally ruining the momentum of the book.

At its core it’s just way too long for what it is. I’ve read bigger books in the past but this one felt never ending. Structurally a bit of a mess, thematically interesting but poorly executed with uninteresting characters in what was ultimately and uninteresting, bloated and overly long story.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC though Netgalley.

This frustrated me - I absolutely loved the idea of this novel, however, I really had no idea what was going on! I think there may have been something lost in translation but by a quarter of the way through I was so confused I had to stop. Frustrating but I’d be willing to give this another try if the translation was improved.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Granta Publications for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

"Spanning the brutal decades of Argentina's military dictatorship and its aftermath, Our Share of Night is a haunting, thrilling novel of broken families, cursed inheritances, and the sacrifices a father will make to help his son escape his destiny."
This is how the book is described, and for the most part I agree with the statement! But, I would also like to add that this book is cleverly executed, it's full of horrifying demons and sinister ghosts, merciless cults and hidden secrets. Shall we move to my complaining?

I will not comment on the disability rep since it's not my place to judge that, and WE should definitely read reviews from disabled reviewers on that topic.
I felt the usage and presence of queer people is mostly sexual and I'm honestly offended by it. I felt queer people were dehumanized in a way. As much as sex with and between queer people was normalized I think we should be allowed to exist outside and beyond it. We are more than our sexual partners.
I would say that "sexchange" surgery is an inappropriate word and its usage is hurtful towards the trans community, so I would advise you to connect with and contact trans people about the correct and appropriate terminology.
The CONSTANT f slur usually directed at homosexual/erotic people. I get it, this is how we were treated, this was most common name for us and all that but half of it felt totally unnecessary.
Some commentaries left me wondering about their purpose and intentions and found them problematic.

A few observations about the characters.
Gaspar not feeling awkward or "disgusted" by gay people is nothing. It doesn't make him a descent being. It just doesn't make him an ignorant bigot.
I found a lot of them problematic, none of them lovable, although I think that was intentional. They were...real. In a terrifying and masterful way, real.

Now, to the good parts! It is very very clear that the writer of this book is talented. The story she has crafted is deliciously haunting and masterfully horrifying.
The atmosphere is honestly astounding, the writing even more so. Excellence.
The horror? Incredible.
The plot? Unique, and surprise surprise, excellent.
Am I having nightmares because of this book? Absolutely.
Do I still see Moira in my sleep? You bet I am.
I will be thinking about this book for a long long time.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7a0f3490-7f31-4e70-8be5-ba23ffafcef0?redirect=true

I wanted to love this book from the cover alone and the description had me hooked, however the book dragged on with unnecessary details, the translation although very good missed a name repeatedly and it took a moment to realise who was being spoke about (Stephen), Each “book” within the book would’ve greatly been improved by letting the reader know who it was about, who’s perspective, as a portion of the time was spent trying to figure it out. The concept and plot had great potential and it could’ve all been much smoother and shorter by cutting a large portion out and focusing on that. The ending was anticlimactic and felt like someone just ran out of time to finish and figured, ‘hey this’ll do’ leaving much unresolved and unclear.

Had to give up on this one at 40%, I wasn't able to follow it very well and the writing and plot of this novel wasn't what I was expecting. I have it preordered so maybe I might pick it up again at dome point in the future with a better review but for now, I just couldn't get into it.

While it wasn't my usual genre I decided to throw myself out of my comfort zone and give it a go.

I'm sorry to say that I got a few chapters into the book & realised that there wasn't anything I actually understood. I didn't find myself wanting to continue reading. I'm not sure if it was because of the genre and it not being my usual go to type but I just could not continue. It felt like an uphill battle.

For those who like this sort of thing I have a feeling this will really take off!

Unfortunately after about 20% of the way through this book, I realized I had absolutely no idea what was going on or even where it was going. While I like the idea behind the book, at no point while reading did I empathize with the characters enough to keep reading the very slow meandering plot (that I struggled with anyway due to the amount of prose) so unfortunately this book isn't one I could recommend.

This is the first book that I have read by this author but it definitely wont be my last. It was dark and disturbing and kept me engaged the whole way through, I couldn't put it down.

I found the concept of this book really interesting. I found the relationship between Gaspar and his father to be complex and could empathise with the characters.

This is a dark and overall entertaining read, however I found the length of this book to be a challenge. At times overly descriptive and repetitive and so I would find myself losing concentration at times.

However, a very interesting and “different” read and worth sticking with it

This is Mariana Enriquez's beautifully translated South American epic gothic horror, a novel set amidst the decades of Argentina's terror ridden years of the military junta, it's aftermath, right up to 1997, in a chilling and macabre narrative that goes back and forth in time. It details a close and complicated relationship between a father, Juan, and his efforts to do whatever it takes to protect his son, Gaspar, no matter how much it hurts and traumatises Gaspar. Juan is controlled and exploited for his extraordinary abilities as a medium and a rare capacity to host the demonic darkness by a secret cult, the Order, in their search for immortality, comprising of the families of the rich and powerful, benefiting from close links with the junta. Juan presides over the ceremonial, opening the door to the darkness, a ritual for the initiates that involves sacrifices, the taking of the lives of the poor, the vulnerable, and children.

At all times, Juan is a sick and fragile man undergoing a number of surgeries, whilst at other times being a formidable force, given he has little agency over his life, he cannot help but appreciate what powers he has and the role he plays in the Order. It all begins with Juan deciding to take young Gaspar, who he can see has inherited his cursed gifts, on a road trip to his in-laws after the death of his wife, Rosaria. He knows the Order will want Gaspar to fulfil his role in the future, and he wants to ensure this never happens, he is helped in this goal by Tali, his half sister-in-law, and Stephen, the son of the leader of the Order, Florence Mathers. We follow Gaspar's life living with Juan in Buenos Aires and those he becomes friends with, Pablo, Vicky and Adela, until a devastating event almost breaks him. We learn more about Rosaria, the history of the Order, her hedonistic lifestyle in London and studying in Cambridge, and her relationship with Juan.

It all culminates in Gaspar eventually becoming aware of the truth, having to come to terms with his past history, and the inescapable need to deal with the desperate Order who had never given up on their aim of getting their claws into him as the successor to his father. This is a long read with a social and political commentary, of true evil and monsters, of a military under whom huge numbers were tortured and disappeared, of mass graves, the darkest of magic, national folklore, communing with the dead, and the inhumanity, bone deep cruelty and insanity of the Order supporting the junta, with their abuses of power, killings and their lives of privilege. It explores a father-son relationship, inheritance, the sacrifices made to evade a terrible fate, the consequent traumas and the battles and losses that must be endured to break free of such unspeakable tyrannies for good. I recommend this highly to other readers, but it will not be for everyone. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This is going to be one of the best books I have read so far. Mariana Enriquez is such an amazing writer and I could not put the book down!! She is a master story-teller and the images she puts on your head, you cannot forget easily. I think one cannot compare Enríquez writing to anything and anyone. She's unique.

After reading the Dangers of smoking in bed I was extremely excited to read this. I'm always on the lookout for authors who do the kind of horror that unsettling and almost bewitching. Enrique is an author who achevies this wonderfully and I cannot wait to read more from them.

I’ve only recently ventured into the world of South American fantasy and horror and after reading Mariana Enriquez, I only wish I started sooner. While this novel started off slowly as it gradually introduced you to the magic and the danger, it quickly picked up speed and I couldn’t put it down. As with every novel that is told in omniscient perspective, it takes some time to get used to the tone, but I soon loved each character’s point of view as the story grew to its climax. For anyone looking for an addition to their horror and fantasy horror collection, I can’t recommend enough this story unlike no other.

Our Share of night was an extremely interesting read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. This was the first book I had read by Mariana Enriquez and it was an amazing push to get me to read some more of their books. The one problem I had with this book was the length. It was a very long and at times very detailed which made it difficult to concentrate in places. However, Mariana was able to keep you engaged and focused on the story. Our Share of Night was very true to its genre and pushes the boundaries! I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something supernatural with a bunch of horror and poor relationships thrown in.

This was a unique, dark story. It was only an okay read for me because it was so darn long and I was confused at times.