Our Share of Night

It took me over a month to read but only because I enjoyed it so much and didn't want it to end. and I think it may already be in the running for my top read of the year. The prose was beautiful, intriguing and propellant. I never wanted to stop reading. The story and the magic and mystery was so engrossing and insanely creepy. I felt lots of emotions throughout the book. Anger and sadness and goosebumps and shock and even some cringing (in a good way) from the description of some body torture and gore. Ahhhh it was just such a unique book and I'm sad it's over and don't know if I'll ever read something like it again.

I loved every single page of this fucking massive book and its heartfelt embracing of all things occult and strange. Mariana Enriquez approaches magical realism in the same way that Toni Morrison does: with a completely straight face. No winking from the sidelines, no nudging reminders that we're experiencing the ‘other', or that everything may not be as it seems. This is quite simply reality: blood soaked, ceremonial, and dark, dark, dark, not quite separate from our own but just a little out of step, like viewing a Magic Eye picture of the exact moment of your death. Her spiralling narrative is unbelievably deft, and requires your trust in a way that I've never encountered in fiction before, almost as if you're required to give something of yourself over to Enriquez in exchange for prose. If you're lucky you'll get it back.

Reminiscent of the visceral horror of Poppy Z. Brite, with the scope and scale of Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Keeping everything crossed that more of her work is translated into English sooner rather than later.

100/100

An amazing accomplishment. This book was a great read. I was really worried with the structure and the decision that the author made to the structure and overall mini plot points but she somehow managed to tie everything together to create an epic narrative.

And can we take a moment to appreciate how beautifully written it is and I feel like the translation did an excellent job. Mariana Enriquez has an incredible imagination and knows how to draw up a scene and make you feel like you're in that moment. I have highlighted numerous sentences to go back because their can be so much to unpack or they're just so well delivered.

I'll be honest I was worried about 70% of the way through that this story had dropped a lot of what made the first quarter really great. But I kept on and the author really had everything placed with purpose.

This won't be an easy read. It's long. It is a slow burn at times but that pay off is worth it and you should check it out. I know this will be staying with me for a long time.

An Argentinian family saga about a cult worshipping the god of Darkness. A father and his son, both very alluring to others and in possession of supernatural powers, try to escape the cult and their demands on them. Occasionally the book picks up and then there are mysterious, slightly gory rituals, but the rest is a meandering coming-of-age tale. I was okay with the story and the characters, but I can't understand why so many on here praise her writing. I found her style - hyper verbose, spelling everything out, even meaningless stuff - really maddening. So many passages could have just been edited down. The book is way too long. So long, I almost forgot how annoyed I was at her earlier on for including the phantom limb mirror therapy and David Bowie.

  I accepted an ARC of Our Share of the Night from Netgalley. This is my honest review. 
It's still December, and I'm calling it now: It's highly unlikely I'll read a better horror novel in 2023. Our Share of the Night is an epic novel filled with body horror, trauma, friendship, familial love and hate. 
We meet Juan, a recent widower, traveling with his young son, Gaspar. Juan is filled with love for his son, but also anger, and the ability to hurt his son and anyone who gets in his way. Juan is a “medium” for an international cult that worships a dark, cruel god – perhaps Darkness itself. He has been given no choice in this, having been purchased from his parents as a child. 
Juan has a heart defect that he knows will kill him sooner than later, and he knows this cult wants his son – either as the new medium, or a new vessel for Juan. He's determined that neither will happen. 
The book encompasses a significant period of time, and a number of POV characters. Eventually we meet up with a slightly older Gaspar, who lives in an empty mansion with his father. He remembers little of the past. His father is often distant, and angry, and cruel. And sometimes perhaps insane. 

The reader is privy to much more than Gaspar is at this stage, seeing connections he can't, and the workings of the occult. He is unaware he's setting up a friend to be sacrificed.
This portion of the book was extremely moving to me as Gaspar is abused by his father for reasons he can't understand. Juan commits a vicious act of cruelty and betrayal. I can only say that anyone who survived an abusive household will understand there are different types of horrors. One of those horrors is feeling unloved by a parent, and the shock when you realize you're not safe with them.

Gaspar had a friend group that helps him through this time, and we follow their journeys almost as much as Gaspar's, as they learn to live with loss, and the pieces of the aforementioned other world that clings to them. 
The reader knows that Gaspar will eventually have to face the cult. Did I mention the cult is also family? 

Things you should know: 
This is a long book. Because I accepted a digital copy, I don't have page numbers, but depending on the source, it's between 600 and 730ish pages. It feels like the latter. You'll be spending lots of time here. If you just want the horror, and don't want to become involved, there are quicker books. 
The book has a lot of body horror, and general supernatural stuff, including doors leading to another very vicious world, but there are long stretches between these moments where it's more about a feeling of dread and various characters working through trauma. A number of times I would be jolted anew at how dark, and gross, the story could be.
 Our Share of the Night is a translated work from an Argentine author and is set in Argentina, and you will feel very immersed in this setting. The translation seemed smooth enough that I was rarely confused, but there were moments where I wondered if something was lost in translation.
Poets and poetry are mentioned A LOT! 
The almost constant backdrop is political unrest. I think a lot of what you need to know can be picked up from context, but politics do play a heavy role. The cult is run by rich people who exploit poor, often Indigenous, people. 
We spend time in London in the sixties, and Argentina the rest of the time, particularly in the 80s and 90s, and this portion has a focus on the AIDS crisis. The London portion might very well scratch a little bit of any serial killer itch you might have.  

There's LGBTQ+ rep, but slurs and outdated terms abound. There are a two people who are called a couple, but also twins, who want to swap sexes, but there seems to be more of a supernatural/spiritual incentive than really being trans. At least 3 of the protagonists are gay or bi. 
An outdated term for people with Down Syndrome is used between friends. 
Not every question of plot point is wrapped up, and there's clearly room for another book. Which I would read! 

 Our Share of the Night took me a couple weeks to read – I read other books as well – because I was so involved that I needed breaks from a very dark story. While most of the characters are varying degrees of evil, I did care about a few, and I imagine you will too. Others I wanted to suffer – and suffer they did! 

I feel that I could read the book several times over and find additional layers and nuances I missed. 

This dark horror novel is set in Argentina and spans the period from 1960 to 1997. It follows the lives of Gaspar, the main character, and his family as Gaspar comes of age. His father, Juan, will stop at nothing to protect him from the evil clutches of his wife's family, who want to take advantage of Juan and Gaspar's talents of accessing the Darkness to become immortal. 

I read the English translation (by Megan McDowell) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The structure moves around, and I never found myself annoyed by the time shifts back and forth. 

It has some troubling scenes of violence, particularly of child abuse. The scenes of the children in cages in the dark tunnel under Puerto Reyes were horrific..

If you enjoyed Stephen King's It, you'll probably enjoy this. The part set in Buenos Aires in 1985–1986, in particular, reminded me of the Losers Club from that novel. Fans of Clive Barker would probably enjoy it, too. I felt some vibes of The Great and Secret Show in this in how dark it was.

My YouTube review of this book is here: https://youtu.be/M2GgCPpWEpA