Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

33 reviews

alicia_rausch's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was an extremely difficult book to rate for me - and felt akin to Donna Tartt's work in which I must shelve them as "masterpieces I kind of hated reading yet I can't stop thinking about them." 

The world, the characters, and the tone of the novel is masterfully done, though it remained much lighter on horror than I expected and the pacing was extremely slow. I found myself wanting to quit this beast multiple times and yet I’m glad I pushed through. I think, a bit like Vampires of El Norte, it was marketed as heavier on the horror than it was - and I was expecting a much larger % of the novel to be action, when in reality it was just a few sequences. 

What it is, is a generational drama with horror elements, which should have been how it was advertised. It’s a quiet book, with a creeping sense of dread, and dark elements as we follow the family and how the cult affects each member over time. Like a darker, more effed-up Pachinko. 

The rep for LGBTQ+ was well done, and like Pachinko, I greatly enjoyed the historical elements about a time period (and place) I am not overly familiar with. 

The actual writing/storytelling was excellent and the way the puzzle fit together at the end was satisfying. I love an ambigious ending so that was a plus for me. But I just could not get past the excruciatingly slow pacing. 

To the right reader, this will be an instant favorite - unfortunately, that reader is just not me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting

muse692's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ehmannky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A sprawling and meandering horror book with a plot I feel like I cannot do justice to in a short summary. The general plot of the book follows Juan, a medium for a cult, and his son Gaspar over 30 years as Juan does everything in his power to keep Gaspar from being abused and used in the ways he was. But that feels so reductive because this book is so good and covers so much and it’s beautiful. It’s about the lingering effects that wealthy colonizers have had on people in the global south and rural poor (literally using up their bodies in the pursuit of riches), the damage of the greed of the already wealthy, the lingering psychological and physical effects from the trauma of a dictatorship and living with the ambiguous loss of the disappeared. This book forces you to read slowly, and you get to live out the pain and consuming fear and confusion of Gaspar. It’s so good, I cannot recommend this enough if you like horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Slavery, and Colonisation

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Rape, and War

crispr_breadboard's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

shannonbauchat's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

Minor: War

ianridewood's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was one WEIRD and BIZARRE book! Gross in parts too. The translation was pretty good but there were some words/phrases that weren't quite right. Overall the story was pretty good, but the book was simply too long! I think you could have told the story in about 500pgs just less wordy and less description of disgusting things. 
Some characters were lovable and some weren't at all. I did like how a few characters from the start of the book came back and helped bring about the ultimate ending of the book. Overall an okay book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

aileron's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Genocide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Car accident

gtierk's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It might be insane to say an already 600+ page book should have been longer, but the resolution felt a little rushed to me. Information comes slowly (you won't understand some major plot points until ~400 pages in) but, at least for me, satisfyingly. Not for the squeamish, as mutilation and child abuse are depicted extensively throughout the novel, but an interesting reflection on fate/free will and the legacy of class and violence in Argentina following the military dictatorship 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, and Cannibalism

mariafernanda993's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I loved this - argentinian gothic horror with magical realism and historical elements, couldn't ask for more. It felt weirdly like a book version of Hereditary. I was only a bit disappointed by the ending, though not enough to damage the overall experience. Hold my coffee, need to go read Mariana Enríquez' entire bibliography.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Colonisation