Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

22 reviews

jeanbpdx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Body horror, War, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Moderate: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Minor: Suicide attempt

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Colonisation, Animal death, and Slavery

Minor: War, Gun violence, Cancer, and Rape

balamaqab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Racism, Mental illness, Medical content, Drug use, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Alcoholism

takotsubo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Torture, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Rape, and Violence

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Gore, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Vomit, Child abuse, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Classism, Confinement, Blood, Alcoholism, Body horror, Sexism, and Car accident

Minor: Slavery, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Mass/school shootings, Self harm, Racism, Police brutality, and Miscarriage

CSA does not occur on page but happens to a side character. On top of at least one anti-indigenous slur, this book also contains ableist slurs and a LOT of homophobic slurs. Part of the book takes place during the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the book spends some time showing it.

confusedwhale's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Death, Medical content, Body horror, Grief, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Classism, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racism, Drug use, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

baccou's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Vomit, Alcohol, and Drug use

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.5

This book starts out as only a confusing mess and, while the plot eventually becomes evident, the other worldly elements are never revealed as they should be in a book with this length and ambition. There's a lot of repetition in going back to overlapping points of view which contributes to the unnecessary, tedious length of the book. There's a lot of really graphic torture of children which is obviously not enjoyable.

I did enjoy the ambiance, the writing and I was interested in Juan and Gaspar (if not any of the other characters) and their fate.  Ultimately, though, this long book just doesn't pay off in the end.  I was left wondering why I slogged through this book to get to this completely unsatisfying non-ending for both the plot and the characters.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Torture, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Self harm

internalnonsense's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

 Lurid and expansive, this story uses eldritch horror to explore a legacy of exploitation and trauma. We follow a widowed father, Juan, and son, Gaspar, in the wake of the “Dirty War” of 1970s Argentina. From the beginning, we feel the violence that surrounds them—memorials on the side of the road, suspicion of every stranger. Gradually, we find the violence much closer to home. Juan has married into, and Gaspar born into, a cult called “the Order”, which seeks to commune with gods and unlock the secret of immortality. Juan is the Order’s medium to their dark god and will do anything to protect Gaspar from his fate. We see Juan’s escalating paranoia, and the effect it has on the growing Gaspar. Our Share of Night commits to exploring a very true evil, and as such depicts a lot of very dark, violent things (i.e. watch your content warnings). 

The cast is large, and, with a few exceptions, compelling. Juan and Gaspar are undoubtedly the most fully realized two, but we also get moments of unexpected depth from seemingly tertiary or even periphery characters. Ironically probably my least favorite section, I was pleasantly surprised to see 

Rosario, Juan's dead wife and Gaspar's mother, get a POV. It would have been easy to let her be a ghost to the story, let her death be more important than herself, but instead she's fully realized.

I can’t think of a single character present for more than a page that doesn’t have motivation and interiority. It’s impressive to read, but does contribute to the novel’s greatest flaw: pacing.  

While the beautiful prose consistently creates incredibly poignant moments, the overall pacing of the novel is jolting, with the ending in particular feeling more like a sputtering out rather than a climax or an inevitable conclusion. If the final third was stronger, I probably would have forgiven all prior pacing issues, but, as it is, I finished the book disappointed. 

Tonally, however, this story is magical in the darkest possible way. Magic here is synonymous with violence, evil, greed; escalating atrocity weaved horribly with real-world atrocity. The exception to this is that there is an implication that indigenous people (that is, those people who are not colonizers, like the Order is) had their own rituals and power there were not inherently evil, but even then the Order would hunt and corrupt it. Throughout, we’re spoiled with haunting imagery, deep, intricate prose full of feeling, and complex conflict where there is no easy answer or solution. 

My biggest weakness as a reviewer here is that I don’t know much about Argentine history, and this story is fundamentally about the civil unrest of this time. Even in my ignorance, the novel was effective in its depiction, but I still feel like a better understanding of what happened would have made what was rich richer.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Classism, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Gore, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Homophobia, Biphobia, Sexism, Colonisation, and Sexual violence

All of the content warnings, particularly if you're sensitive towards violence towards children.

yuyine's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

Notre part de nuit est un roman horrifique particulièrement oppressant et dérangeant qui nous plonge au cœur d’atrocités où les monstres sont bien humains mais où le fantastique s’invite comme une ombre supplémentaire. Vaste fresque historique et sociale par sa densité et son alternance d’époques et de points de vue, c’est un roman riche. Malheureusement, de vastes longueurs et une intrigue qui manque de rythme auront eu raison de mon plaisir de lecture et me laissent sur un sentiment en demi-teinte. C’est un bon roman, mais je ne rejoins pas les éloges dithyrambiques à son sujet.

Critique complète sur yuyine.be!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Rape, Death, Racism, Trafficking, Blood, Pedophilia, Classism, Drug use, Alcoholism, Grief, Terminal illness, and Slavery