Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

2 reviews

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

5.0

Our Share of Night is an inimitable masterpiece, a stunning work of literary horror.  Enríquez’s storytelling is breathtaking and immersive, with gritty, tightly-woven character relationships which evolve over decades.  At the novel’s center is a pagan cult like that of Argentina’s San La Muerte, which here is guided by heart-stopping nightmares and pure horror.  The book is chiefly, however, a heartbreaking story of father and son, colored by political violence, a culture of fear, and ties that bind.  I didn’t want it to end, and I want to read it again, immediately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Racism, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, War, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Suicide, Alcohol, Cancer, Cannibalism, Vomit, Colonisation, Eating disorder, and Racial slurs

ramalam98's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Physical abuse, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Car accident, Excrement, Gaslighting, and Genocide