Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

18 reviews

dfrancis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

5.0

This is probably one of my favorite books I’ve read in 2023. Despite it being so long, when I finished, I wanted even more. The writing/ translation is great. The characters are complicated and interesting. Not for the faint of heart, but so worth it. A beautiful and terrifying mix or horror, fantasy, and history. I recommend this to everyone who enjoys horror or occult type books. It’s truly a masterpiece 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, Murder, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Homophobia, and Classism

abiofpellinor's review

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

Imo this should have been released instead as a duology. The second half of this book, focusing on the son rather than the father, had much less direction than the first. The fathers section was very much a horror book. The sons was dark, but nowhere near so much and the events set up by the fathers section seemed underwhelming. So much potential with this book.

I will say the representation in here around AIDS, gay people, disabled people, and more was absolutely fantastic. Everything flowed very naturally and none of the representation felt forced. Very well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident

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: 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

mirissab's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Please give me more fiction with history, occultism, and queerness. I struggled reading this--a balance between binging and lingering on each chapter, each page. I still have questions but maybe they are never meant to have an answer. It was beautiful, haunting, and layered. Selfishly, I want more from this world, this undeniably tragic yet enchanted universe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Medical content, Alcoholism, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, and Medical content

kathburke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Torture, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Car accident, Confinement, Classism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, and Alcohol

ritaicu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

I loved this book a lot. It‘s descriptions are incredibly atmospheric and lush while the story is very bleak, brutal and visceral. I enjoyed learning about Argentina‘s history as well as seeing the characters‘ lives play out over several decades. Especially Juan and Gaspar‘s relationship was really interesting. The only thing that bothered me is that the ending is a little rushed and it felt like there were many interesting plot points that remained unresolved. It still was one of my absolute favourite reads this year and has piqued my interest in Latin American literature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Grief, Death, and Colonisation

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

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Content Warnings

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

rhireads15's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

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.

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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.

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