Book Review
Our Share of Night
by Mariana Enriquez
Deeply unsettling yet riveting, Our Share of Night is the latest contribution from Argentine writer Mariana Enríquez to the Latin American horror genre. Tying together Argentinian folklore with occult canon, Enríquez creates a vivid world backdropped by political violence and the struggles of the powerful and the weak. The story follows a young child, Gaspar, and his father, Juan, in the 1980s, who in the wake of Gaspar’s mother’s death, travel to her home town to mourn. In doing so, they attract the attention of her clan, a demonic organisation known as ‘The Order’. The Order is undoubtedly evil, chasing immortality at any human cost, but they are also powerful. It’s an alluring proposition to Gaspar, who has never experienced power in his life.
Enríquez presents horror in all its manifestations, from visceral body horror to the nuances of mental and emotional trauma. Everything is anchored in the relationships of the characters to each other, and in deep family bonds that serve as both salvation and damnation to their dark destinies. The crushing weight of unspeakably cruel duties weighs on both Gaspar and Juan, however, their familial obligations make them further complicit in the violence, causing them to become experts in destruction.
Following Enríquez’s previous short-story collections, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in the Fire, Our Share of Night is a testament to her skills as an author and her ability to create long, epically horrifying arcs and worlds within the tome of a novel. The empathy Enríquez feels towards her own characters despite their horrifying actions is deeply evident; through torture, execution and sacrifice, there’s is a binding thread of humanity that embraces every revolting action. Enríquez weaves tapestries through the blood-soaked histories of the characters, their pasts full of violence, trauma and inescapable monstrosity.
