One of my most highly anticipated releases for this year, so I was thrilled to receive an early copy via NetGalley.

This one is definitely higher on the "literary" side of horror and fans of grief-horror will love this one. This novel is a huge undertaking, with Mariana Enriquez expertly spanning decades of time and several regions throughout history, building an unsettling sense of looming dread throughout.

I will excitedly be looking forward to seeing more from this author in the future!

Our Share of Night is oneof those that only coes around once in a very long time. It's a debut (incredible that it's her first) novel by Mariana Enriquez who is the author of The Dangers of Smoking in bed. Our Share of Night is a horror novel that really is more about the horrors of the dirty war in Argentina. The two main characters are a father Juan and his son Gaspar who struggle to not be devoured bya secret society called The Order which is the deceased wife's family. It's a back and forth in time which you must be patient with. The writing is so exquisite but you must undertsand that it has a rhythm that you have to let happen. It's also a dense novel with many layers that unfold in ways that will make you glad you are reading this book. As I was turning the pages I noticed that the author was exposing the dirty war in such an ingenious way. It has so many paralells to what is happening in today's world. People behaving in excess but not undertanding that it has an effect on others less fortunate than them or those with less political power that them. Eventually we learn it will catch up with them. Warning: This novel has some scary scenes and lots of gore. It's not just for the sake of gore but shows the horrors of what a regime who thought they were on the right side of history could do such unspeakable acts and feel just in doing so. This novel is great for bookclubs because you will have plenty to discuss. Thanks to Hogarth and Netgalley for the read. I'll be buying copies for my friends!

There are several factors that lead to me picking up any given book to read. In this case, lots of factors converged. First, the cover! It grabbed me. I appreciate great cover art, and am trying to give it more credit, but I like to think it doesn’t influence me that much. In this case, it absolutely did. It is done by Donna Cheng, with interior art by Pablo Gerardo Camacho. .

Secondly, the author’s work is celebrated. Argentine writer Enriquez has published two story collections in English: Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (a finalist for the International Booker Prize and the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, among others). I haven’t read them, but I’ve heard of them and wanted to read her work.

Finally, I love horror, and this seemed horrible and weird, from the description.

As per my usual MO, I didn’t read too much about the book before diving into it. I realized it was over 600 pages long and would take a while to read. I didn’t read it quickly; rather, I took my time with it, reading it a bit at a time over two weeks. This was a good choice because it kept me interested, and reading slowly gave me time to let the book settle in my brain.

It needed to settle a bit, because the tone and pacing varied throughout. Set in Argentina, it’s the story of Gaspar, at first a young boy living with his father Juan. It spans from the story of Gaspar’s parents in the 1960s, to 1997 when Gaspar is in his mid-twenties. Important characters flit in and out of the fractured time-line, and there are different points of view throughout. The one unifying story is of Gaspar and his family over the years. The horror here is The Order, a cult that worships the Darkness; it pulls at Gaspar and his parents, haunting them and permeating into everyone they know.

The setting is relevant to this novel. The first parts take place during Argentina’s military junta years from 1976 to 1983, then continue in its aftermath. This was a bloody, turbulent time, and it is estimated that up to 30,000 people, mostly opponents of the regime such as young unionists, students and political activists, were killed, or “disappeared.” The wealthy, the elite, and even foreign governments such as the US and its CIA, supported the junta.

The story felt visceral yet disconnected at the same time, the way a dream sometimes does. There is emotion–in this case horror, disgust and fear–but there is also a sense of remove, just like in a dream. The content is often horrible, but the words on the page are sometimes dispassionate, reflecting the casual cruelty of the Order. Then, sometimes the horror does feel real, usually when told from the point of view of Gaspar, or one of his friends. The depth of the depravity is abhorrent at times. This book is not for the easily triggered: there are some pretty awful scenes of child abuse, so do be aware before reading.

That said, there are times when the story is more factual, filling in the background and giving context, which took some time to emerge. However, I liked how at the beginning the reader is dropped into the middle of Juan and Gaspar’s dealings with the Order and its Darkness. We have to navigate without a map for some time. It added mystery, and enhanced the fear of the unknown.

One pleasure of this book was how, as I sat with it after reading, themes emerged. I found myself jotting notes down in my journal as I contemplated the Darkness and its implications. I realize that the Darkness may be a metaphor for the exploiters; their quest for power; and the selfishness required to sustain it. More specifically, the abuse of power and the exploitation of the poor, the indigenous, the colonized, and those who speak out against injustice.

The more I thought about it, the more I saw the universal relevance of the struggle here. As I was reading, I wondered if I'd get more from it if I knew details about Argentinian politics, and perhaps that’s true. However, this theme is timeless and occurs the world over, no matter where you look. The haves and the have-nots. Interestingly, it’s easy to dismiss the exploiters as someone I’d never be, and group oneself with the “good” folks in the book, but honestly, that’s not completely true. Most of us, in some way, are the exploiters, or at least somewhere in between.

It isn’t a perfect book, but it doesn’t need to be to be enjoyed. The pacing can tend towards the slightly uneven, and again, there is some very horrific abuse on the page, so this will not be suitable for every reader.

I’m thoroughly glad that I read it, and plan to read Enriquez’ short story collections.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Books/Hogarth Books for this digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Our Share of Night is a masterpiece of slow-burn intrigue and horror. This novel has everything: demons, millionaires obsessed with immortality, human sacrifices, toxic family members, polyamory, lifelong friendships, portals, poetry, and colonial mansions in the jungle. Each of these features is then set against the backdrop of the bloodiest and most disturbing era in Argentina's recent history, the so-called Dirty War.

At 600 pages, Our Share of Night is definitely the longest horror novel I have ever read. At first, this fact seemed like a detriment. The novel is also slow-paced and I couldn't help but wonder how long it would take for it all to come together. Eventually, though, I settled into the rhythm and skill of Enriquez's writing and McDowell's translation.

The central focus of Our Share of Night is the father-son relationship between Juan and Gaspar. Juan is a disabled medium whose entire life is controlled by a cult known as the Order. Gaspar, his son, is an inheritor not only of the Order's prestigious bloodline but also of Juan's ability to connect with the spirit world. Hoping to protect Gaspar, Juan stops him from developing skills as a medium. Juan is seductive, repulsive, and frustrating. Gaspar is sweet and loyal and a victim of his father's dark moods and the Order's disturbing world.

In addition to Gaspar & Juan, the supporting cast of characters are well-developed and interesting, too. Gaspar's childhood friends Pablo, Vicky, and Adela are each delightful. Their strong lifelong friendship is realistic and empathetic. Two more excellent secondary characters are Tali and Stephen. I wish we had been gifted more of Tali in this novel. A priestess of the Saint of Death, she has the most fascinating life.

Overall, I'd highly recommend Our Share of Night to anyone willing to invest their time in a world of dark magic and complicated characters.

I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this much-anticipated book by one of Latin America's most renowned authors. Unfortunately, I left it unfinished after weeks of picking it up and trying to connect with the characters and storyline. Readers of literary horror and world fiction have enjoyed and praised it highly, but I regret it wasn't for me. Every time I tried to get into the story and its style, I put it down, feeling exhausted. I was bored more than horrified and thought much was added for shock value.

The background touches on the brutal years of Argentina's military dictatorship with its brutal political oppression. Thousands of protesters and young activists disappeared into mass graves. My most vivid memories of Argentina were witnessing the demonstrations of 'the mothers of the disappeared' on several occasions. They were seeking justice and information about what happened to their missing young people. The book's macabre, supernatural, occult atmosphere, with some horrific, grotesque passages, overwhelmed the actual historical atrocities.

This was a blood-soaked epic, and the novel's structure was challenging. The pacing was uneven,
with pointless paths and tangents, unnecessary backstories and flashbacks, pages of irrelevant details, and underdeveloped characters. I thought it was too long, meandering, and bloated. Entire passages could have been edited out.

Juan is a man in poor health who has served as a medium for the Order, a cult serving his dead wife's demonic family. His young son, Gaspar, has started demonstrating Juan's supernatural gifts. Gaspar's destiny is to become a medium like his father, able to summon the god Darkness during the Order's horrendous rituals. These rituals aim to connect with the spirit of Darkness to gain immortality amidst bloody sacrifices and gruesome acts. Juan and Gaspar are on a journey while mourning Juan's recently dead wife and Gaspar's mother. The father is determined to do anything to save his son's future by keeping him out of the grasp of the Order. Gaspar is subjected to abuse. The Order includes wealthy people who support the junta and the turmoil and suffering it caused.

Two books of short stories by Mariana Enriquez have previously been translated into English with much acclaim, one being shortlisted for a Booker literary prize. I plan to read a collection of her short stories, but very sorry this overly long and bloated novel didn't appeal to me.

Wow. There is a lot of heart and soul in this book but it is very dark. Beautifully written. A masterpiece that horror fans will appreciate and so will non horror lovers

Wow, “Our Share of Night” by Mariana Enríquez, is an absolutely stunning work of horror. This book gave me nightmares! The plot centers around a mysterious group called The Order, who worship and serve a god they call the Darkness, and who desire to be as gods themselves and live forever. Members of The Order will stop at nothing to reach their goals, even if it means sacrificing their own family members. The Darkness is powerful, but The Order cannot summon it without a person they call a “medium,” who has the power to bring forth the Darkness so it can speak…and be fed. The summoning comes at great cost to the medium, and they do not survive long. When Juan, the current medium, has a son who exhibits the same talents, he knows he must escape the grasp of The Order in order for his son to survive. Thus begins their attempt to escape the powerful clutches of The Order and change their fates.

Set against the backdrop of Argentine history, “Our Share of Night” is a deeply riveting and atmospheric novel. It is a very dark and complex book; it’s definitely a challenging read. And though it is a lengthy read, it is best read slowly so that the reader can soak up every mystifying moment. I can see why this book is being billed as one of the best horror novels of the year; it certainly terrified me!

Thank you NetGalley and Hogarth for granting me the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of one of my most anticipated reads of 2023. It did not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free e-book copy of the English translation of Our Share of Night. This review is my honest opinion.

I recommend this novel to fans of horror and suspense. This story had me hooked from the very beginning. The characters were interesting, clearly with more going on beneath the surface that was revealed over time. The family intrigue was very powerful. I also really liked the descriptions and sense of atmosphere the author created. The horror elements added a lot to the story.

★ ★ .5 (rounded up on Goodreads)

For the most part… I would say that I enjoyed this? Heavy emphasis on the question mark because I didn’t enjoy it this book as a whole, but in pieces. And for me this pieces were stand outs, are what saved this story.

There is A LOT of unnecessary backstory and tangent storylines, shifts in pacing, jumping between flashbacks and present with multiple POV snippets that, while yes, they provide some additional context to characters and parts of the main plot, they don’t really matter to the first two sections of this book (250 or so pages) and the last twenty pages.

That said, this easily could have been half the length and really impactful and effective. For a second, I thought the start of part 3 was going somewhere interesting, but by section 2 it’s clear we’re shifting gears and we’ve completely lost the main character and changed stories. While it’s cool to have some of that backstory it’s got absolutely nothing to do with how the story ends and basically parts 3-5 (making up 80% of the book) are filler content with no real purpose.

I will say there’s one part in the middle that’s relevant to the end, and even so it’s only a handful of pages. Everything else, unimportant.

The mysterious, dark, and challenging fast paced nature of the first two sections is more exciting than the ending, I was underwhelmed. If you make it to the end and can look past the middle sections, the best part about it is that the story does come together and everything that Juan had planned for Gaspar comes full circle so there is a sense of closure. Given how large this book is and how much time it takes the reader to get through, having closure by the end for both Juan and Gaspar is nice.

This is definitely not for everyone. While I can say for the most party I enjoyed it, I don’t know that I’d recommend it to anyone to read. The pacing and shift in story line reminds me of Imaginary Friend, which is really hard to get through and redundant by the end.

thank you Random House for this ARC, courtesy of Netgalley. Publication date for “Our Share of Night” is Feb 7, 2023.

Family centered occult saga with dark fantasy and supernatural elements. The writing itself was gorgeous, but at 600 pages the story was bloated and meandering with too much backstory that ultimately felt pointless. Pretty devastated that this didn’t work for me, but highly recommend the authors previous work.

Well I sure am glad this book was translated because I really enjoyed it and know many people who will too. Its definitely character focused and travels over decades and multiple people lives. A fathers goal to keep his son away from his mothers vampiric cult of a family, who’s life’s quest is immortality. This story is complex and heart wrenching,

I was expecting such great things from this book and kept forgiving things that bothered me until about halfway into the book, I reached my breaking point. Much child abuse, over bloated writing that often times led nowhere or took forever to reach the point. The ending was just so so and left the reader and main character in endless hope.
I will note however that the cover art for this book, especially the UK edition, is excellent.

I enjoyed this a lot - it’s well plotted, very immersive, and delightfully creepy. Though there were moments which lagged a bit for me, everything comes together nicely and even the parts that don’t directly contribute to the plot create this complex social world and the unsettling atmosphere that scaffolds the entire novel. I hope we get more of Enriquez’s novels in translation!

This is a nasty little piece of work. It is horror and fantasy that, at its best, is punctuated by the political and socioeconomic reality of Argentina in the 1960s-1990s. This strong sense of place--even of the Other places--usually means the novel moves along at a clip, but it drags when it loses that connection. (For example, I found my mind wandering when reading the portion of the book set in London.)

The story also garners strength from its central character, Gaspar, who is subjected to heartbreaking physical, mental, and emotional abuse, mostly by his father, Juan, even though it theoretically comes from a place of love and protection. (The amount of times I rolled my eyes and sighed "ok Juan" every time he pulls the "I DID THIS TO SAVE YOU FROM THE ORDER" routine...) It was hard to read, but it also made it more satisfying to watch Gaspar gain his own sense of power amidst the darkness. While I expected Mariana Enriquez to lean more into the lore of the tumultuous, grisly underworld she created, these more human moments broke up the story more--there are atrocities and brutality, but at least they vary in type.

Steel yourself before starting this one. It's going to be one hell of a ride.

Our Share of Night is a genre-bending epic and an equally enthralling novel that paints the extent to which corruption and wealth can drive us.

Mariana Enriquez is the author of two short story collections previously translated into English - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in the Fire. For readers who have read her previous works you will already have an idea of the tone and brutality that is present in Our Share of Night. Our Share of Night delves deeper in the occult, and a violent, erotic world. Some of the elements you can expect to see in this work range from music, journalism, paranormal encounters, secrets, things of the occult, and monsters. Some parts have a Stephen King-esque feeling to them that are particularly reminiscent of IT. We have a setting rich with history, and a large cast of characters; we follow some of them as children through their adulthood. Some are haunted by previous encounters with the paranormal.

The book is set in the decades during and after Argentina's military dictatorship. The atrocities and violence of the Dirty War are woven into the backdrop of our narrative. We primarily follow a father and son, Juan and Gaspar. Juan is a medium for a powerful cult called the Order. Aware of their disregard for human lives, Juan will go to any lengths to protect his son Gaspar from them, even if it means committing unspeakable acts himself. The father-son story sandwiches the narrative of Gaspar's mother, who is an anthropologist documenting the local customs and mythology of indigenous tribes, in particular the Guarani people of Paraguay.

Our Share of Night is an immense and violent story. It is not for the faint of heart.
Although it is an extremely bleak story filled with horrors, I found myself completely enthralled with the book. It is not an easy read and at times it's also not an enjoyable read. It's akin to a train wreck that you can't look away from, with its mystifying story that compels one to want to know what will happen next.

TW: Extreme violence towards children, brutality, mass murder, torture, dismembering of bodies, cruelty and much more.

I've been hearing about Enriquez in the same breath as Bolano for a while now. So when I was lucky enough for Hogart to pass me an advanced copy of her first novel to be translated into English, this translation by Megan McDowell, I was incredibly excited to read it. I've finally finished it and I can confirm it lives up to the hype. The overarching story is that of a child born into a cult and seemingly destined to be its next medium, and his parents' efforts to keep him away from the cult. Enriquez tells us this story through seemingly different narravites in parts, with various modes of storytelling, including one section written as an unpublished final article of a dead journalist, and the way they all end up coming together is gorgeous. It marries the political unrest of Argentina with dark cultic forces in high society, and the story of the family caught up in all of it. If you're looking for a good marriage of political reality and cultic horrors and a fantastic story that catches people unaware in its claws, you'll want to pick this up on 2/7. Highly recommended.

The best word I can think to sum up this book is just "interesting." It goes to a lot of different places over the course of its 600 pages, which at times really made me wonder what the story was even meant to be about, but there's a common thread through the whole book: this is about the lengths to which people are willing to go in order to get what they want. It centers around a father who is determined to protect his son from people who would do anything to keep and achieve power, and the effects of his desperation on his son's life. That storyline being intertwined with Argentina's history of exploitation and abuse was a really clever move and opened the novel up to explore its themes through multiple avenues.

That said, this book really dragged for me a lot of the time. I was interested in the characters and relationships and seeing what was going to happen, but I felt like there were so many diversions from the main plot that made the book too long and had me wishing I could be finished with it already. That could've also been because of the writing style, and it's likely I missed out on a lot of the depth of this book because I don't have the cultural knowledge to fully understand its context, but yeah. Altogether it just made the book not as enjoyable for me personally.

I will literally read anything Enriquez writes. To quote Lady Gaga, "talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, sh*t on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it."

This was a book with a really in-depth magical system. It was a very involved system in which the witches are subjected to a lot of pain. I thought it was very unique but the internalized trauma within the characters made me a little uncomfortable.

I thought the writing was fantastic. I thought the characters were all so well written, and fully formed. This author did such a wonderful job at truly painting a picture. I really enjoyed our protagonist’s determination to stop at nothing to protect his son from the family practices in which he is trying to escape from.

Over all, this was a book that I personally mesh with. I can completely see why other people have, and will continue to enjoy this, but there were parts in here that I couldn’t get past. I couldn’t get past the contradiction of our protagonist, wanting so strongly to protect his son, and simultaneously admitting to abusing the boy himself. Honestly, there were just so many times in the duration of reading this that I contemplated DNFing.

I do highly recommend the audiobook because the narrator, Frankie Corzo did a fantastic job. Her voice, her cadence, and the way she presents this story was the only way I was able to push through.

Thank you to Hogarth/Random House for this Netgalley arc!

Our Share of Night is the first novel translated into English by the renowned Mariana Enriquez (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed). Enriquez uses the violent history of Argentina's military dictatorship as a backdrop to explore how far a father will go in order to protect his son from a fate that feels inevitable. Told in a meandering writing style, the experience is tense and uncomfortable, like walking home at night and knowing someone is following you and getting closer - but each time you turn back, you see no one.

We spend the first part of the book following the perspective of Juan Peterson, whose wife has just passed away, leaving him alone with his son, Gaspar. Juan, who we quickly find out has a weak and vulnerable heart, is a medium for the Order, a cult with immense wealth and power who worship the Darkness in hopes to learn the secret to immortality. The Order controls Juan's life and his body, and he realizes he must do anything, at all costs, to prevent the same fate for Gaspar. This defiance against a powerful organization acts as the foundation from which the reader then spans out, as we follow different narrators throughout the next decade who lead us in seeing whether or not Juan is ultimately successful.

There is so much that I enjoyed about reading Our Share of Night: the representation and discussion of Argentinian history and politics, the macabre horror and magic that challenges the reader to look away, and the unreliable, morally grey narrators that provide no comfort as we piece everything together. There is a powerful message about intergenerational trauma - as a result of political forces such as violent dictatorship and revolution - and how hard it is to avoid passing down this darkness between generations. The relationship between Juan and Gaspar is the most powerful example of this, and their complex "love" was the most poignant aspect of the novel. It's also impossible not to address the absolute EVIL prevalent throughout -- in the women of the order, the rituals, the Darkness, the Other Place -- and there are some images described that I don't think will ever leave my head. While I can't say it was something I enjoyed, per se, it was extremely thrilling.

Unfortunately, despite these aspects I liked, the length and slow pace of the book ultimately harmed my enjoyment of its explorations. Certain paths the writing takes felt pointless and redundant, with some characters having a weight that felt undeserved or served very little in the overall plot (I'm thinking of the section of the book that was dedicated to the doctor, the amount of time spent in London, among other POVs). The relationships, outside of Juan and Gaspar, often lack consistency in their depth or felt rushed because of time skips (ironic, because it's a long book). I'm curious if this is a result of translation, or what other folks feel.

Ultimately, I think that this is still a book I would recommend for those seeking translated horror with a gothic twist. It's certainly not for those with a weak heart (ha) nor for those who despite meandering stories. While this wasn't a favorite of mine, I think there is much I will continue to chew on for a while; and I am only excited for more of Mariana Enriquez's work to be translated!