I always struggle to rate books like this which I recognize as being of high quality but which I had mixed feelings about and struggled to relate to or enjoy.

Mariana Enríquez writes evocatively and the story, though mostly based on themes we’ve seen before, is uniquely constructed.

The length of this one really makes it a tough hang. I’m not generally bothered by longer novels, but this one was at least twice as long as it needed to be and the result is that it drags in parts. The second half of the book is markedly better than the first, so that helps in the end if you can manage to stick it with it until then.

Some of this, at least for me, was the result of which character was narrating. We get better and more intriguing perspectives in the second half of the book. It’s tempting to thus say that the order of narrators should have been different, but the plot unfolds in such a way that I’m not sure that would work.

I wish this book had been more, shall we say, likable as well. Other than Gaspar and the other kids, most of the characters are pretty unappealing, even if their aims are ultimately heroic or at least on the right side of the internal good/evil debate of the story.

And while this isn’t truly Horror at its most grotesque, there’s a lot of really gross stuff in here that wasn’t my favorite, and there’s a lot of mutilation and torture of kids and (to a lesser extent) animals that was off putting.

The general vibe of the book isn’t dissimilar to that of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which I loved, but it seems that what Enríquez does lends itself better to shorter format work, whether that’s a story collection like Smoking in Bed or just a shorter novel.

In all, worth a read as long as you’ve got a strong stomach, but definitely one that would have benefitted from a more condensed story.

The thing about big books is the comfort of really losing yourself in the story in a way that's different than with shorter books. This big one was perfection and I can't stop thinking about. The book hangover is going to be brutal.

An excellent dark horror, family saga that I'll be raving about always

thank you to net galley for the chance to read and review this stunning book

I accepted an ARC of Our Share of the Night from Netgalley. This is my honest review.

It's still December, and I'm calling it now: It's highly unlikely I'll read a better horror novel in 2023. Our Share of the Night is an epic novel filled with body horror, trauma, friendship, familial love and hate.

We meet Juan, a recent widower, traveling with his young son, Gaspar. Juan is filled with love for his son, but also anger, and the ability to hurt his son and anyone who gets in his way. Juan is a "medium" for an international cult that worships a dark, cruel god -- perhaps Darkness itself. He has been given no choice in this, having been purchased from his parents as a child.

Juan has a heart defect that he knows will kill him sooner than later, and he knows this cult wants his son -- either as the new medium, or a new vessel for Juan. He's determined that neither will happen.

The book encompasses a significant period of time, and a number of POV characters. Eventually we meet up with a slightly older Gaspar, who lives in an empty mansion with his father. He remembers little of the past. His father is often distant, and angry, and cruel. And sometimes perhaps insane.

The reader is privy to much more than Gaspar is at this stage, seeing connections he can't, and the workings of the occult. He is unaware he's setting up a friend to be sacrificed.
This portion of the book was extremely moving to me as Gaspar is abused by his father for reasons he can't understand. Juan commits a vicious act of cruelty and betrayal. I can only say that anyone who survived an abusive household will understand there are different types of horrors. One of those horrors is feeling unloved by a parent, and the shock when you realize you're not safe with them.

Gaspar had a friend group that helps him through this time, and we follow their journeys almost as much as Gaspar's, as they learn to live with loss, and the pieces of the aforementioned other world that clings to them.

The reader knows that Gaspar will eventually have to face the cult. Did I mention the cult is also family?

Things you should know:

This is a long book. Because I accepted a digital copy, I don't have page numbers, but depending on the source, it's between 600 and 730ish pages. It feels like the latter. You'll be spending lots of time here. If you just want the horror, and don't want to become involved, there are quicker books.

The book has a lot of body horror, and general supernatural stuff, including doors leading to another very vicious world, but there are long stretches between these moments where it's more about a feeling of dread and various characters working through trauma. A number of times I would be jolted anew at how dark, and gross, the story could be.

Our Share of the Night is a translated work from an Argentine author and is set in Argentina, and you will feel very immersed in this setting. The translation seemed smooth enough that I was rarely confused, but there were moments where I wondered if something was lost in translation.
Poets and poetry are mentioned A LOT!

The almost constant backdrop is political unrest. I think a lot of what you need to know can be picked up from context, but politics do play a heavy role. The cult is run by rich people who exploit poor, often Indigenous, people.

We spend time in London in the sixties, and Argentina the rest of the time, particularly in the 80s and 90s, and this portion has a focus on the AIDS crisis. The London portion might very well scratch a little bit of any serial killer itch you might have. 

There's LGBTQ+ rep, but slurs and outdated terms abound. There are a two people who are called a couple, but also twins, who want to swap sexes, but there seems to be more of a supernatural/spiritual incentive than really being trans. At least 3 of the protagonists are gay or bi.

An outdated term for people with Down Syndrome is used between friends.

Not every question of plot point is wrapped up, and there's clearly room for another book. Which I would read!

Our Share of the Night took me a couple weeks to read -- I read other books as well -- because I was so involved that I needed breaks from a very dark story. While most of the characters are varying degrees of evil, I did care about a few, and I imagine you will too. Others I wanted to suffer -- and suffer they did!

I feel that I could read the book several times over and find additional layers and nuances I missed.

Our Share of Night
By Mariana Enriquez
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book.
This sounded so interesting I was very happy to get approved to read it.
I thought the overall plot was fairly good but different. Our man of the story, Juan, is a medium. He is a conduit for the darkness. Boy, is this book dark and so very, very, long! There is so much that could be condensed.
Juan has a son named Gaspar. Gaspar is already getting stronger than Juan was at Gaspar's age. Juan doesn't want his son to be a medium.
A medium physical changes into a monster at these sick ceremonies and mutilates or kills victims. The mind changes too, Juan is cruel and crazy many days. Abusive to Gaspar.
This book is filled with, not horror, but just sick stuff. Child abuse, shock value stuff like a bag of eye lids, and kids watching men have sex.
The time line is all over the place too.
I like horror books but this was unorganized, instead of suspense it had just gross/sick material, and none of the characters were interesting enough to become attached to. I felt sorry for the son through most of the book but I didn't really feel I knew him. If you have characters, make someone likeable and not in a cult that worships a bloodthirsty monster!

3.5 stars, rounded up. Imagine if Isabel Allende wrote a cross between Lovecraft Country and Firestarter (except that it extends the Firestarter portion into the child character's adulthood). Toward the end it does seem to lose interest in the (supernatural) horror side of the story, spending a lot more time Allende-style on the travails of the marginalized in Argentine society in the 1980s and '90s, and the resolution of the Lovecraft Country-ish part feels like an afterthought. Which is a shame, as the less real-world parts of the plot I found the strongest. (There are a handful of scenes that will stick with me for quite a while...)

This is a book that rewards patience. The reader is dropped into circumstances with very little explanation in the beginning in a way that I wanted to be frustrated with. At times I felt like all I wanted to do was figure out what was going on but the book was withholding that, putting it out of reach. But as the story starts to reveal itself, the book became impossible to put down and the pay off for the slow pacing in the beginning is absolutely thrilling.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an e-ARC of this work. Our Share of Night is an episodic look at family legacy, perversion of morality, and testing fate. I appreciate Enriquez's ability to build onto high tension established from the beginning of the novel. I do think in many ways this could have been improved with enforced brevity. Overall, I enjoyed reading and seeing Gaspar grow into himself and fight for his own right as a human to forge his own path.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Inc for an egalley. All opinions expressed are my own

What it's about: Set in Argentina during a military dictatorship, a father attempts to protect his young son from a dynastic family that wishes to use the young lad for occultic purposes.

I love to try a new author, a new genre, a new style of writing, etc. When Goodreads released an article on the books being released in 2023 that their members were excited about I browsed and selected a few titles that dared me to look outside my comfort zone. Our Share of Night was one of those titles. Although literary fiction is a familiar genre for me, horror is not one which I have dived into very much.

It proved to be a very challenging read.

According to storyflint. com," horror stories are designed to frighten the audience, often uses suspense, fear, and shocks to keep people on the edge of their seats. Some great horror stories are allegorical or symbolic, while others are more literal."

It took me 10 days to complete this novel as I would read one part at a time and then take a rest and allow what I had read- "digest."

Then I decided to wait 48 hours before I wrote my review.

This is what I know to be true- That this book has won the hearts of so many reviewers and critics and I learned a lot reading their words. Although this book didn't win my heart, I don't think it has anything to do with the genre or the writing. I believe it just comes from me being unable to connect with the characters or feeling swept up in the writing.

Overall, I am glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave this book a try.


Publication Date: 07/02/23
Goodreads review published 10/02/23

#OurShareofNight #NetGalley.

This was such a unique story! It moves back and forth in time from London in the 1960’s to the time of Argentina’s military dictatorship and what followed. I enjoyed it and the spooky elements were great!

After the death of his wife a father a d son decide to go on a road trip. They go back to their ancestral home where the matriarchs family called the Order commits unspeakable acts searching for immortality. The order tries to get the son, Gaspar to follow them. It is his destiny. Unwilling, the father and son leave. Trying to outrun the Order will be challenging, especially since they are willing to do anything it takes to ensure their survival. How far will Gaspar’s father go to protect him?

Thank you netgalley and random house publishing for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

(ARC from NetGalley) I do believe we lost something in the translation of this book. Although Juan and Gaspar had fantastic characterization and you could clearly see they had a complex relationship, the horror elements lacked the atmosphere.

Still brilliant and I’ve never read anything quite like this, but just missing that razzle dazzle.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really know what I was expecting from this book going into it. I think the way its written makes it a bit difficult not only to rate but to read. I wasn't sure if maybe the translation was part of it or not. But I found myself skim reading. Which to me is a sign that it wasn't for me if I wasn't trying to absorb it to remember later.

i feel completely honored to have received an arc of “our share of night.” this novel is an incredible feat from the literary master mariana enríquez. this is not a collection of short stories, but a full length novel. we meet juan peterson, a man trying to escape his violent cult past, and his son gaspar. juan is not a loving father in the traditional sense, but he has dedicated his life to finding a way to keep his son away from his evil grandparents who worship a vengeful god and perform odd rituals. we follow both juan and gaspar in argentina as they both try to live somewhat normal lives.

this novel is split into multiple sections, not chapters. enríquez expertly weaves together several points of view and time periods to create a visceral experience for the reader; there is not a moment that drags on too long or feels boring; every page is emotionally charged. the world building and explanations of magic and the occult are brilliant. i absolutely loved this novel and i feel so special that i was able to read it early. once again, enríquez has proved her talent in creating horror that does not conform to any tropes and fully shocks the system. you have to read this.

thank you so so so much to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

a maniacal horror. This one stuck with me for a long time. The cult and behavior within this novel was truly terrifying.

This took me a while to read, but it was truly very very good and truly scary! The horror of this novel was played out on so many different levels, beyond just the obvious supernatural horror at the centre of it. Explorations of love, family, knowledge, obligation, and goodness were threaded throughout the novel and even though it is quite long, I feel like I could have continued reading about these characters for much much longer, and at the end I was left wishing for a little more resolution. Our Share of Night is truly an achievement of literary horror and it's beautifully translated as well!

For me the hardest job is to review this book, give it justice but also explain why it did not work for me.

This is quite a book. It stands at 600 pages, and over 27hours in audio. I chose to listen to this one, and I think that's where I went wrong.

The story is written in such a way, and narrated in a way where it feels like a lullaby. It is very slow, descriptive, at parts emotional and touchy. And I drift away listening to these characters get lost in themselves, and get pulled back in when the blood starts to spill. It goes from 0 to 10 so fast, its like a whiplash.

The story is generational. About a family, the abuse and trauma experienced, and how the parent tries to protect his son from the same. At whatever the cost. It is a dark story - gory, bloody, raw. It also has a lot of political commentary about the times and the location. The inclusion of a cult of the very rich, doing everything at any cost to stay powerful - it all builds a brutal background to all the pain these characters have to endure.

And just like my review, it is all over the place. It does have a linear tale, but not linear timeline. Changing up the time, as well as characters on audio was hard to follow and distinguish who is the current POV and what time it is. It did connect in the end, but I felt very disconnected, especially after listening for it for so long. It could have been better reading a physical copy.

The author did a phenomenal job in weaving this very dark story. I say dark, because there's so many TWs I couldn't try and list them all (please do look for the on the author's website). The writing is phenomenal. I just wish it was shorter to create a better and faster punch to the gut, that the ending was. There's just so much to unfold and process, especially all the pain and trauma the characters get to live through, at the end I should have felt drenched, but because of the length, it faded for me.

Thank you PRH Audio for an ALC. Thank you to Penguin Random House and netgalley for a chance to read this book. All opinions are my own.

A perfectly acceptable but not terribly memorable trip through the darkest part of night. I feel that some things may have been post in translation. Nevertheless, I was truly and completely spooked. Not bad. A good little night of terror.

I’d like to thank Random House and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Mariana Enriquez has a way of making your flesh crawl, uneasiness writhing under your skin like an itch you can’t satisfy with a scratch. This is the first novel of hers that I’ve read, and the shocking, grotesque, and cruel imagery/events painted in my mind won’t be quick to leave it. I love witchcraft, I love the occult, I love the left hand path, I love this book and can’t wait to own a physical copy!

Our Share of Night begins with a grief-laden, father and son road trip. It’s not a welcome trip, but an inevitable one. Juan Peterson and his son Gaspar travel across Argentina to the family home of Rosario, Juan’s late wife and Gaspar’s mother. Ultimately, Juan’s goal is to prevent his son from inheriting the same life he has: that of medium used in service to his family’s powerful devotion to the Darkness and the “way of the left hand”—black magic. Whether Gaspar possesses his father’s ability to invoke the Darkness is not clear, but Juan is determined to cut the boy off from his brutal family who relentlessly seek communion with the Darkness through their medium. Using the same power that makes Juan simultaneously precious and a target for exploitation, he works for years to build protection around the boy. All this happens against the backdrop of the political unrest, kidnappings and disappearings of 1970s Argentina.

Mariana Enríquez’s novel is without a doubt a foray into the dark, mysterious and grotesque, but is shot through with a few deeply likable characters. The evil and horror that is central to the story alternates between shocking and disarmingly casual. Enríquez adds to the sense of the grotesque with her constant reminders of the damp, oppressive heat that suffocates her characters and scenes in the Misiones Province where much of the novel takes place.

Our Share of Night is a long book at nearly 700 pages. At times, the pace moves along nicely through changes in perspective from Juan, to Gaspar, to Rosario and a few other narrators. Some backstory takes a long time to unravel for little reward in the form of insight into the plot or characters. The book is at its best when told from Gaspar’s limited point of view as he grows from a child to a man, almost entirely unaware of the danger his father works to protect him from.

I think it’s worth your time to dive into this long, but thrilling exploration of Argentinian occult and political history, but don’t expect a quick read. For a reader unschooled in Argentinian history, a few google searches here and there to learn more about both the political and religious references may enhance your reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this electronic advanced reader copy.

OUR SHARE OF NIGHT is impressive and horrifying. It's an eerie, looming painting of a dark fable, shaded with the bloody paint of histories. It's gory and gothic- impassive yet brutally tragic; an epic that entwines allegory with political and occult horror into a spell that entrances.

From the publisher:
A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.

For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes. This is the masterwork of one of Latin America’s most original novelists, “a mesmerizing writer,” says Dave Eggers, “who demands to be read.”

My thoughts:

I felt sorry for Gaspar. His mother dies when he is very young. His father, while trying to protect him, is also abusive at times. The Order and his grandmother want to use him to try and obtain immortality of consciousness.

The pace of the book is uneven. It is very slow in parts which gives it a dreamlike or should I say nightmarish quality.

The book jumps around with different sections focusing on different characters. I liked the parts that focused on Gaspar the best. I was puzzled about the inclusion of a section from a journalist's point of view. The only reason I can think of for it is to point out again the horrors of some of the time period the book is set in.

It is definitely a horrifying story. From the Darkness to the way that Mercedes treats and mistreats others as nothing but tools to serve her, it is an unsettling read.

The book does deserve trigger warnings for the body horror and the mentions of abuse of all kinds. The horrors of war and the AIDS epidemic could also be triggering for some people. But seriously, this is a horror book.

I was a little unsatisfied with the ending. I don't want to say more because of spoilers.

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. I liked Gaspar. And even in the slow parts I wanted to know what would happen next and ultimately how things would turn out. If you enjoy your horror with a historical setting mostly in the 80s, in particular Argentina, then this might be a good book for you.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not influence my opinions.