This is my third book I’ve read by Mariana Enriquez and I will officially say she is now a favorite horror author of mine. These stories are incredibly scary and I more than once made the error of reading them right before bed and had to pick up something lighter for a few minutes before actually going to sleep. She also does a beautiful job of incorporating mental illness into her writing in a way that feels respectful to those with mental illness rather than using it as a platform for the horror that adds to the stigma.

Like her previous short story collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enríquez's newest collection A Sunny Place for Shady People mixes supernatural and horror elements, with many of the stories focusing on bodily horror. A woman cannot leave her neighborhood because she cannot leave her (dead) mother's ghost who still lives in the house. A journalist travels to Los Angeles to investigate a potential supernatural element in a woman's death. A woman is slowly turning faceless like her mother did. One longs to be reconnected to a part of their body that was removed. Enríquez invokes powerful visuals. Birds' noises at night are crying women. Bruises and cuts start appearing on someone's body when they put on cursed clothes. A collection of unused refrigerators serves as a cemetery. This was another great collection by her and would recommend to others, understanding the morbid content of many of these.

Thank you to Hogarth (Random House) for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

(Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the ARC) ‘A Sunny Place for Shady People’ is a collection of 12 short stories that I’d describe as morbidly fascinating. I was expecting horror in the slasher/thriller sense but these stories are the slow creep and the true horrors lie within the sociopolitical landscape of Argentina, addiction, SA and the terrible things humans do to one another (on that note please check CW). While I did not connect with every story, the overall collection kept my attention. My personal favorites were: Hyena Hymns, The Suffering Woman and My Sad Dead.

I think Mariana Enriquez truly excels in short stories. Each story packs such a punch and it makes you feel a little nauseous and paranoid in the best way.

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

This is my 4th Mariana Enriquez book and possibly my least favorite. Although this short story collection has all the markings of what usually makes her work so wonderful, the constant disjointed plots and open endings make it hard to find enjoyable. Enriquez excels most when there is enough space and opportunity for intense world-building and detailed characterization, which is difficult to do in a short story format. While her talent is often palpable- this is not a book that showcases it properly. My favorite stories were the titular story and “Black Eyes”.

The only experience I have with reading anything written by Mariana Enriquez was reading Our Share of Night, which I thoroughly enjoyed and I found to be a brilliant book. I had very high hopes for her short stories, but unfortunately, this one wasn’t it.

This collection of stories is kind of all over the place. There were some stories that were excellent (the last one is one of my favorite), but more so than not, there were stories that I was left feeling confused and not understanding what the point was. And to be honest, I actually feel like it is more of a me problem. I get this feeling that the author is way more intelligent than I am and maybe I’m not getting the point because I’m not on her level.

Also, the stories didn’t feel cohesive at all to me. If the stories were at least connected on some level, the incompleteness wouldn’t have been so bothersome.

I’m definitely going to read other stories and story collections by this author because I love her writing and I like how quickly she can make you become invested in a character. Also she’s excellent at establishing a creepy, spooky story and throwing in horror without taking away from the actual story itself. I just felt like too many in this particular collection were incomplete and needed a touch more.

So I don’t know if I would actually recommend this entire collection, but the stories I did like were worth the read. This is not a very long book so to me it’s worth picking up for the three or four that were really good.

A collection of stories that blend the mundane with the macabre, drawing me into a world where the ordinary often masks the sinister. I appreciated her vivid prose and the way she captures the essence of life in contemporary Argentina, making the settings feel alive and palpable. The characters are richly drawn, often flawed yet relatable, which kept me invested in their fates.
However, I found that some stories felt a bit disjointed, leaving me wanting more cohesion in the overarching themes. While the eerie atmosphere is compelling, a few narratives seemed to lack the depth I was hoping for, making them feel more like sketches than fully realized tales.
Overall, Enriquez's ability to evoke emotion and tension is commendable, but the unevenness in storytelling left me with mixed feelings.

This is the first book that I have read by Mariana Enriquez and I really enjoyed the compilation of stories. There was a little bit of every type of horror you can imagine. The majority of the stories take place in Argentina. You get things from ghosts roaming a neighborhood with one of the residents being able to guide them, stories of horrible things happen that make your appearance change, there was a story that tied in the death of Elisa Lam.
The stories had a bit of mythology/folklore aspects to them. Some of the stories were a bit on the extreme but isn't that the kind of stories that we love to hear about? I will say that some of the stories I really enjoyed were: My Sad Dead, A Sunny Place for Shady People, Face of Disgrace (would love to see this one as a full story to get more background on the cause), The Refrigerator Cemetary.

Overall, it was a great compilation of chilling stories. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.

✨Book Review✨

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Are we surprised I binge-read this novel in a day? No. No, we aren’t, because the phenomenal Mariana Enríquez wrote it, with the spectacular Megan McDowell translating. If you consider yourself a horror genre fan and haven’t read *Our Share of Night,* you are doing yourself a disservice. Run, don’t walk, to get both of these books. Now.

This particular novel consists of multiple different short stories that will make any spooky reader a huge fan. I’m not going to give a summary of each story since that would defeat the point of reading said short story.

Highlights (these are my top favorites):
⭐️Black Eyes
⭐️Face of Disgrace
⭐️Night Birds
⭐️Julie
⭐️My Sad Dead
⭐️A Sunny Place for Shady People
⭐️A Local Artist

Pitfalls:
❌HA! Never. One of the best authors ever.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

What a dark, morbid, depressing and verrryyyy unnerving collection of stories!

Mariana Enriquez does a great job at creating atmosphere and the feeling of undeniable dread in every story she writes, and I can’t recommend reading her collections enough.

There were some very strong stories that I’ll be thinking about for a longtime (and probably when I’m trying to fall asleep peacefully lol) and some stories that didn’t quite hit for me. My favorites being A Sunny Place for Shady People, Night Birds, Hyena Hymns & Black Eyes.

From ghosts and addiction to abusive men and devil children, there’s no shortage of having to face your fears in here….

4 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley & Hogarth for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House [Hogarth] for an e-book of "A Sunny Place for Shady People" by Mariana Enriquez in exchange for an honest review. Wow! What an incredible read! Creepy, weird. ghostly, paranormal, tense, and otherworldly. A book that I will reread and remember. Something I desperately want to own! I was entranced and could not stop, I finished it in one sitting. Every time, Mariana Enriques manages to absolutely stun me with her writing. I recommend this to anyone! It's a short story collection, contemporary, and a great mix of horror, and fantasy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth for this eARC!

My first exposure to Mariana's writing was reading OUR SHARE OF NIGHT, which was engrossing and a great re-introduction (for me) back to horror. I was super excited to get a chance to read this new short story collection---and it didn't disappoint! I loved this book so much that I finished reading this within a week. I'm hooked on Mariana's writing and Megan McDowell's translation was superb.

This book is going on my bookshelf as print copy when it releases!

Life's too short to read fatphobic content. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I was really excited to receive an arc of this from netgalley but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it. I love this author and enjoyed her other short story collection but I just found these slow and uninteresting, I couldn't get into them. I do think people will enjoy them, just not me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a review copy.

A Sunny Place for Shady People is a collection of 12 short stories. All twelve are either set in or have ties to Buenos Aires. As expected, they are all creepy and beautifully written. I will say I don't understand them all after a single read and several have open endings that just make them more creepy. These sorts of stories are not my typical reading fare, but these are very much worth reading.

My Sad Dead
A charming ghost story. I think this is the least creepy of the 12.

A Sunny Place for Shady People
Anchored on the true story of Elisa Lam who was found drowned in a hotel water tank in 2013. My favourite story of the collection.

Face of Disgrace
Extremenly creepy - excellent story.

Julie
Very weird, I liked this one a lot.

Nightbirds
I think I need to read this one wihout interruptions - I think I missed something important. I have not idea whatis real in this story - which may be the point.

Metomorphosis
Very cool. Girl incorporates herself into herself.

Hyena Hymns
Very creepy - one of the stories where dange comes from found clothing.

Different Colors Made of Tears
The other clothing story - I missed something here as I don't get the ending.

The Suffering Woman
Like a ghost story but not really.

The Refrigerator Cemetery
So very creepy, very horror, not for me.

A Local Artist
High on the horror scale and low on the happy ending scale.

Black Eyes
A simpler story than the rest of the collection. I felt this had more gore and less horror.

A really strong collection in a genre outside my comfort zone.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC.

I almost always enjoy short story anthologies, and this is no exception. The stories may not be scary, and a couple of them just do not land, but the first couple stories hit. The titular story especially - it’s very human, and a reminder that even the mundane can cause unease.

I'm tempted to go a little closer to 3.5 stars for this, but I'm ok with rounding it up to 4. I do like this collection a bit better than The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, but it suffers a bit from the same things that happen to any short story collection. Even though there are a lot of fantastic stories, there are a handful that are just ok and kind of drag it down. It's a pretty short collection, so it's not a huge deal. It's just borderline inevitable with collections. The stories I like, I really liked, though. This is horror the whole way through, and it ranges from Twilight Zone-y parable type stories to wild body horror and vampires, and it's mostly super fun. I just wanna read another full on Mariana Enriquez novel again, because Our Share of Night is for sure still her best work, but this is very fun and definitely recommended.

Perfect for fans of supernatural and horror. This collection of “things that go bump in the night” stories leaves you spine-tingling thrills from one story to the next. Though I’m usually not a fan of short collections because some stories capture you more than others, this was a solid showing by the author. Scarily delicious!

From my first read of The Dangers of Smoking In Bed, I knew that Mariana Enriquez would swiftly become one of my favorite current authors. One of the strongest current authors, especially in the short story collection department, and A Sunny Place for Shady People is just as strong as her two previous collections! If you enjoyed either, you should absolutely pick up a copy of this one!

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND RANDOM HOUSE HOGARTH FOR THE E-ARC!

incredible as always. so full of creativity, emotion, love, and resistance to the norms - i love how enriquez includes sly analysis of politics and history as well.