Mariana Enriquez is one of my favorite horror authors. While I thoroughly enjoyed her recent debut novel, her short story collections hold a special place on my shelf. They have all spent time in my bag, for quick reads between train stops or while I sit for a cafe. I particularly enjoy how she blends the horror of the macabre and supernatural with the often more terrifying horrors we inflict upon our fellow men. She is a captivating storyteller, and of course, Megan McDowell is a talented translator. Needless to say, I loved this book!

Read on an ARC provided by the publisher and NetGalley, which did not influence my review.

This was was very much a Mariana Enriquez short story collection. It’s everything you expect. If you’re a short story/ horror lover it’s for you.. It’s dark and creepy and sometimes stomach churning!

You really get a good feel for Enriquez's style throughout this collection. Horror elements run through all of the stories, yes, but her voice is unique among horror writers. The stories are all interesting reads and varied. You care for the characters, even if you are with them for a short time and all are thoroughly enjoyable.

After reading, loving, and being fairly traumatized by Our Share of Night, I was excited to read more from Mariana Enríquez. I really enjoyed these stories as well. They were very atmospheric—I felt immediately engrossed in each one. In many of them, Enríquez introduces the paranormal, macabre elements as something unsurprising to her protagonists, regardless of how upsetting they’re likely to be for readers. The Suffering Woman was a highlight for me; it felt like it spoke to the pain of observing and consuming the world’s pain online, in real time. I also really enjoyed the titular story, A Sunny Place for Shady People. If I have critiques, it’s that many of the stories feel like they end quite abruptly (which to some extent is just the nature of a short story collection) and that a couple of the stories felt somewhat reminiscent of other work I’ve viewed or read: A Local Artist reminded me a lot of Midsommar, and Night Birds felt a lot like Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Regardless, I’d highly recommend this collection and definitely see myself revisiting many of the stories again.

We live in a crazy world, all of us, together. It's a place of both sun and shade, and though there is that sunny, glorious, incredibly beautiful "sun" part of the equation, it's the shade, yeah. Still there. Always there.

The best, most magical solution, the solution to keep us grounded and together: stories. We all have stories. More so, we all need stories.

Stories in search of more pain and death, stories about unasked for burdens and the weight of carrying them, stories about trauma passed down, stories about evil itself, stories about feelings we have no words for. All of these and more: we need them.

Stories nurture us. They keep us connected and brimming with life, brimming with that "sun" that's always poking around a shady spot.

Fin the stories, find the sun. Find A sunny Place for Shady People.

Another 5 star Mariana Enriquez publication! This collection of stories was perfect! My emotions were all over the place, and I loved it! I would recommend this to anyone who will listen, 5 stars!!

This was a solid collection of short stories that embodied dark, macabre, fanatical, and somber themes. Enriquez touches on relatable themes such as lingering grief, regret, shame, paranoia, and victim blaming. Those speak to the humanity of the protagonists-even when the paranormal plays a role. She also writes stories that bring to life the supernatural, and things that go bump in the night. My personal favorite was the last story, Black Eyes. Even though it doesn’t explicitly say, it gives off strong vampiric vibes and hits all the right horror notes.

While this collection isn’t strictly horror in the traditional sense, it still provides stories of dread, sadness, and peculiarity. It would be one I would recommend.

I went into reading this with no expectations whatsoever, as it was my first of Mariana Enríquez's books, but wow. This collection of short stories kept me wanting more. They were haunting, disgusting, beautiful, and I was fully immersed. "Metamorphis", was my absolute favorite story of all. I would 10/10 recommend this book to anyone, that has a relatively strong stomach. I cannot wait to read "the Dangers of Smoking in Bed" after this.

I had heard many good things about the other fiction collections written by Mariana Enriquez, but this is my first experience reading any of her work. While I’m definitely grateful to have gotten access to this ARC, I’m thinking that maybe I should have started with the others.

The title story is fiction but it is also about the very real death of Elisa Lam and every detail of her case is handled pretty insensitively and in poor taste. She’s practically laid out like a carnival exhibit, something freakish to be gawked at. I think the narrator of the story is supposed to be shitty, but in my mind this doesn’t give Enriquez a free pass. It just felt kind of uncomfortable. She could’ve easily borrowed a few details from reality and changed the character’s
name and the story would’ve been similar. (Perhaps it was meant to be a tribute? But why be so disrespectful?)

There’s another story later on, about a woman who is haunted by a stranger that died of a chronic illness. This was another one that seemed to be a little bit iffy and I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to accomplish with it, aside from using the symptoms of Cancer as body horror. It was sad and it was upsetting and I didn’t enjoy reading it. (Though perhaps that was the point.) I think it had something to do with questioning your own mortality, but there are plenty of other ways to address this.

Something I’ve noticed about her writing style is that it feels disjointed. Enriquez doesn’t stay on topic and the narration often feels like someone telling you a story that moves quickly from one topic to another in a somewhat confusing manner. (Think large, unbroken paragraphs.) I had some difficulty staying focused and following the plot threads. She’s also quite good at writing characters that I would like to push down a flight of stairs, “Death Becomes Her” style. (Not necessarily a bad thing.)

I want to be clear that my reaction is not all negative. Little moments of clever metaphor were peppered throughout, along with an eerie scare or disgusting body horror moment that landed effectively. And there were two stories that stood out above the rest for me as 5-star reads:

“Face of Disgrace” is legit horrifying and sad. It’s also a really beautiful and tragic representation of generational trauma. (And I liked the specific horror references as well.) This was the story that fully made me see the author’s skill.

“Different Colors Made of Tears” is also really good. A great concept and despite its uglier moments I thought that both the metaphors and the blatant imagery were crafted effectively.

There was another story I was pretty fond of called “A Local Artist” that was just the right flavor of unsettling and bizarre but I wanted a bit more from the ending.

I’m giving the collection a 3.5 because of those three stories. I would love to read more like those. I’m still planning to seek out more from Enriquez even though this collection didn’t hit as hard for me as I wanted it to. (Please also note the extremely lengthy trigger warnings, if that’s your thing!)

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

TW: Chronic Illness, Graphic descriptions of real life true crime victim, Substance Abuse, Sexual Assault, Suicide, Domestic Abuse, Fat shaming, Mention of Disordered Eating, Animal death (graphic), Homophobia/Hate Speech, Mention of Holocaust, Mention of Abortion

I'm someone who often has a hard time with short stories because there's not a lot of room for character development or scene-setting, but Enríquez is a writer who always manages to establish a sense of voice, place, and mood within a few paragraphs. This collection of short stories takes the reader through a spectrum of narrators and settings and experiences both real and paranormal. We meet ghosts, addicts, monsters and those who would be monstrous, sons and daughters and mothers and lovers and all their secrets, and people yearning for transformation, for love, for mercy or absolution.

For the most part, I found the stories to be rather uneven; they almost always halt at the edge of an open wound: a moment poised on the precipice of disaster, either awaiting further horrors or trying to leave the terror behind. Very few feel hopeful (“Metamorphosis” is a notable exception), which perhaps reflects Enríquez’s outlook on contemporary life in Argentina. And while there is plenty of the body horror and societal dread that make Enríquez’s writing so compelling, those hard-hitting moments and passages felt a bit isolated due to the shorter story lengths and abrupt nature of a lot of the endings.

When I first finished this collection a month ago, I didn’t know if many of the stories would stick with me, but even now I do still find myself thinking about the first three quite a bit:

• “My Sad Dead” - as the opener, this felt more like a meditation on the nature of ghosts, and I found myself pretty emotionally invested in it.

• “A Sunny Place for Shady People” - it’s interesting to me that the title story is the only one that takes place outside Argentina, and although I didn’t really connect with the protagonist, the grief in this story was palpable

• “Face of Disgrace” - the POV shift after the first section was a little clunky, but the spiral into body horror was masterful

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I am someone who doesn’t really like story collections but I’ve heard great things about this authors past releases so I was very excited to receive an e-arc of this from NetGally. I had the best time with this collection, it’s scary and heartbreaking and left me wanting to read more from Mariana Enriquez. I loved the concept of normal women living normal lives until one day they experience something horrific or supernatural that changes everything. The writing is beautiful and addictive, even though it was stories I found myself having a hard time putting it down because I wanted to see what world she would throw me into next. I will be reading Mariana’s backlog asap and picking this up for a re read on publication day!
Thank you NetGally and the publishers for the advice copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

Mariana Enriquez is one of my favorite authors of all time and her newly translated horror story collection, A Sunny Place for Shady People, did not disappoint!

Her books are always so atmospheric and her writing is always so gorgeous & engrossing. Her stories always include social commentary, as well as straight horror, so it adds another layer and makes them even more gut wrenching. And I want to give it up for the translator as well, Megan McDowell, because she does an amazing job at bringing these stories to life in English!

My favorite stories were Black Eyes & Face of Disgrace! Black Eyes was TOP TIER! One of the best stories I’ve EVER read! Incredibly scary! The Refrigerator Cemetery, Julie, and My Sad Dead were favorites of mine as well. There were a few that weren’t for me like, A Local Artist & The Suffering Woman, but overall I really enjoyed the collection. There were spirits, murders, body horror, just everything that you’d want in a collection of horror stories!

Thank you Hogarth and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

~ individual story ratings ~

📖 My Sad Dead: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 A Sunny Place for Shady People: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (cw: drug addiction)
📖 Face of Disgrace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (cw: rape, suicide)
📖 Julie: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (cw: fatohobia)
📖 Night Birds: ⭐️⭐️ (cw: animal death)
📖 Metamorphosis: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (cw: animal death)
📖 Hyena Hymns: ⭐️⭐️
📖 Different Colors Made of Tears: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 The Suffering Woman: DNF
📖 The Refrigerator Cemetery: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 A Local Artist: DNF
📖 Black Eyes: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (cw: rape mentioned)

average rating: 3 stars
official rating: 3.75 rounded up to 4 stars

Mariana Enriquez is one of my favorite short story writers. Even though I didn't love her debut novel, I feel like Mariana excels at crafting creepy and fascinating horror-inspired short stories. This is her 3rd short story collection, and boy this one didn't disappoint! My top 5 include: "My Sad Dead", "Face of Disgrace", "Julie", "Night Birds", and "The Refrigerator Cemetary". Overall, I enjoyed ALL 12 stories. Mariana's prose always blows me away. If you love macabre stories, then you will enjoy this collection. I also recommend her 2 previous collections, "The Dangers of Smoking in Bed", and "Things We Lost in the Fire". And the cover art is to die for! Wow.

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House for the digital ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this opportunity! This collection will be available 9/17/24!

Wow. Wow wow wow. Holy mother of gawd. This was everything. I do not care what you are doing on release day. You will do yourself the biggest moment of disservice if you do not go and get this collection of short stories. They are lush, sumptuous stories that entrance and enthrall. Give you caution and heart break break. Simply put they’re perfection

A collection of short stories where the supernatural mixes with the lives of everyday women, A Sunny Place for Shady People is full of emotion. There is joy and grief, laughter and tears, all intermingled with the fantastical. I can't choose my favorite one, but many of them have stayed with me.

Originally I had wanted to review each short story but honestly, I wasn't completely impressed with this one. I liked a few stories, especially more so than other ones - as to be expected with a collection of stories but overall, they fell short. I thought they seemed pretty repetitive and the story about the Cecil Hotel rubbed me the wrong way. There wasn't too much horror but rather just horror elements. I know Mariana Enriquez has huge fans so I feel bad feeling so average about this one but I recommend trying seeing for yourself! I do love the title lol

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Everything felt the same in terms of her past work just mushing into a book. Same concepts and themes, that I wish would have been explored differently. Still a wonderfully written book, but just felt so neutral and bored about it.

A Sunny Place For Shady People by Mariana Enriquez, This is a short story collection written by an Argentine author whose anthology definitely lives up to the hype. From the first story with Dr. Emma to the family who has a tradition of melting faces all the way to the refrigerator cemetery is packed with little hooks that grab you and suck you into a story that when it’s over you will be wishing could’ve been longer. I can honestly say I have never read short stories with so many characters I felt like I knew in some I was even rooting for despite some of the horrible things a few of them did lol! I will not batter you with overwhelming praise for this book I will just say if you love strange macabre stories with a touch of paranormal then you’ll more than likely love this book as much as I did.#NetGalley, #RandomHouse,#MarianaEnriquez,#ASunnyPlaceForShadyPeople,

A Sunny Place for Shady People is a set of stories that have death, addiction and Argentina in common. The first story, 'My Sad Dead' was a stream-of-consciousness take on Argentinian society from the perspective of a sixty year old doctor, who is a mother and also a reluctant medium. "...And ghosts are a little like that. They seem human, they seem smart, but they’re really just a sliver of a person that is compelled to repeat itself." I wanted an entire full length novel with Emma as the main character.

The second story, same name as the book, is a fictional account of a reporter's research into the true bizarre death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel in LA. I'm fascinated by her story myself so this was a nice backdrop. The macabre events surrounding her body being discovered drowned and decomposing in the water tank atop the hotel, that guests had been drinking and bathing in, has spun off a wide variety of opinions from mental illness to the supernatural since her death in 2013.  Mariana Enriquez uses Elisa's story to extract themes for her own tale here. It was more of a treatise on making peace with a past and passed love, as well as lasting friendship. Does this author have a love affair with the streets? I think so. It's a common setting among all these stories and I appreciate her attention to detail. "[He] was copper, and copper’s golden tone fades over time and leaves greenish stains on the skin. That’s what our time together was, only the stains wouldn’t leave my skin like the ones from copper rings do. I couldn’t get rid of them."

There are 12 stories in all and even though there is a lot to love about these stories there are also a lot of potential triggers. So be aware of that if it's an issue. These stories are a nice mix of philosophical, social and paranormal commentary and I liked each one. The writing could've been a bit more polished but they were good. Creepy kids always freak me out. If you're a fan of gritty, depressing but original paranormal tales try this collection.

Lately I’ve found myself reading whatever it is I’m reading for reviewing purposes to my four month old son. As someone that read and loved Mariana Enriquez’s previous short story collection, I figured her lyrical prose would soothe my baby when he was fussy, so I read it aloud to him, as he is too little to know what the words mean. It worked, he fell asleep, but as I finished the story I found my husband sitting next to me, as immersed by Enriquez’s words as I was. I finished the story, and my husband immediately asked me “what the hell are you reading?”

I was thrilled to get to share one of my favorite Latin-American authors with my husband. Mariana Enriquez has some absolute bangers of stories in this collection, weaving unimaginable horror with gorgeous prose. Some of the stories had me completely dissociate, others had me enraptured. A very solid collection from an incredible writer. I really enjoyed this collection, although The Dangers of Smoking in Bed will always be my favorite, I think.