Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing Style: 4
Cover: 4
Enjoyment: 3.5/4
Buyable/Re-readable?: Maybe. I'll explain at the end, since it may or may not be a spoiler.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Violent child abuse (physical, emotional, psychological), human sacrifice, torture, kidnapping, caging children, dismemberment, suicide, disappeared, genocide. I don't always include these but felt it prudent this time. I was able to get through the book, and this may help others as well, because I was reminded of the fantastical setting regularly, therefore making it easier to remember this was a work of fiction and fake.

This story is told in third and first person POVs, and divided into six parts (I would say that, for the most part, the characters had different voices but not always, it's curious) -
▫ Part 1, Jan 1981 - Juan and Tali.
▫ Part 2, Jan 1983 - Jorge Bradford (it had a lot of run-on sentences), only one 'chapter'.
▫ Part 3, 1985–86 - Gaspar, Pablo, Adela, Vicky. Run-on sentences as well, some that work, some that are frustrating. The kids are around 12 here and Juan is 34. The second half gets, I don't know, odd? Like, it almost drags.
▫ Part 4, 1960–1976 - First POV, Rosario Bradford and about Juan during youth. She's 11 and he's 8 at some point. She tells a story set in 1919. A time jump occurs where Juan is 15, and then about to turn 18 in another. Gaspar is two at some point, and it ends with Juan 24, Luis (his brother) 30.
▫ Part 5, 1993 – First POV of journalist, Olga. 7 years since a significant disappearance. It's written like one of her stories, includes interviews.
▫ Part 6, 1987–97 - Told through Luis, Vicky, Gas, Pablo, Steve/Esteban. Gaspar is 14 at some point, 18 at another. Pablo is 23.The book ends with Gaspar being 25.

The author chose to use quotation marks but also omitted them throughout - ex: We’re leaving, he said as he shook him gently. I am not a fan and very curious as to why they chose to do this? Things included are: the Order, the Ceremonial, mediums/priests & priestesses/shamans, invocations, demons, occult, sex magic, blood magic, sacrifices, saints, deities, tarot, Cults of the Shadow, initiates, Brujería, imbunche, ghosts/memories/echoes, psychic-like connections, talismans, and even some real world things, such as The National African Company, war in Argentina, etc.

This book won't be for everyone, from the trigger warning content, to the writing style, to the sheer strangeness. When asked what was the book about, I could only say it's weird. It's a wild, wild ride that has enjoyable moments and others less so. It's like...supernatural horror with real world war elements and an interesting magic system. Sort of, heh.

With regards to it being re-readable, this is my SPOILER WARNING!!

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ending leaves room for a possible sequel. If no such plans come to fruition, then this is a one-and-done book, given the dark, heavy content and kookiness. However, if another installment comes out, one may want to read the first book as a refresher of events that occurred, though I might just remind myself through spark notes or something. We'll see. And if another doesn't come, then I wish we had gotten a better wrap up for certain characters. A lot of unanswered questions, or at least, not answered in a fully satisfying manner. 3 and a halfish stars.

This book truly defies categorization, a decade-spanning long swallow of a heady cocktail mixing politics, cult horror, generational trauma, exploitation, entrapment, and deep, pervasive darkness.

Perfection. It’s a mixture of genres but it’s enthralling. Very much gothic horror and obsessed with the writing. Very well translating.

In-laws are so much worse when they’re demonic! Follow Juan, a medium, whose wife recently died and who has served as a vessel for this dark order since he was a child. Now he wants to escape and keep his son as far away from them as he can.

This one has a lot of pages, but its physical intimidation is easily made up for with its incredible characters, dialogue (through an incredibly unique avoidance of most dialogue tags) and a variety of different haunts, both emotional and metaphysical.

If you liked Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, you may enjoy the similar rural feel with droves of humanity and emotion.

Pretty Brutal.

Mariana Enríquez's Our Share of Night follows a father and son trying to survive trauma and the clutches of a cult. Part family drama, gothic tale, coming of age story, and supernatural horror, this novel is complex and compelling.

This was my first time reading something by Mariana Enriquez and I was a little nervous because all I ever heard was the hype. I was totally wrong, though. Our Share of Night was FANTASTIC. Was it weird? Yes, definitely. Did I understand everything that happened? Probably not but I still enjoyed every bit of the ride. I cannot really describe what this book is about but I'm going to definitely recommend this to everyone I know. I also cannot wait to read everything Mariana Enriquez has written.

What a talent! I will read everything Enriquez writes. Engrossing, exciting, thrilling--I love being in her worlds.

I'm so torn on this book. It is beautifully written, but I also found it overly meandering. I'm a big fan of character-driven and character-focused books, but Our Share of Night doesn't do it for me. I think perhaps this one is too long for what it is, given how descriptive and overly wordy it is. The book does deserve and warrant length, but there were many places where I would have edited it down. That's not to say that it isn't very well written. It may just be a case of this one not being for me. I will say, the book is absolutely horrifying in the most amazing way. Really really well done horror. It will make your skin crawl.

There is no pigeonholing this book. It's horror/fantasy/magical realism/political fiction/historical fiction/straightforward storytelling/back and forth storytelling/mythology/religious fiction/cult representation----pretty much anything you want to call it. Including fascinating and hard to put down.

Enriquez' stories are brilliant, and her long (really long) fiction is very well done, too. There are times where I felt it could have been edited more, but when I tried to decide what could be eliminated, I was stumped. It's clear she thinks about every word, and Megan McDowell clearly treated the translation with the same care. This was a team effort that certainly shows!

The characters are multi-dimensional, even the scary-as-hell mother-in-law, and Gaspar is such a sympathetic character- add coming of age to the trope list above- he's my favorite, though his friends are pretty amazing. The potential he had to be one terrifying man is felt simmering below the story throughout.

Descriptions- my brother-in-law's family is from Argentina. Enriquez describes just as my sister's photos do. Now I want to go...maybe- as long as there isn't really a cult like the one in this book there.

All in all, this was a novel that continues what Enriquez has started with her amazing short stories, and is a terrific addition to the canon of Argentina's writers, as well as the great South American Women who write horror. Highly recommend to those who like reading. Just maybe don't read at night.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Hogarth/Granta for the ARC.

While I really loved this one, I will admit that it got a bit bogged down for me in the middle and I set it aside for a bit. However, it is such a fantastic and chilling story. It follows a man and his son who after the death of his wife, head 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. The description goes on to further say it is 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. So you have a little of everything mixed together, and man oh man does it ever work. This is a long one but well worth your time. I look forward to reading more by this author.

3.5 stars: I was so excited to read this novel based on the reviews and the plot synopsis. What I was not expecting was a long, meandering, 600+ pages lacking in plot. I like character-driven books, but I don't think the structure lent itself to really knowing the characters (except maybe Gaspar and his friends, who were the best part of the book). The book is split into various sections, each of a different time period and generally with a different narrator. The author's writing is actually very good, which is why I stuck with the book. The Order is terrifying and there are truly some gruesome, horrific things in this book. However, the book just felt aimless. I didn't want to DNF it, but I wanted to be finished with it! I'm generally a fast reader, but I also do not remember many details once I'm finished with a book. With this book, I barely remembered what I had read the day before when I picked it up again. I'm not a short story reader, but I will give the author a second chance with one of her story collections. Her writing might be perfectly suited for that?

This was phenomenal. I’ve never read something so terrifying but also had me rooting hard for the friendships of this story. Can there be a category of gothic specific to jungles and evil doorways? This has it! I am very curious if this is an ending or leaving room for another chapter for Gaspar.

I am so appreciative to have received this ARC. The summary was gripping, filled with horrors both real and imaginary. I wanted a book that would stick with me, and while the pages I read will, I had to DNF this book. I didn’t like the mix of quoted dialogue vs non quoted dialogue. I believe this was a stylistic choice based on how it read, but as it is an ARC, it could have been editing that will be completed later. The writing was interesting, but the story lagged. It felt like we were thrown in and never, at any time, given anything to grab on to. Once I started to gain my footing, the characters moved onto something new with almost no relation to what the reader previously learned.

That being said, this story feels important. I think lovers of literature will understand what I mean when I say that. I couldn’t finish it, but I would suggest everyone give it a chance. Definitely check the triggers. It is a very dark, depressing read.

So, first and foremost: I’ve seen a couple of articles comparing this to Stephen King. Having read all 600 and then some pages of this, I have absolutely no idea where that comparison comes in. Is it just because it’s horror? It does not read like King. If I had to throw any comparisons out there, I’d say a smidge of Poppy Z. Brite, a soupçon of House of Leaves, and a wee bit of The Road (without the sparse language). But even with all that, it’s probably more true to say that it’s its own very special thing.

Oh, and I saw someone reference it being vampiric and I’m not sure what that person has been ingesting. This isn’t vampires.

The writing is dense, beautiful, and very literary. Most of what happens in the book is absolutely devastating. There’s no joy here. It’s a bleak and horrifyingly gruesome read.

If you have trigger warnings, they’re here…in spades. I mean there’s literally no point in listing them because they’re just about all here.

I will be honest and say that I lost a touch of interest in Rosario’s section (which is mighty big section on its own). I read it and found it important to understanding the origins of a lot of the story, but I didn’t love her and I found myself pausing the read more than once in this part.

But overall, it’s the kind of read that you can get lost in. It may take effort, but I found it worth it.

• ARC via Publisher

I was hoping this would be one I loved, and I did like some elements, but I found the writing to have a full quality to it. It was compared to a Stephen King book, but the only similarities I could pinpoint were the use of “the shine” type of storyline.

I enjoyed this author’s short stories but found the writing in this one didn’t work for me and had to DNF. I would be curious to try another book of hers. Maybe it was just this one.

Such a shame!

I absolutely love this author's short story collections, and I was so excited to read her first full-length novel, but unfortunately, I didn't like this one. I didn't hate it either, but it was too long and tedious. A little too wordy for my taste. I'm still going to give it a 3-star rating because Enriquez is a brilliant writer. The overall plot was too convoluted for me. Too much was happening. Too much backstory that felt unnecessary. The story dragged in a lot of places. I wanted a faster-paced and a shorter novel.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an advance copy of this book of horror, the burdens of parenting and we we leave for our children.

The problem with family is that many times it adds a burden to people that is both impossible to live up to, or even want to live up to. Blood is a tie that binds, and binds some families to the end, even sometimes passed the end. When one rebels, or even just looks back and says, 'Hey that was odd', or not want to share these strictures on their children there are sometimes repercussions. Some mental, some physical even damnation of the soul. Argentinian writer and journalist Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell, in her novel Our Share of Night has written a story about dark rituals, darker politics, running from the past, and the fate of both the dispossessed and the disappeared in sprawling book of horror, family and real world politics.

A boy and his father set out on a car trip, being careful not to be noticed by anybody, not the public or even worse the security forces that fill the streets of 1980's Argentina. They travel with a fully stocked first aid kit, maps and sadness in the fact that the father's wife and the child's mother has recently passed away, something neither one has recovered from. Incidents happen on the road, some sad, some strange some good. However the father's health Juan, seems to be failing, sleeping more like in a coma, with wounds that don't seem to heal hindering him. As we travel along, readers learn that Gaspar the son is heir to a powerful legacy from his mother. A group known as the Order want him and his skills, skills his father have, for use in their organization, one of both ritual power and dark arts.

A big sprawling novel that hops in both time and location, but never really losing itself, the narrative of the sense of dread that permeates the book. Along with sadness, for family, for the family that might have been, and love of parents for their offspring, and the many regrets that parents feel for not providing or protecting their children. The book does take a little to get into, and to follow what is going along. Readers familiar with the works of South American authors will have an easier time. The story unfolds carefully, not spelling things out, more an awareness that something is going on, something is being seen that is not being explained. There is also a lot that can be disturbing, so be aware. Body horror, trauma, sadness, politics and atrocities, and a bit of medical procedures. The characters are very well written and readers do get attached, though a lot of bad things do happen. The writing might seem a bit detached in the beginning, but that is more for the mood, the disquiet that fills the novel, and sets a reader up for a lot reveals.

For readers who enjoy their horror both real in the politics that is discussed, and imagined. Again readers of South American literature and those knowledgeable about the politics of the era will get quite a bit out of it, but this is still a powerful tale full of shock, awe and sadness. This is the first that I have read by Mariana Enríquez, I hope that more will be coming.

This book is such a hefty undertaking, and so dense and dark, that I feel like it will take me some time to fully process everything I've read and what I feel about it.

In short summary, the book is about a father whose life has been entirely shaped by his family's involvement in a ritualistic demonic cult, and his desperation to save his son from sharing his fate. The story went so much deeper though, lovingly and critically examining the culture of Argentina in the 80s and 90s, political unrest, brutality, relationships, social class, gender, sexuality... So much is contained inside this epic and sprawling story that unfolds over many years with many contributing voices.

This was absolutely unique, unsettling, at times challenging or even sickening: a true horror novel that draws you into the lives of its characters and doesn't let go. I loved how atmospheric it was, the imagery that was evoked, the vivid descriptions, and the writing style that blended prose and dialogue seamlessly. The story comes together gradually, in bits and pieces, and it works so well because of the multiple narrative voices, all of whom have a different perspective on what's happening. At times I was completely mesmerized by the horrors unfolding, and I feel like some sections even have a dream (or nightmare)-like quality. This would make a fantastic television show, if done right. It has that magical, cinematic quality.

This book is definitely not for everyone, so I would suggest looking at content warnings and avoiding it altogether if graphic descriptions of violence bother you. That being said, if you love the occult and big books that really dig into a massive story, this is absolutely perfect.

This author also has two short story collections translated into English, and after reading this, they are being bumped up on my tbr list. I will absolutely be keeping up with Mariana Enriquez and any of her forthcoming works.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF - Suffice it to say that this was not for me; plot nor 600+ pages of everything in between. I might try & revisit this in the future but for now I am dropping off.

Just started this one and its just epic and perfect and shades of a masterpiece. I will be reviewing a physical copy of this book on my social media platforms but thank you agin to Hogarth for the digital arc