It took me a while to read this one, but in the end I really enjoyed it! The Order was creepy and the theme of generational trauma kept me reading.

Okay but when does Mariana Enriquez miss? Absolutely never ever ever. This was stunning, beautiful, great. I think it was relatively easy to read and very engaging. Idk if anything was lost in translation but it didn’t feel like it. I got a full story and felt satisfied by the end. Would def recommend.

Our Share of Night has a fascinating premise. Haunting and beautiful, it explores the ideas of family and friendship through the lens of generational trauma, showing how we carry these inflicted wounds both mentally and physically. The Darkness twists itself through the lives of these characters in a story that spawns generations, and in the end, you're still left wondering if the characters can ever be truly free.

However, this was not an easy book to read. I found myself rereading passages over to understand them, and I think this was for a few reasons. Firstly, the use of punctuation was not consistent. Sometimes quote marks would differentiate speech, but sometimes it wouldn't. Characters would have multiple names or nicknames that would be used interchangeably (for example, "Stephen" and "Esteban" would be used in the prose at random, same with "Eddie" and "Eduardo", etc), and sometimes characters would be referred to abstractly as "the woman" when there were multiple women in the room, leaving me to guess who the text was referring to. Coupled with the already complicated lore, it made this book hard to get through – I wonder if some of this is perhaps because of the translation. It made it hard for me to get attached to the characters.

That said, the way it explored many themes, like generational trauma as I mentioned above, or the AIDS crisis in comparison to The Darkness was really clever and beautiful. I just found the text sometimes overly confusing, making this a pretty dense read.

Mariana Enriquez's OUR SHARE OF NIGHT had me enraptured from the first page. Vibrantly translated by Megan McDowell, it's an epic of family and mystery, friendship and sexual awakenings, history and monsters, and it's full of moments and images that I won't soon forget: golden nails on a clawed hand, a boy watching as two men embrace, and the scariest door-close I think I've ever read. Enriquez's share of literary stardom has arrived.

Our Share of Night is unlike any book I have read in a long time. Mariana Enriquez crafts characters, a world and a story that is unique and blends coming of age, mystical tales and horror into a phenomenal story of a father and son trying to survive not only supernatural threats but the world around them and the threats that are all too human.

Enriquez’s writing is top notch and sucks you in as she crafts the story of Juan, Gaspar and the many people that enter their lives as well as those who wish to harm them. Throughout, Enriquez brings these characters to life and creates edges and layers that show that everyone has both a good and bad side and both come out in all sorts of situations.

By far the best written characters are Juan and Gaspar and Enriquez uses them to explore themes such as innocence, humanity and most interestingly identity with Juan being closeted which makes this supernatural story very grounded and human.

Our Share of Night is a must read book that I feel will be praised for its writing, themes and characters when it officially releases!

Our Share of Night is absolutely epic. Supernatural realism and Gothic horror collide with an intimate and brutal family portrait, and the result is a novel that is equal parts bewitching and horrifying. Enriquez pulls no punches as she leads the reader through Argentina's history and the gruesome world of the Order, and I found it deliciously unsettling to read about these horrors in her beautiful, lyrical writing. This is a dense, multi-layered read (I almost felt like I was reading several shorter novels that tied together, though that helped break the book down into more easily digestible chunks), but I didn't want it to end. Read this if you want an immersive book that is staggering in scope and so intense that you want to look away, but know you won't be able to until you finish.

Thank you so very much to Random House/Hogarth Books and NetGalley for providing a digital copy of Our Share of Night in exchange for an honest review. This English translation will be available February 7, 2023.

The Order is nothing to be played with, I was afraid of this fictional book through my kindle while reading in my living room! They are on a quest for eternal life and will stop at nothing to achieve it! I loved the Argentinian folklore woven into the tale and her use/reference/inspiration of Argentina’s current political and social situation are poignant and not los too the reader. The idea that money buys power to the detriment of anyone in their way is clear as Gaspar and his father try to run away from his destiny. This books if dark and long but for the lovers of the macabre it will be a hit!

I am always excited when a publisher representative contact me asking me to read their book based on my prior history. In this case I have read several Hispanic Translated Hispanic gothic horrors, or those rooted in Hispanic culture. I was super excited to dive into this one that I didn’t realize it clocked in at just over 600 pages. It was a doozy though, but I didn’t want to put it down.

Blurb from the publisher: In this debut novel, a woman's mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family. 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.

This book was beautifully uniquely written yet horrifying at the same time. You will get all the feels from fear to loneliness. If you love a good horror book, this one will be right up your alley. This book is a slower read, but you get so immersed that you don’t want to stop. This was my first book by this author and translator combo, and I will be looking for more in the future. I gave this one a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Ms. Sierra at Hogarth Books, a Random House group and @netgalley for allowing me this e-ARC in exchange for this honest review. This book publishes Feb 7th, 2023 so get it on your radar now!

This novel is so rich in tension and intrigue that you'll be holding your breath in some sections, unable to stop reading. As I like to say, it's a banger!

From the beautifully written prose to the absolutely horrifying evil, this book has you feeling all of your emotions. You'll experience fear, love, loneliness, hatred, and loss throughout the pages.

How to describe what the Order and the Darkness is without spoliers? Saying it's a cult of elite believers who want to achieve immortality is correct but doesn't even come close to the atmospheric and bleak tones that's presented to us.

This is novel for serious lovers of horror where building a world with believable characters is more important than the bloodshed (although there's plenty of that as well).

I can't wait to review this novel on my Horror Reads YouTube channel as the release date approaches. I have already made this one of my best top ten horror books for 2023.

I want to thank NetGalley for giving me opportunity to read this book before it’s released as an advanced reader copy. I am writing this review of my own free will.

I almost Completely DNF this book. The writing style is very unique and not what I’m used to. It took me a few chapters to get the hang of it. I had to take breaks often while reading this book. There is a lot of information that is slowly fed to you. The storytelling is very straightforward. Very little mystery, most of the characters were not very likable, I did like that there was context and history given to feed the plot. The world is flushed out. It’s definitely eerie. The meat of the story is good though. At some parts I was definitely on edge. It had me flipping through the pages as quickly as possible for what was next.

This book ultimately ended up in the middle for me. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it.

Fantastic. I loved this one. The premise is difficult to explain and so I went in blind and I adored my reading experience. Highly recommend this as it is my first time reading translated work and it was great.

People often say that life can be a nightmare. But for some that’s not a simple figure of speech. For those who lived through the terror in Argentina during the second half of the 20th Century, nightmares were a part of daily life. Families never knew whether those that they woke up with in the morning would survive the day. Reality became so traumatic that illusion was oftentimes a healthy substitute. There has been much written about the initial hope and subsequent terror of the brutal Peron dictatorships. The non-fiction often reads like a horror novel.

Mariana Enriquez takes this subject matter to its logical, extreme conclusion in her terrifying (and prized) debut novel, “Our Share of Night”. Nightmares are frequent. Characters awake never quite sure whether it was just a nightmare or whether they had experienced something horrific that they may or may not have been meant to see.

Enriquez brings exquisite skills to the task. While “Our Share of Night” is her first full-length novel, she has had a distinguished career as a writer, editor, and critic. Most appropriately, she is a journalist. “Our Share of Night” reads like true crime expose with levels of detail and an eye that only a top-flight journalist possesses.

“Our Share of Night” is “a lot of book” in every way. There are frequent depictions of multiple forms of violence – vivid and intense. There are complex musings on family relationships and sexuality that will stretch a reader’s mind. There are many tributaries to the main story, in retrospect most always included for good reason, even if not so clear from the outset.

“Our Share of Night” is beautifully and smoothly translated by Megan McDowell. It is highly cinematic and needs to be brought to a small or preferably large screen soon. (P.S. The “soundtrack” was wonderful, too). Congratulations, Ms. Enriquez. I can hardly wait to see where your future writing career takes you.

Thanks to Random House - Hogarth and Netgalley for the eARC.

Our Share of Night is a book in six parts, and I'm tempted to rate each of those parts separately, because it was an uneven read. This was my introduction of Mariana Enriquez, and I suspect I will seek out more of her work in the future. Parts of this book (I and III, to be precise) blew me away. I felt like I'd slipped into another dimension, I was that immersed! Each of the parts are told from different POVS, some third person, some first. When we get to Part IV, which was told in first person, I felt like I was having things explained to me. Parts V (which was short, at least) seemed wholly unnecessary.

The story begins with widower Juan Petersen, a man with supernatural abilities, returning to the home of his wealthy and powerful in-laws for a disturbing annual visit. With him is his son, Gaspar, who Juan wishes to protect from the influence of his dead wife's family. The story then unfurls in time and space, sprawling out over decades and continents. The 1976 coup, wherein Argentinian president Peron was ousted, and the ensuing political instability and military brutality, is a thread that is woven throughout, sometimes to the detriment of the story. It is riveting history, and its effects on the characters is profound and obvious. But at times it felt like those same characters are shunted to the side to make room for the author to drive home a point about the brutalities of that era.

This is hard book to pin down. It will definitely stick with me. It wasn't perfect, but parts of it were astounding. I definitely recommend it...but only if you like horror! This had some VERY disturbing scenes. Proceed with caution into a brilliant, macabre experience.

This was an excellent book of lore. Scary, creepy, and a very strong storyline. I love this author. Kept me up all night.

A creepy, gripping and visceral story that is so timely and poignant. I really enjoyed this one and cannot wait to talk about it with my peers!

In Our Share of the Night we meet Gasper and Juan, son and father as they set off on a long journey following the death of their matriarch. The story is an odyssey as while Gasper knows that his destiny is a vampiric cult, the Order, he is doing everything in his power to escape their clutches. We follow the two through chaotic London in the 60's to the very dangerous dictatorship in Argentina.
Argentinian Author Mariana Enriquez has used her own experiences to create a speculative dark and mysterious and magical story that includes a healthy amount of critique of the government.

Author Mariana Enriquez is a star! She wrote Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and has been longlisted for the Booker Prize and the Kirkus. While this story in translated it is easy to fall into her rhythmic writing and beautiful woven phrases. If. you like speculative fiction, magical realism and adventure stories, Our Share of The Night is for you!
#RandomHousePublishing

Deep in the heart of the Argentine jungle, the remnants of a black magic cult called the Order are obsessed with the quest for eternal life. To achieve that goal, they must have a person who can serve as a conduit between this world and the evil Darkness that may grant their immortality. The Order is vicious in finding and controlling anyone with the gift to be a medium, but functioning in that role is almost certainly a quick death sentence. Juan, the current medium who was raised by the Order from childhood, has seen his powers fade recently and is desperate to keep the cult from turning to his young son Gaspar as his replacement. Rosario, Juan’s wife and Gaspar’s mother, has been killed under mysterious circumstances and Juan suspects she was murdered by her own family, themselves leading figures in the Order. Can Gaspar be saved to lead a normal life or will he be conscripted to serve the Order’s nefarious purposes?

That is the essential tale told in Our Share of Night, Mariana Enríquez’ first full-length novel to be translated into English after two remarkable collections of short fiction (The Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed). That publishing history is useful to understand because, at their best, the author’s short stories are unsettling and effective combinations of gritty urban realism, gothic horror elements, and pointed commentary on the political situation in her country. Creating such a combination is what appears to have been the intention here as well; think of crossing the horror fiction of Stephen King with the politically based, multi-generational family sagas of Isabelle Allende and you will have a good idea of what this novel tries to be. For all its craft and imagination, though, those parts did not really come together as convincingly in this book of more than 600 pages as they do in a 15- or 20-page short story.

Indeed, the sheer length of this novel might be its biggest drawback. The world that Enríquez creates is certainly dramatic and well-drawn, but the occurrences of outright horror were spread out way too far to be emotionally effective, although an impending sense of doom was always present. For me, the family story also fell a little flat in that two of the main protagonists—Rosario and Juan—are essentially out of the picture by about halfway through the story, which left far too much time to learn how Gaspar navigates his joyless teenage years with his small circle of friends and the uncle who adopts him. Finally, other than some occasional references to people who “disappeared” and Argentina’s economic struggles, the political critique remained largely in the background. In all, this felt like a story that could have been told in hundreds of fewer pages. So, while Our Share of Night still merits a mild recommendation, readers new to this talented author’s work might do better to start with her short fiction instead.

Loved Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez and the stunning translatin by Megan McDowell.

Super scary, dark, engaging but wow what an adventure.
This book deals in a whole lot of fantasy and occult and not nearly enough family drama in my opinion. I had a feeling that would be the case when I started the story and I was not surprised but I would have like a bit more of the family story and a bit less occult.

Regardless, this is good book if you are in the right frame of mind. Hard hitting and dark but what a ride.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for ARC in exchange for my reivew.

“That feeling of inexplicable horror certain places provoked in him could have been caused by whatever it was the doctors and psychiatrists were struggling to name: the aftermath of trauma, epilepsy derived from the accident, some kind of mental illness…”

This novel has little resemblance to Enriquez’s short fiction. It’s straightforward storytelling, without much mystery, and without the unpredictable weirdness of her stories. The narrative is disciplined. Every word on the page has a narrative purpose. As such it was a little disappointing to me, because I’m in love with Enriquez’s inexplicable meanders and dead ends, and I'm in love with all of the open-ended questions that her short fiction poses.

The sentence above is a good example—it does the job, but there is no verve or surprise about it. Maybe Enriquez felt she needed to rein in her smoky wanderings, of girls hiding meat in mattresses, and weird baby teeth, and self-immolating women, in order to give this longer work the structure it needed to not collapse in on itself.

I wasn’t gripped.