I think I liked this book. It was masterfully done; my favorite part is how we learn a little more about the people and events of the plot with each character’s perspective that we read. An unsettling and fascinating read.

This was very long but also so wonderful. This author did an amazing job at weaving this story together - one of my favs of the year

I LOVED this book, we have already purchased it for our library and it continues to be a hit. The way the story is told leaves you wanting more.

I think I would have liked this more if I was in a different headspace. This month has been very slumpy and this was sooo long. I started off a little confused than it started to make sense and then I got confused again, there was some stuff that I felt could have been left out and didn't really add to the story. I still can't tell you what this is about really, but I didn't hate it which is a win for me right now.

This book is a RIDE. It's also a door stopper. Huge and extremely nuanced. 4.5 stars

We meet Juan and his son Gaspar, seemingly on a pretty normal father-son car trip. But soon I was picking up on the weird interactions between the two, the unspoken bits between the spoken words. It gets really spooky and strange REALLY fast. The 600+ page journey hops timelines, but I believe Enriquez does a fantastic job of keeping it pretty streamlined and followable. The narrators change, and we're able to get some fantastic perspective shifts and revelations.

I will admit that a book of this length can fall into pacing issues, and it did just that. There were parts that were great for context but not so great for my attention span. The end is a bit rushed, and I wish that we would have skipped past some of the slower bits and extended the ending to give it the oomph it deserved. BUT. I loved this spooky ooky shit.

Genres: ALLL THE GENRES. just kidding. but there are many. it gets dark and occulty, supernatural fantasy-ish, with all the gothic and horror vibes. Which is my jam.
Warning: this shit is dark. there's major imagery of violence against children, animals, women, etc. etc. The writing is superb, but it makes these scenes all the more disturbing. Read with caution.

I wanted to love this book. I really enjoyed the scene setting, the atmosphere, and the characters toward the beginning. But the story just moved too slow for me and was bogged down by the details. I would definitely like to check out more of this author’s work, as I do think this had an interesting premise and vibe. Ultimately it just could not keep my interest enough to read it quickly and this made the reading experience drag on too long.

This book is terrifying and amazing and I will never be the same again.

From the very first page you get this sense that this book is something great, and as I kept going, that sense just got stronger and stronger.

I have one complaint and that is a request for a longer resolution with Juan and Rosario, but I think that my request is more of a need to continue reading Enriquez's work, rather than a flaw in her writing.

Epic, hypnotic, unpredictable. Enriquez's power to write characters into and out of lifetimes of nightmares only gets stronger with time.

What a captivating and entrancing read. I was hooked from page one to learn more about the mysteries buried inside this gem of a book. Twisted and weird I recommend to anyone who wants a longer literary adventure!

This was such a great and unusual book. The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the end is pretty anti-climactic, and there are very long stretches that are really more about the characters just living their lives than advancing the plot that made it feel much longer than it was, and stretch out the horror moments a bit too much. That being said, I did actually enjoy those parts quite a bit. The writing is excellent and the characters are all very interesting. I just personally wish there was a little more horror happening between the big moments because it almost feels like two different books sometimes. But, wow, it was still so good. I love how frequently some random detail that you forget about turns up hundreds of pages later as a major plot point. It's threaded together extremely well. I've loved everything this author's written so far, and I'm even more excited to see what she does next now. I especially hope she keeps up with horror. Some of the things she came up with here are genuinely super creepy. Plus, all the Argentinian history and descriptions of day to day lifestyle was really fun to read about as someone who isn't from there. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the ARC!

This book is definitely a slow burn. It took me quite a while to get through it, I even put it down a few times to read something else. However, I'm glad that I didn't give up. I enjoyed the arc of this story and the development of the characters. Beautifully written..

I liked this book as a whole but didn’t like all of the in between if that makes sense. I know there was so much life to tell in this book but I thought it could be at least a hundred pages shorter in my opinion. But still the story of Gasper, Juan and The Order kept my attention and resonated with me for days after. Will I read this author again? Absolutely! Would I recommend this book? Yes and no. It’s super dense and very wordy if you have patience to read 600 pages of a gruesome life journey I would say give it a shot !

I am forever in awe of Mariana Enriquez's ability to write and I loved her short story collection "The Dangers of Smoking in Bed" but this one was.....difficult due to the convoluted plot. I ended up having to check out the audiobook from my local library because I struggled getting settled into the e-book version. Plus I love getting pronunciations in the audiobook. I enjoyed many parts of the first 58% of the book, with some queer rep, horror elements, and such but overall....I found I never cared about the characters and the plot never really made sense to me. And without at least one of those elements hooking me.....I just did not enjoying my reading experience. I will GLADLY read more from Mariana Enriquez in the future but this wasn't for me...

Holy heck, I did not realize how thick this baby was when I started reading it! I definitely feel like the length could've been shortened a bit, this took me ages to get through because I just kept finding myself thinking, "Are we going anywhere with this?" In between those moments, I did enjoy this story about family and trauma and loss, but again -- the length!! I don't mind long books when they necessitate the length but I don't think this one did at all.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

An enthusiastic five stars for this novel that has everything: family and loss and bonding, the supernatural and eerie quest a father and son embark on to solve an old mystery, queer love, threads of political oppression, and some straight-up horror. It is so good. Now that I’ve written this review, I’m also downloading the audiobook so I can experience this immersive story all over again!

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc.

And now for an Argentinian horror novel, by the author of the supremely excellent short story collection, Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez. This hefty novel begins as a horror story, and often returns to that genre, leaning heavily on gore. But there's a lot of book here, so this is also a family saga, the story of four childhood friends and a coming-of-age story.

A cabal of super wealthy people worship an entity they think of as Darkness, an entity that they believe can bring them a sort of immortality. In order to reach this entity, they need a conduit, but mediums are hard to find and, once found, quick to die, as each manifestation takes a physical toll and this group of worshippers insist on frequent ceremonies. A boy is found in Argentina and raised to be the medium by one of the families in the cabal. But despite marrying into the family, he isn't as docile as they would like. When he has a son, he takes steps to protect the boy, despite being desperately ill himself, steps that will protect the boy for a certain period of time.

The ceremonies are graphically described and there's a fair amount of child torture, although this takes place mostly off the page. It's intense in places, but also prone to long digressions and side plots. If you like your horror to involve ancient evil powers and contain a quantity of mutilations and dead bodies, while also enjoying a story that takes its time and wanders off on tangents about politics, social movements, history and the lives of secondary characters, you'll like this one. Enriquez has a wild and dark imagination and Megan McDowell's translation is, as usual, extremely smooth and readable. I'll also note that there are ample descriptions of child abuse in this book.

A brilliant book with the touch of horror and historical fiction that is filled with the Mariana Enriquez touch!

What an interesting foray into the world of the South American supernatural- in this instance, vampire cult family adventures in Argentina- which is also in the midst of turbulent political upheaval in the 60's. I was unable to finish the final book, but began the story of the father son journey to their deceased wife/mother's ancestral home. I'm not able to read books with plotlines involving young children and abuse either physically or emotionally. Gaspar being the six year old foil between his abusive medium dad and his mother's billionaire cult order family was not for me. Those who love atmospheric horror with a backbone in colonialism will enjoy, especially when juxtaposed against the actual atrocities perpetuated during the Argentine political upheaval of the 60's.

This is my first Mariana Enriquez and it’s certainly not the last. Despite being a huge book, I got hooked from the start. The author is great at keeping the readers’ curiousity up until the end of the book. Such a huge and chunky book but so worth reading. I got the hardcover and I’m glad to add this book in my collection. I would highly recommend this for people who are into literary horror. Such an immersive reading experience. Note that it might take you awhile to finish this but it’s so worth it.