Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: misogyny, violence, death, rape, racism (including slurs), child abuse, homophobia (including slurs), torture, usage of slurs against the disabled.

Juan is determined to protect his son. A powerful medium, Juan has been exploited and abused by the Order for years, beginning in his childhood, and after marrying and having a child with Rosario -- the daughter of the most powerful family of the Order -- he knows that they will do anything to get their hands on Gaspar, who they plan on using for their own ends. Fleeing across the country after Rosario's untimely death, father and son encounter obstacle after obstacle, from the brutal tactics of Argentina's military dictatorship to Juan's own dark side, a side that often comes out when is around Gaspar. As Gaspar grows older, it becomes clear that his inheritance is inextricably tied to cruelty, magic, and ultimately, death.

Following many characters and a jumping timeline, Our Share of Night is an epic that does its best to break every storytelling convention you can think of. Written by Mariana Enriquez, an Argentine journalist and author who made it onto the shortlist for the International Booker Prize, this novel is, at its heart, an occult version of the bildungsroman. What I noticed first upon picking this up was her immense ability in creating something that sinks its claws into you. From the very first page, there's intrigue, and also a sense of impending doom, an element that pervades the story from start to finish. We begin in the head of Juan Peterson, a father who is prepared to do anything to save his son from the selfsame cult that has ruined his life. He's mourning the death of his wife, Rosario, the daughter of the wealthy Reyes Bradford family, who also happen to be the foremost leaders of the cult he's so determined to escape. His son, Gaspar, is perhaps a touch too clever for such a young child, mirroring both his rebellious father and mother in many ways.

When Juan and Gaspar are making their way across the country, the military dictatorship -- coming to power during the infamous coup where Isabel Perón was overthrown -- is in full swing. Much of this book is political, and Enriquez deals with those issues both in the form of veiled allegories and in upfront, direct lines that speak of the forced disappearances taking place, of the torture, and the so-called Dirty War tearing the country apart. Enriquez's style of speech and writing is frank, but with characteristic flair and beauty; she never shies away from the ugly, and it makes her stories that much more compelling. Her characters, too, are just as gripping, although I found Gaspar to be strangely shallow in comparison to Juan, Rosario, and the others around him. Juan, in particular, is complex, a multilayered creature that Enriquez isn't afraid of making unlikable. Somehow, against all odds, Juan is sympathetic, a testament to Enriquez's ability to create someone as flawed and interesting as a real person.

For me, this book left me with many questions, and I think that the ending, in all its strange ambiguity, was fitting. This isn't a novel you can pick up and read lightly, and at six-hundred plus pages, it's not exactly something you can breeze through. There's a weight to it, and the sometimes slow pace actually feels beneficial to what Enriquez is trying to impart. I do have a few issues with it, though. Perhaps it's simply meant to be accurate to the time period, but I really didn't like the casual use of racism and racist terms by some of the characters (including those we are supposed to like). It's peppered throughout the book a few times, and while I understand the intent of using it in a character like Mercedes, from a wealthy European family, it was strange to see the weird passage about Gaspar coloring the map and the Chinese. It was pointless, and soured my liking of the book a little. I'd be interested to see these parts in their original Spanish. My other problem is that occasionally, the storyline was just plain confusing. There's a lot of characters, a lot of timelines, a lot of places and people and problems, and every once in a while it became overwhelming.

With that being said, I loved everything else about this novel. It's gritty, fascinating, beautiful, and a wonderfully unique interpretation of cults and magic, made even better by its cultural and political aspects. In many ways, it reminds me of horror books from the '60s and '70s, and in my opinion, there's really no better comparison.

This book! Wow. This may be the best horror novel I've ever read. Although, this is very much a genre bending book. It has all the things one could want in an engrossing read, but it is, in fact, quite scary. I often can't read books so unrooted in reality like this one, but Enriquez pulls it off masterfully. If you are in for a scare, pick this up immediately.

Unfortunately this read was a DNF for me after about 150 pages. This has more to do with my current ability to read horror that is quite this graphic/disturbing, it does not reflect on the quality of the writing. I think that this is incredibly well-written with a very successful translation. The atmosphere and setting are superb, the creep factor is really effective, and the characters are intriguing and complex. The character relationships are fascinating, as is the world-building. However, the explicit violence, including child torture, became too difficult for me to continue. Nevertheless, I would give this a high rating and recommend it to horror fans.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez in exchange for an honest review. This was a beautiful and haunting story. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to fans of Silvia Moreno Garcia.

Mariana Enriquez has become one of my favorite authors and Our Share of Night did not disappoint! Enriquez is incredible at blending genres and creating disturbing and horrific stories that are thought provoking and stay with you long after you've finished reading the book.

Great story, never knew quite what was next, creepy, fascinating. Genuinely new version of a horror trope and that’s really hard to find.

Our Share of Night was a bit outside my comfort zone, but the description sounded really interesting so I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did! I was so intimidated by the 700+ page count, but honestly I could have read more! It is really dark, definitely check out the trigger warnings, but I absolutely loved it.

Thank you NetGalley, Hogarth, Random House Publishing Group, Mariana Enriquez, and Megan McDowell for the chance to read this ARC.

This is a richly detailed, epic story of a family torn apart from the inside, by those willing to sacrifice family for power. This is not a short story, nor is it a quick read, but it is immersive and while not campy-80s, definitely takes you back to that decade in stark detail. No spoilers, but even if this 500+ page book is not your usual boom-boom page-turner, the payoff is WELL worth it in the end.

With lovely prose, an engaging universe, and a whole lot of intrigue, this is a novel that waltzes you through its hazy poetry and lives on vibes alone. There's a lot of good here. It does border on too long, but given the depth of the drama, the cult, and the world, it makes sense.

Though I will say this book was not my personal favorite, I have no doubt it will grab others. This is the kind of book worth studying in a classroom someday.

I enjoyed the imagery and sense of place throughout this one. It reads similar to a Stephen King book, but set in a country living through a violent dictatorship.

It’s difficult to sum up this 600+ page novel in a paragraph, but Our Share of Night is about a weird cult called The Order, who participate in grotesque rituals in the pursuit of eternal life. Tied into that is Juan, a kind of decaying demi-god, and his son Gaspar. The Order hopes that when Juan dies, Gaspar will inherit his terrifying gifts, and Juan does everything he can to prevent that from happening. Gaspar is the main protagonist throughout most of this book, and his journey from child to man is incredible.

I was initially intimidated by this book for several reasons. For one, this book is a tome! But Enriquez’s prose, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, is a pleasure to read. Enriquez is a succinct writer; not a word is wasted. The plot zips along, sometimes stopping the reader in their tracks with a short, incredibly unnerving sentence. The attentive reader is heavily rewarded, as along the way, things link up in a very satisfying way.

Enriquez’s writing often contains aspects of the supernatural and the political; the latter of which sometimes eludes me. This is absolutely the case in Our Share of Night, which features real-life political incidents from Argentinian history. However, these are not integral to the plot, nor did they dampen my enjoyment of the novel. Enriquez focuses on how politics affect citizens, not the internal squabbling of out-of-touch political figures.

Fans of Mariana Enriquez’s short fiction will be thrilled with this book. No spoilers, but my favorite Enriquez story is Adela’s House, and I damn near lost my mind with happiness about halfway through the book. Yay for the Enriquez universe!

There is absolutely no doubt this is a horror novel; there are some truly nightmare-inducing moments. But the story is so rich, and unravels so beautifully, I’d hate to think that readers wrongly dismiss this novel because of the “horror” tag. Our Share of Night is a fantastic piece of literature, regardless of genre.

This story is so different from anything that I've ever read that I am having a problem rating it. I'm going to give it 5 stars because it really is a masterpiece of both horror and literary fiction. It took me almost a month to read which is unheard of for me but the lyrical prose caught me up in its web a number of times.
As the story starts, Juan and his young son Gaspar are running from their late wife's/mother's family through the Argentinian countryside. Her family are leaders in a worldwide cult of darkness where Juan is able to summon the "spirit".
The story hops through different points of view, timelines, London in the 1960's and Argentina during a dictatorship and under political instability. The breadth of the plot intertwines cults, difficult family relationships, love both hetero and queer and enduring childhood friendships. Into all this is woven a really stunningly scary horror landscape. Will Juan be able to save Gaspar? What does salvation from this background even look like?
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review, albeit a little late.

NetGalley ARC

Wow, finishing this book really feels like an accomplishment.

This sprawling horror novel follows a man trying to protect his son from a terrifying death cult as well as the boy and his friends as they grow up. The book is split into 6 chapters, each one is almost a novella in itself. The cult is always ominous in the background. The book reminds me of The Bone Clocks, which is the highest compliment I can ever give.

This book spans generations and continents. I didn't go into this book with any knowledge of Argentinian history or politics. The author uses the cult storyline to explore class (the cult is mostly wealthy white people torturing and murdering the poor and indigenous. During the "Dirty War" of the 1970's and 80's thousand of people were disappeared by the military government. The cult also works as a metaphor to reckon with Argentina's past. When human life is so expendable, who will miss the people the cult sacrifices?

All in all a really fantastic read.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. 'Our Share Of Night' is something of a fever dream that will only make more sense the more you read. The narrative jumps back and forth between time, place, characters, and is expansive. From demons, cults, ghosts, a gateway to another side, discrimination, and repressive regimes this story is full of everything that will keep you up at night.

“And even if he was sad, so what? He is the way he is. Getting plastered and shouting to high heaven isn’t for everyone. We make noise to fill the hole we have inside.”

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

This - my first work by Enriquez is pure darkness (with flashes of light) twisted, sinister yet magical and somehow hopeful.

I savoured this and was pleasantly surprised that it never got to be too much. I could have spent another 500 pages with Gaspar. This was fully out of my comfort zone and I absolutely loved it. Not for the faint of heart but an absolute beauty of a book.

The beauty found in the dark of night is unmatched. The love that radiates off the page - pure yet seen as impure, violent yet gentle at times.

A family saga of the peculiar, the unknown and the forbidden.

“You have something of mine, I passed on something of me to you, and hopefully it isn’t cursed, I don’t know if I can leave you something that isn’t dirty, that isn’t dark, our share of night.”

Thank you Hogarth and Mariana for my galley

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc to review!

- unfortunately, this is a dnf review, as the writing style threw me off in the beginning, making it hard for me to follow along, as the way the paragraphs were written felt cryptic and confusing. it may have just been on my part, but it stopped me from engaging with the text. however, this book will most certainly have its audience, as the synopsis is cryptic and intriguing to draw readers in.

Moving back and forth in time, from London in the 1960s to the years of Argentina's military dictatorship, Our Share of Night is a genre-defying work that explores the power of family ties, hauntings and the supernatural.

If I'm honest, I'm not sure I'll ever write what I truly want to about this book. The parts that were good were SO good, but I often found myself wandering pensively, questioning where Enriquez was going. It's very clear she is a talented writer and her ability to craft and create wholly original characters is evident throughout the book...but I think I wanted more horror?

I was most captivated by Juan, Gaspar and Rosario and when the book was not focused on them, ie. Gaspar's childhood antics, I felt a bit slumpy. I think my favorite section was the one that centered on Rosario because it did reveal so much about the Order and their dastardly efforts to achieve immortality.

After all that, I still gave the book 4 stars and I'm very interested in reading Enriquez's other work and can't wait to pick up The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.

It took me over a month to finish this book.

I really enjoyed the first section of this book - "The Claws of the Living God" - but my enjoyment gradually plateaued once we continued on into the other sections. I feel like this book would've benefited from more editing, because most of the time it felt as though we were going around in the same circles and it became extremely tedious. Also, the main plot got lost a lot along the way with the different character shifts mid-section and the timeline changes. Not that every book NEEDS to follow a linear timeline, however this book was already complex enough without that added confusing element.

This book was just entirely too long. Objectively, the writing was good and the main plot was intriguing. However, the story as a whole just did not need to carry on as long as it did and go in as many different directions.

I would still like to try another Mariana Enriquez book in the future! This one was just an unfortunate miss for me.

Wow this was a long one! The synopsis intrigued me with black magic and a cult and it was definitely delivered. The story is very dark and a bit graphic at times as well. I will say there are a ton of descriptions we didn’t need which took away from the plot, in my opinion. I think this would’ve been stronger without all of that because it also made it too long where my interest began to waned.

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

This (very long) book is packed with SO much. There is horror, gore, political commentary, Argentinian folklore, heartbreak, dark entities, human sacrifices, demons and lifelong friendships. It’s a richly atmospheric slow burn with a lot of detail and it took me quite a bit to get into a rhythm with the story. But once I did, I was dying for answers and couldn’t stop reading.

It covers about 4 decades of Argentinian history and a big theme here is the devastating effects of dictatorship and colonialism. I have to admit I was not at all familiar with the details of this time in Argentina and that was a big issue for me while reading. I wanted to keep stopping and research about the time and teach myself what was going on. This certainly is on me and I would encourage you to listen to some interviews by Enriquez before reading so you can have a better grasp on the history and what she was trying to accomplish here. There are so many layers of meaning and I can’t even begin to get into it all. But I am always grateful for an opportunity to learn. Big takeaway is that the true horror in this book lies in reality.

I recommend this one for when you really have the time to get lost in the story and the history. Enriquez has created something very unique that is worth savoring.