Adeline
Dark fiction collection translated from Argentine Spanish, the author portrays Argentine society throughout twelve different stories, with shades of gothic horror and magical realism. This was my first Mariana Enriquez book, and overall a very interesting collection. I liked how she showed Argentine with its haunted past, the dark underbelly of its society, how women are at the center of her stories, how complex and real these characters were, flawed yet still compelling. She explored various themes like violence against women, corruption and gaslighting, using it as a social critique. All the stories were dark and bleak in tone, some veering into supernatural horror but always based on a real world showing the worst of humanity, the victims of social and historical negligence. The stories were all quite short and most had abrupt ending, while it worked for some, it didn’t for others. As it’s the case in that format of literature, my personal enjoyment differed from story to story. - The dirty kid 4.25 - The inn 3.75 - The intoxicated years 4 - Adela’s House 4.5 - An invocation of the big-eared runt 4 - Spiderweb 4 - End of term 3.75 - No flesh over Our Bones 3.5 - The Neighbor’s Courtyard 4.5 - Under the Black Water 4.5 - Green Red Orange 3.5 - Things We Lost in the Fire 4.25
I really liked the translator’s note that added another layer of comprehension and context to these stories. I’ll definitely check out her other short story collections !
Dark fiction collection translated from Argentine Spanish, the author portrays Argentine society throughout twelve different stories, with shades of gothic horror and magical realism. This was my first Mariana Enriquez book, and overall a very interesting collection. I liked how she showed Argentine with its haunted past, the dark underbelly of its society, how women are at the center of her stories, how complex and real these characters were, flawed yet still compelling. She explored various themes like violence against women, corruption and gaslighting, using it as a social critique. All the stories were dark and bleak in tone, some veering into supernatural horror but always based on a real world showing the worst of humanity, the victims of social and historical negligence. The stories were all quite short and most had abrupt ending, while it worked for some, it didn’t for others. As it’s the case in that format of literature, my personal enjoyment differed from story to story. - The dirty kid 4.25 - The inn 3.75 - The intoxicated years 4 - Adela’s House 4.5 - An invocation of the big-eared runt 4 - Spiderweb 4 - End of term 3.75 - No flesh over Our Bones 3.5 - The Neighbor’s Courtyard 4.5 - Under the Black Water 4.5 - Green Red Orange 3.5 - Things We Lost in the Fire 4.25
I really liked the translator’s note that added another layer of comprehension and context to these stories. I’ll definitely check out her other short story collections !