A Sunny Place for Shady People

Starred review from July 15, 2024
Enriquez (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed) offers a masterful collection full of grotesque body horror, red-hot terror, and mysterious events, revealing the pain and loss endured by women in modern-day Buenos Aires. In “My Sad Dead,” Emma, a doctor, is routinely visited by the ghost of her mother, who died from cancer, and the ghosts of three teenage girls who died in a recent drive-by shooting. For Emma, the apparitions amount to a veritable “ghost pandemic,” caused in part by her neighborhood’s uptick in violence, where there’s “more money in crime than in lawful work.” In “Face of Disgrace,” the narrator tells of how his mother suffered from a dreadful disorder where her facial features began disappearing years after she was raped by a faceless man, and the erasure is passed down through the generations. “Metamorphosis” portrays a perimenopausal woman lamenting her body’s transformation (“No one tells you, there’s no warning. Your skin dries out, the fat builds up on your hips and legs, and the cellulite deepens from one day to the next”). She has a fibroid removed during her hysterectomy, and later has it implanted on her spine to restore her sense of feeling complete in her body. Enriquez’s stories gain their power through surprise, as they often begin with a realistic setting before taking a terrifying or unsettling swerve, and she brilliantly explores themes of guilt, shame, and vanity. These provocative tales are first-rate literary horror. Agent: Maria Lynch, Casanovas Lynch.

December 6, 2024

Enriquez's (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed) entertaining but somewhat uneven short story collection features tales of an Argentina brimming with wonder and horror. Performed by narrators Lee Osorio, Annette Amelia Oliveira, Sol Madariaga, and Maria Liatis, these stories traverse lands where real-world terrors like crime and political unrest meet otherworldly horrors like the ghost of a murdered teenage boy and beautiful dresses that inflict ugly wounds on their wearers. Those familiar with Enriquez's novel Our Share of Night will recognize how she weaves the fantastical with the grotesque, though, as with many collections, some stories are of higher quality than others. The standouts blend family and cultural dynamics with their fantastic premises; among them are "Julie," which follows a young woman who enjoys having sexual relations with spirits despite her family's protest, and "Black Eyes," which features black-eyed children who may not be children. The use of multiple narrators adds variety to this collection while also immersing readers in Enriquez's Argentina. VERDICT While some stories resonate more than others, this collection of visceral literary horror haunts and provokes. Recommended for fans of Ananda Lima.--James Gardner

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