Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Un lugar soleado para gente sombría by Mariana Enríquez

11 reviews

joeraine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

bookish_morgan's review against another edition

I picked up this book for one story in particular - "The Refrigerator Cemetery." This story was intriguing and disturbing, but the ending was vague and anticlimactic. I skimmed through most of the other stories, but the cadence and content weren't as engrossing as I hoped for. I can see why other people may enjoy Enríquez's writing, and I might pick up one of her other books sometime, but this collection of short stories wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism

anjnryn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fatphobia

Minor: Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

inamerata's review against another edition

Four stories is enough to call it. So much of what I read came off as cruel spectacle. This meanness may be realistic and intentional, but it did not feel like it had a meaningful point. The narrator of Julie calls her cousin ugly and "deformed" for being fat, reduces her to eating habits and body parts even as she wonders if she's leaving her for dead.

Most egregious, though, was using the relatively recent death of a real woman, Elisa Lam, as set dressing. This added nothing and actively worsened the titular story, which could have been just about a journalist mourning her partner and reflecting how societies regard drug addicts and other marginalized people. Even if Enríquez wanted to keep a "true crime" angle, just make up someone else. By exploiting a real person, how is this any better than what it tepidly condemns?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, and Suicide

camillej's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

As with any short story collection, some stories were better than others but this was a solid collection overall. I’m amazed at how many weird and creepy things one person can think of. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Rape, Excrement, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide, Excrement, and Vomit

m_buchanan's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This is my first Mariana Enriquez book. And boy was it a ride! So much of these stories were about the social condition of Argentina, and how women view themselves or others view them in this world, all wrapped in warped, horrific, edge of your seat stories. Honestly, these stories are hard to fully describe, but they pull at you. They make you think of the human condition, especially women, and who we are in this world. 

If you are a fan of Kelly Link, or even Kate Atkinson’s short stories, you will enjoy this book. If you can’t suspend your need for perfect arcs and tropes played out as expected, and sit with the uncertainty of a story’s end, this book is not for you. But if you can, you will see the many rich layers Enriquez has crafted here, in such few pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

In many ways, this is a horror book. But the stories are short and interwoven with many layers of emotionally compelling writing. If you can get past the gore, these stories are truly interesting.

skogsheks's review against another edition

dark mysterious

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

another_dahlia's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Xenophobia

libraryoflanelle's review against another edition

DNF'd at around 40% 

 

Mariana Enriquez has been on my TBR list for a hot minute. In anticipation of the release of ‘A Sunny Place for Shady People’, I finally got around to reading ‘The Dangers of Smoking in Bed’ last month. I found a number of issues with it, including the use of the T slur, an inappropriate reference to enslavement, and a whole lot of  fatphobia. Since I hadn’t seen many other mentions of this, I put it down to a one-off or a potential translation issue and continued to eagerly anticipate ‘A Sunny Place…’. 

 

I was so hyped to receive an e-ARC of ‘A Sunny Place…’ through NetGalley because I’d already heard such great things. My reading experience started off well – I enjoyed the first story, found the next few okay but forgettable, and then BAM – the fourth story, ‘Julie’, was absolutely rife with fatphobia, not to mention sanism and ableism. I was fortunate to be buddy reading with a very insightful and value-aligned friend, so I had the chance to discuss this with a like-minded reader before ultimately making the decision to DNF. 

 

I’ve also seen other reviewers mention how exploitative the use of Elisa Lam’s case was in the titular story. In hindsight, although I wasn’t very familiar with the case when reading, I have to agree. 

 

I cannot recommend this one and would much rather spend my time reading and recommending short story collections that align with my values. 

 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

bisexualbookshelf's review against another edition

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book releases from Random House on September 17th, 2024 in the US. Unfortunately, I chose to stop reading the book at 47% due to extremely fatphobic and ableist language.

This is my second foray into Enriquez's work. I withheld my reservations about my first experience with her (The Dangers of Smoking in Bed) because I was new to Bookstagram, who loves her, as well as new to translated literature, which I understand has some nuances when it comes to diction. I was excited to explore Enriquez's latest collection and see whether or not I had the same issues. Turns out, I did.

First of all, a lot of these stories just didn't work for me. "My Sad Dead" was a really strong start, but after that, I got halfway through the book and didn't enjoy any of the other stories. 

The titular story, "A Sunny Place for Shady People," follows a journalist to Skid Row to report on a group that holds rituals honoring Elisa Lam. For those who don't know, Elisa Lam was a real person who mysteriously died in Los Angeles in 2013 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam). Elisa was bipolar and had likely been off her medication at the time of her death. As such, her death was ruled an accidental drowning, with many suspecting she was experiencing a psychotic episode due to her bizarre behavior in surveillance footage that is the last known sighting of her. However, not all the evidence points in this direction, and many people still suspect Elisa was the victim of foul-play. Either way, Elisa was a 21-year old neurodivergent Chinese American woman who died a tragic death, and Enriquez's use of her story in this book feels particularly exploitative.

The story that put the nail in the coffin for me was "Julie." In this story, the narrator's cousin Julie moves back to Buenos Aires after a childhood in the US. Julie started seeing "invisible friends" as the result of seances her parents hosted as social gatherings. Almost immediately, the narrator describes Julie as fat. Several scenes describe how Julie eats with her hands, shoveling fistfuls of food into her mouth at a time. The story describes Julie as "ob3se" multiple times, including in this quote:

My aunt faked a fainting spell, I think so we would stop picturing her ob3se daughter's rolls of fat being fondled...

For those who aren't aware, the word "ob3se" is considered a fatphobic slur by many because of its medicalized, stigmatizing history and how it pathologizes fat bodies. It is derived from medical language that often equates higher body weight with disease, labeling fat bodies as inherently unhealthy, without considering individual health differences. It is also frequently used in ways that reinforce negative stereotypes about fat people, such as being lazy, unhealthy, or lacking self-control. The Body Mass Index (BMI), which classifies people as "ob3se" or "overweight," is widely critiqued for being an inaccurate and incomplete measure of health. As such, many body liberation advocates prefer terms like "fat," which some have reclaimed as a neutral descriptor without moral or medical judgment. 

Beyond the fatphobia, Julie is assumed to be schizophrenic due to her "invisible friends," leading to some ableism and sanism about psychotic people. 

Despite these concerns, I tried to read the story that follows "Julie" and found it just as disappointing as the others. With this in mind, I chose to DNF A Sunny Place for Shady People at 47%. I am not familiar with all the nuances of translated literature, so I am unsure if this is a problem with Enriquez's writing or McDowell's translation, but I am unlikely to seek out Enriquez's work in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Fatphobia

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Please note that my content warnings only apply to the first half of the book as I did not read any further than that.