Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Un lugar soleado para gente sombría

I read and loved Enríquez's full-length novel Our Share of Night when I read it last year. Because I know she is more well-known for her short stories, I was excited to check out her latest short story collection, A Sunny Place for Shady People.

The twelve short stories in this collection have range-- you'll find ghosts and other supernatural elements, body horror, cults, and horror elements that are more grounded in reality but are no less unsettling. As in Our Share of the Night, Enríquez explores a variety of themes, including personal and political violence, classism, misogyny, selfishness, and greed. Although some of the stories worked better for me than others, all of them created a sense of dread and tension that built until the story's conclusion. The opening story, "My Sad Dead," in which a retired physician communicates with ghosts in her neighborhood, was one of my favorites in its explorations of classicism, isolation, and complicity through indifference. "Face of Disgrace" very literally explores the erasure of victims and in "Metamorphosis," a woman on the cusp of menopause explores body modification in an unnerving bid to regain agency over her changing body. Other stories I liked a lot included "Different Colors Made of Tears," "The Refrigerator Cemetery," and "Black Eyes."

Reading this collection made me excited to check out more of Enríquez's backlist. I recommend this collection to those looking for smart, unsettling literary horror.

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Favorites: My Sad Dead, Face of Disgrace, Hyena Hymns, Different Colors Made of Tears, The Suffering Woman, A Local Artist, Black Eyes.

This is my first exposure to Mariana Enriquez, and I’m highly impressed. So many of these stories feel like traditional horror tropes turned on their head through geography, cultural artifacts, and atmosphere. The settings add just as much to the stories as the characters themselves, the descriptions are always intensely realistic and hyperbolically chilling, and the different stories never feel as though they’re retreading ground already covered in the collection.

After this, I am definitely going to read Our Share of Night, mainly for the reason that there were quite a few stories in here that I felt could’ve been extended into a full novel’s length of horror perfection. While thematically complete, some stories end right when the story feels like it’s kicking into high gear, leaving me desperately wanting more development. This isn’t a bad thing, per se, but it truly makes me curious at her execution of a full length horror story.

All in all: really fantastic collection that I wished extended itself a little bit more. This is always the crux of short stories, though; you’re bound to have some that are better than others, and that disproportionally affects ratings. This is a great book that I think any horror fan would appreciate.

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