Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Nuestra parte de noche by Mariana Enríquez

5 reviews

danikajoan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This blew me away. I didn’t want it to end, loved the writing/translation (was already a fan of Enriquez from Things We Lost in the Fire), felt fully invested in the lore and so compelled by the characters. Really intense, a little eerie, sad, romantic, and funny. 

and I am ALWAYS on board for a “house is bigger on the inside than the outside” House of Leaves vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Drug use, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Death, Medical content, Violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Colonisation, Chronic illness, Murder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Rape, Vomit, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Animal death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Gore, Classism, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, and Genocide

Alllllll the trigger warnings for this one, very intense but not in a way that feels like it’s there just for shock value or is exploitative?

writingcaia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Still, not sure about the rating, the ending was kind of anticlimactic and I expected a nicer bow tying it all.
Review to come!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Death of parent, Violence, Child death, Death, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, Classism, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Homophobia, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Slavery, Rape, Cannibalism, Excrement, Racism, Sexual assault, and Miscarriage

alicia_rausch's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

This was an extremely difficult book to rate for me - and felt akin to Donna Tartt's work in which I must shelve them as "masterpieces I kind of hated reading yet I can't stop thinking about them." 

The world, the characters, and the tone of the novel is masterfully done, though it remained much lighter on horror than I expected and the pacing was extremely slow. I found myself wanting to quit this beast multiple times and yet I’m glad I pushed through. I think, a bit like Vampires of El Norte, it was marketed as heavier on the horror than it was - and I was expecting a much larger % of the novel to be action, when in reality it was just a few sequences. 

What it is, is a generational drama with horror elements, which should have been how it was advertised. It’s a quiet book, with a creeping sense of dread, and dark elements as we follow the family and how the cult affects each member over time. Like a darker, more effed-up Pachinko. 

The rep for LGBTQ+ was well done, and like Pachinko, I greatly enjoyed the historical elements about a time period (and place) I am not overly familiar with. 

The actual writing/storytelling was excellent and the way the puzzle fit together at the end was satisfying. I love an ambigious ending so that was a plus for me. But I just could not get past the excruciatingly slow pacing. 

To the right reader, this will be an instant favorite - unfortunately, that reader is just not me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Gaslighting, Grief, Excrement, Mental illness, Medical content, Animal death, Torture, Kidnapping, and Suicidal thoughts

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Our Share of Night is an inimitable masterpiece, a stunning work of literary horror.  Enríquez’s storytelling is breathtaking and immersive, with gritty, tightly-woven character relationships which evolve over decades.  At the novel’s center is a pagan cult like that of Argentina’s San La Muerte, which here is guided by heart-stopping nightmares and pure horror.  The book is chiefly, however, a heartbreaking story of father and son, colored by political violence, a culture of fear, and ties that bind.  I didn’t want it to end, and I want to read it again, immediately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Racism, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, War, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Suicide, Alcohol, Cancer, Cannibalism, Vomit, Colonisation, Eating disorder, and Racial slurs

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Our Share of Night follows Gaspar, along with some family members including his father Juan. Juan is a medium used by the Order, a cult-like group who communicate with the ever-hungry Darkness in an attempt to gain immortality. The story opens with Juan fleeing the Order with Gaspar, following the death of his wife, worried that Gaspar has inherited his abilities and therefore destined to a life of suffering at the hands of the Order, who he also suspects of orchestrating his wife's death. 

I'll be honest, I've struggled to rate this one but have settled at 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 for Netgalley. Is it a good book? Absolutely yes. Did I enjoy it? Uhh... Sometimes.

If you pick this up, you're in for a long, atmospheric ride. If you like a slow-burn horror with brutality, creepiness and tension interspersed with exposition, politics (this is set against the backdrop of the Argentina of the 70's-90's), trauma and sacrifice, then this is for you. It's beautifully written (and translated - kudos to the translator), with descriptive prose that was borderline TOO descriptive at times. 

As another reviewer has pointed out, a lot of the horror is front-loaded into the first half, meaning that by the time we reach its crescendo towards the end, it feels repetitive as we have already seen most of the horrific violence the Order is capable of. At around the 60% mark it decides to turn into a sociopolitical book for 200 pages, which is well-done in and of itself but interrupted the flow of the book. At the same time we are left with a sudden ending with some unanswered questions.

Overall this definitely will have its niche of readers who will love it, and I can truly see its potential, but for me it was just a bit too long with both too much and too little going on, and it ended up being a bit of a slog to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Physical abuse, Torture, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Car accident, Excrement, Gaslighting, and Genocide