Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - Nuestra parte de noche

Lurid and expansive, this story uses eldritch horror to explore a legacy of exploitation and trauma. We follow a widowed father, Juan, and son, Gaspar, in the wake of the “Dirty War” of 1970s Argentina. From the beginning, we feel the violence that surrounds them—memorials on the side of the road, suspicion of every stranger. Gradually, we find the violence much closer to home. Juan has married into, and Gaspar born into, a cult called “the Order”, which seeks to commune with gods and unlock the secret of immortality. Juan is the Order’s medium to their dark god and will do anything to protect Gaspar from his fate. We see Juan’s escalating paranoia, and the effect it has on the growing Gaspar. Our Share of Night commits to exploring a very true evil, and as such depicts a lot of very dark, violent things (i.e. watch your content warnings).

The cast is large, and, with a few exceptions, compelling. Juan and Gaspar are undoubtedly the most fully realized two, but we also get moments of unexpected depth from seemingly tertiary or even periphery characters. Ironically probably my least favorite section, I was pleasantly surprised to see

Rosario, Juan's dead wife and Gaspar's mother, get a POV. It would have been easy to let her be a ghost to the story, let her death be more important than herself, but instead she's fully realized.

I can’t think of a single character present for more than a page that doesn’t have motivation and interiority. It’s impressive to read, but does contribute to the novel’s greatest flaw: pacing.

While the beautiful prose consistently creates incredibly poignant moments, the overall pacing of the novel is jolting, with the ending in particular feeling more like a sputtering out rather than a climax or an inevitable conclusion. If the final third was stronger, I probably would have forgiven all prior pacing issues, but, as it is, I finished the book disappointed.

Tonally, however, this story is magical in the darkest possible way. Magic here is synonymous with violence, evil, greed; escalating atrocity weaved horribly with real-world atrocity. The exception to this is that there is an implication that indigenous people (that is, those people who are not colonizers, like the Order is) had their own rituals and power there were not inherently evil, but even then the Order would hunt and corrupt it. Throughout, we’re spoiled with haunting imagery, deep, intricate prose full of feeling, and complex conflict where there is no easy answer or solution.

My biggest weakness as a reviewer here is that I don’t know much about Argentine history, and this story is fundamentally about the civil unrest of this time. Even in my ignorance, the novel was effective in its depiction, but I still feel like a better understanding of what happened would have made what was rich richer.

Content Warnings

theshrew's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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