A review by libraryoflanelle
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enríquez

Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
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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