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A review by emilymacgregor99
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.25
This collection has fully renewed my A-Level English gothic obsession and I’m not mad about it !!
Around half the stories were okay. They built up pretty nicely and then just BANG. Ended. Immediate anticlimax. This was a shame as some (looking at you, The Inn) were only just getting into the meat and potatoes of the plot before it abruptly ended, with any feeling of resolution lurking about 5 pages in the future.
HOWEVER. The stories that were good? Were incredible. The writing was the exact balance of surroundings description and context building that the Argentinian setting was immediately realised within the first paragraph of each story - fully and completely immersive. The ever present strands of feminist anger and feminine brutality really allow the gothic and the political to walk in two step the entire time. I will definitely be buying the next collection BRAVA
Around half the stories were okay. They built up pretty nicely and then just BANG. Ended. Immediate anticlimax. This was a shame as some (looking at you, The Inn) were only just getting into the meat and potatoes of the plot before it abruptly ended, with any feeling of resolution lurking about 5 pages in the future.
HOWEVER. The stories that were good? Were incredible. The writing was the exact balance of surroundings description and context building that the Argentinian setting was immediately realised within the first paragraph of each story - fully and completely immersive. The ever present strands of feminist anger and feminine brutality really allow the gothic and the political to walk in two step the entire time. I will definitely be buying the next collection BRAVA
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence
Moderate: Gore and Ableism