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A review by inamerata
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
Did not finish book. Stopped at 39%.
Four stories is enough to call it. So much came off as cruel spectacle. This meanness may be realistic and intentional, but it did not feel meaningful. The narrator of Julie calls her cousin ugly and "deformed" for being fat, reduces her to eating habits and body parts even as she wonders if she's leaving her for dead.
Most egregious, though, was using the relatively recent death of a real woman, Elisa Lam, as set dressing. This added nothing and actively worsened the titular story, which could have been just about a journalist mourning her partner and reflecting how societies regard drug addicts and other marginalized people. Even if Enríquez wanted to keep a "true crime" angle, just make up someone else. By exploiting a real person, how is this any better than what it tepidly condemns?
Most egregious, though, was using the relatively recent death of a real woman, Elisa Lam, as set dressing. This added nothing and actively worsened the titular story, which could have been just about a journalist mourning her partner and reflecting how societies regard drug addicts and other marginalized people. Even if Enríquez wanted to keep a "true crime" angle, just make up someone else. By exploiting a real person, how is this any better than what it tepidly condemns?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide