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A review by casskrug
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
4.0
me? enjoying a short story collection? that’s horror? it’s more likely than you think! thank you to hogarth for sending me this!
typically i struggle with short stories because their brevity makes it hard for me to get invested. i don’t dislike horror but it’s not a genre i read often. mariana enriquez combined the two to create a book that really worked for me. the stories are long enough, and enriquez creates enough suspense, for me to get invested. but they’re not so long and drawn out that it gets tiring. she really found a sweet spot with this book.
i also appreciate that enriquez is not being freaky for the sake of being freaky - she’s being freaky with intention, if you will. these stories connect the scary, supernatural elements to real life horrors such as rape, addiction, and poverty. i liked that it felt like there was a point to each story, a statement being made.
these stories were unsettling and perfect for this time of year. this was a great change of pace for me in content and form, while still being literary and well-written.
my favorites: different colors made of tears, face of disgrace, the suffering woman, the refrigerator cemetery
typically i struggle with short stories because their brevity makes it hard for me to get invested. i don’t dislike horror but it’s not a genre i read often. mariana enriquez combined the two to create a book that really worked for me. the stories are long enough, and enriquez creates enough suspense, for me to get invested. but they’re not so long and drawn out that it gets tiring. she really found a sweet spot with this book.
i also appreciate that enriquez is not being freaky for the sake of being freaky - she’s being freaky with intention, if you will. these stories connect the scary, supernatural elements to real life horrors such as rape, addiction, and poverty. i liked that it felt like there was a point to each story, a statement being made.
these stories were unsettling and perfect for this time of year. this was a great change of pace for me in content and form, while still being literary and well-written.
my favorites: different colors made of tears, face of disgrace, the suffering woman, the refrigerator cemetery