My thanks to the publisher for my digital ARC of A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell! It’s always hard when an author has written books you hold in such high regard. To me, Things We Lost in the Fire is a perfect short story collection, and Our Share of Night is a masterpiece. I set the same high expectations for this collection and unfortunately they weren’t quite met. Don’t get me wrong, there were some stellar stories - the last one, Black Eyes was absolutely chilling, I loved it. But a couple of them leant too heavily on the fatphobic idea that being fat is one of the worst things you can be. Others were just a little forgettable.

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But if you enjoyed the mash up of horror and political commentary that Enríquez did so well in TWLITF, you’ll find some gems here too. Homelessness, classism, gun violence, poverty, violence against women all permeate these stories, rubbing shoulders with the supernatural. She also explores illness a lot, so be prepared for some grisly body horror.