I love Mariana Enriquez so much, I’m attempting to learn Spanish so I don’t have to wait for her work to be translated. Her latest collection, A Sunny Place for Shady People, is her strongest, most disturbing collection yet.
There are several strong themes in this book. The first is spirits attached to places of trauma. The opening story, My Sad Dead, concerns a woman who starts to see ghosts of the recently departed in her violent Argentine neighborhood. Hyena Hymns has claimed the crown for Enriquez’s most terrifying story, in which a couple visit one partner’s home town, visit an abandoned mansion, and things get absolutely horrifying. The Suffering Woman is one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read, and it concerns an apartment haunted by previous occupants who were dealing with a severe illness. Just absolutely heartbreaking.
There’s also a theme of how inward suffering can take a physical form. Face of Disgrace is an extremely powerful tale of sexual assault survivors, as our central character’s face begins to disappear. There are some truly terrifying images in this story. Metamorphosis beautifully captures the complexities of the middle-aged woman. A woman has fibroids removed, and her uterus, and repurposes it as a body modification.
There are also stories of the uncanny, such as Julie, where we have a family attempting to suck the Argentina healthcare system dry, as they grapple with their daughter’s sexual relationship with ghosts. A Local Artist reminded me of Robert Aickman, as a couple visit a small town with a gallery in an abandoned train station, in which the “local artist” is very strange indeed.
The titular story sent me down a rabbit hole on the real life case of Elisa Lam and her mysterious death at the Cecil Hotel. This was a perfect LA story, about the weird juxtaposition of grime and sunshine.
Every story in this collection is powerful in its own right, and further proves that Enriquez is just an absolute master of horror. Her stories are intelligent, thought-provoking, and ripe for in-depth analysis.
California Reading 