Maika reviewed Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
Review of 'Things We Lost in the Fire' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
After binging on Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy and everything Kelly Link has published to date, I’ve been starving for more Weird fiction. Things We Lost in the Fire is an astonishing collection of short stories set in modern day Argentina, a country shaped by its history of civil and political violence, which very much informs Enríquez’s writing. These stories are dark, very dark, very unsettling, and wonderfully original. Some are just plain scary while others are more melancholy and different flavors of haunting. While it’s fair to describe them all as Weird Horror stories of one sort or another, their diversity is breathtaking.
From women who set themselves on fire in protest of domestic violence to angst-ridden teenage girls, friends until death do they part, to street kids and social workers, young women bored of their husbands or boyfriends, to a nine-year-old serial killer of babies and a girl …
After binging on Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy and everything Kelly Link has published to date, I’ve been starving for more Weird fiction. Things We Lost in the Fire is an astonishing collection of short stories set in modern day Argentina, a country shaped by its history of civil and political violence, which very much informs Enríquez’s writing. These stories are dark, very dark, very unsettling, and wonderfully original. Some are just plain scary while others are more melancholy and different flavors of haunting. While it’s fair to describe them all as Weird Horror stories of one sort or another, their diversity is breathtaking.
From women who set themselves on fire in protest of domestic violence to angst-ridden teenage girls, friends until death do they part, to street kids and social workers, young women bored of their husbands or boyfriends, to a nine-year-old serial killer of babies and a girl who pulls out her nails and eyelids in the classroom, to hikikomori, abandoned houses, black magic, northern Argentinean superstition, disappearances, crushes, heartbreak, regret and compassion.
But here’s the best part: Mariana Enríquez is not a new author. As far as I’ve been able to figure out, this is simply the first of her books that’s been translated into English. Now I’m hungry to read everything else Enríquez has published. Please, someone, get to translating.
