Mariana Enríquez

A new collection of singularly unsettling stories by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges.

Stories

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Los peligros de fumar en la cama

Aimee :)

I bought him poppers, cocaine, tranquilizers, alcohol. Each substance caused a different effect and he went along with all of it, he never complained, he hardly spoke. He even paid my rent with his savings when they threatened to kick me out of the apartment; I never paid again. I no longer had a phone, I only worried about the electricity for the sound recorder, so I could go back and listen to my experiments when he was too exhausted, nearly unconscious. He didn't even protest when I told him I was bored. That I wanted to see it. Rest my hand on his heart stripped of ribs, of cages, have it in my hand beating until it stopped, feel the desperate valves open and shut in the fresh air. He only said that he was tired too. And that we were going to need a saw.

No doubt they smoked pot from Silvia's plant in bed after sex. We were sixteen, and some of us hadn't had sex yet, it was terrible. We'd sucked cock, yes, we were quite good at that, but fucking, only some of us had done that. Oh, we just hated it. We wanted Diego for ourselves. Not as our boyfriend, we Just wanted him to screw us, to teach us sex the same way he taught us about rock and roll, making drinks, and the butterfly stroke.

It wasn’t just an obsession of Natalia's: we wanted Diego to choose us. We wanted to be with him still wet from the cold quarry water, to fuck him one after the other as he lay on the little beach, to wait for the owner's gunshots and run to the highway half-naked under a rain of bullets. 

One afternoon, when we were on our way to PE class, Natalia told us she’d put menstrual blood in Diego’s coffee.

Doce cuentos en los que lo terrorífico se infiltra en lo cotidiano. Doce relatos perturbadores que llevan el género de terror a una nueva dimensión. Una niña desentierra en el jardín unos huesos que resultan no ser de un animal; la bucólica escena veraniega de unas chicas que se bañan en un paraje natural acaba convertida en un infierno de celos de inquietantes consecuencias; un mendigo despreciado siembra la desgracia en un barrio pudiente; Barcelona se transforma en un escenario perturbador, marcado por la culpa y del que es imposible escapar; una presencia fantasmal busca un sacrificio en un balneario; una chica siente una atracción fetichista por los corazones enfermos; un rockero fallecido de un modo atroz recibe un homenaje de sus fans que va más allá de lo imaginable; un chico que filma clandestinamente a parejas haciendo el amor y a mujeres con tacones altos caminando por las calles recibe una propuesta que le cambiará la vida... En los doce soberbios cuentos que componen este volumen Mariana Enriquez despliega todo un repertorio de recursos del relato clásico de terror: apariciones espectrales, brujas, sesiones de espiritismo, grutas, visiones, muertos que vuelven a la vida... Pero, lejos de proponer una mera revisitación arqueológica del género, reelabora ese material con una voz propia y radicalmente moderna. Tirando del hilo de la mejor tradición, la lleva un paso más allá, con historias que indagan en lo siniestro que se agazapa en lo cotidiano, despliegan un turbio erotismo y crean imágenes poderosísimas que dejan una huella indeleble. Quienes descubrieron a Mariana Enriquez con Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego tienen ahora en sus manos un libro anterior, en el que ya aparece perfectamente dibujado el universo de una escritora que conecta con maestros modernos de la literatura de terror como Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti o su compatriota Cortázar. Enriquez se asoma a los abismos más recónditos del alma humana, a las soterradas corrientes de la sexualidad y la obsesión... Como ha dicho Leila Guerriero: «El terror, en los cuentos de Mariana Enriquez, se desliza como un jadeo de agua negra sobre baldosas al sol. Como algo imposible que, sin embargo, podría suceder.»

Maria Laura

Los mejores son carne, cuando hablábamos con los muertos y Dónde estás, querido corazón?

Creo que todos los cuentos son muy interesantes y que está buenísimo como se desenvuelven en base a folklore/historia argentina con un toque de modernidad

Julieta

Los mejores son carne, cuando hablábamos con los muertos y Dónde estás, querido corazón?

Creo que todos los cuentos son muy interesantes y que está buenísimo como se desenvuelven en base a folklore/historia argentina con un toque de modernidad

Dangers of Smoking in Bed

3.5 ⭐

extremely biased ranking:

1. Our Lady of the Quarry
2. Meat
3. Back When We Talked to the Dead
4. The Cart
5. The Lookout
6. No Birthdays or Baptisms
7. Rambla Triste 
8. Where Are You, Dear Heart? 
9. Angelita Unearthed 
10. The Well
11. Kids Who Come Back
12. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

armoni mayes

This is a pretty good “creepy” short story collection, although i feel as if the author could’ve pushed some of the stories a bit further. If you have watched a lot of horror movies & true crime this short story collection will be a breeze. I suppose that people that haven’t been exposed to weird and off putting things before this collection may be a little scary. 4 stars

Mariana Enriquez does it again! These stories were way more gory and more about folks being acted upon than acting up, but Fires had its fair amount of that too. I think I liked Fires better as an introduction to Enriquez’s work, maybe because of that narrator agency or maybe because it was older but this still HIT regardless. “Where Are You, Dear Heart?” and “Meat” were my faves, I had to look away and gasp during parts of Heart as it was just so heavy-hitting. Short stories are good, short stories are literature!

Eli Alvah Huckabee

“Le monde magnifique et horrible de Mariana Enriquez, tel qu’on l’entrevoit dans Les Dangers de fumer au lit, avec ses adolescents détraqués, ses fantômes, les miséreux tristes et furieux de l’Argentine moderne, est la découverte la plus excitante que j’ai faite en littérature depuis longtemps.” Kazuo Ishiguro, Prix Nobel de littérature Peuplées d’adolescentes rebelles, d’étranges sorcières, de fantômes à la dérive et de femmes affamées, les douze histoires qui composent ce recueil manient avec brio les codes de l’horreur, tout en apportant au genre une voix radicalement moderne et poétique. Si elle fait preuve d’une grande tendresse envers ses personnages, souvent féminins, des êtres qui souffrent, qui ont peur, qui sont opprimés, Mariana Enriquez scrute les abîmes les plus profonds de l’âme humaine, explorant de son écriture à l’extraordinaire pouvoir évocateur les voies les plus souterraines de la sexualité, du fanatisme, des obsessions.

Les Dangers de fumer au lit

carolina

Un ensemble de petites histoires sombres, certaines m'ont mise réellement mal à l'aise et d'autres m'ont simplement fait frémir, j'ai aimé dans l'ensemble.

Alba Ramos

teniendo flashbacks de ese verano que solo leia traducciones independientes en español latino porque eran las unicas versiones que encontraba pirata

'This is what I am reading, short stories by the gifted Argentine writer and journalist Mariana Enriquez. Her work: tainted rivers, corrupted streets, spoiled meat, slain children, deeply registers the horror of known commonplace. She writes her stories, based in the atmosphere of truth, with a darkly descriptive poetic turn' PATTI SMITH Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city of nightmares and strange imaginings, where missing children come back from the dead and unearthed bones carry terrible curses. In this spine-chilling collection, Mariana Enriquez gives us twelve stories of murderous intentions, family betrayals and girls whose dark desires will lead them over the edge.

azliana aziz

Iman Kamil

It was alright, some stories more captivating than the others but overall pretty good.

selva

maravilhoso. o melhor que temos de terror contemporâneo. as argentinas são maravilhosas.

Con sus descripciones, Mariana Enríquez tiene la capacidad de generar una sensación que amalgama el asco, el miedo, la incomodidad y la impresión, pero aún así, es prácticamente imposible dejar de leer sus cuentos. Hubo alguno que otro que no me gustó tanto, pero realmente es muy buen libro.

benja

Grace M

Worth the hype! Brooding, wicked, and even a little sexy. 'Where Are You, Dear Heart?' was the ultimate stand out in this collection of stories.

Marga Camps

Nunca antes había leído un género similar al suyo pero, tras entender su lectura un par de cuentos más allá, me gustó su escritura, cómo te engancha con los personajes y la descripción del contexto. 

Nota real: 3,5 

Me leeré Nuestra parte de noche para seguir familiarizándome.

Fernando Bolaños

brianna

nico

Stef

"Sometimes I think the crazies aren’t people, they’re not real. They’re like incarnations of the city’s madness, like escape valves. If they weren’t here, we’d all kill each other or die of stress."
 

Pertama kali mencoba membaca kumpulan cerpennya Mariana Enriquez. Koleksi nya ini terdiri dari 12 cerita pendek, salah satunya sedikit lebih panjang hampir masuk novella. Keterhubungan cerita-cerita pendek ini menyajikan fenomena supranatural "something we can't see", anxiety, mental illness dan ngga ketinggalan juga menyelipkan history Argentina itu sendiri ( dicerita Kids who come back sama Rambla Triste *ini 22 nya bikin aku agak bergidik selama bacanya* ). Dan yang menarik hal-hal supranaturalnya di cerita Angelita Unearthed, Back When We Talked to the Dead kayak mirip ditemuin di indonesia sendiri. Tentang, arwah keluarga yg ngga tenang dan permainan jelakung akhirnya para pemainnya di membonin sama mahluk halusnya. Favorite cerita, Kid who come back, meski panjang cerita nya beneran bikin penasaran serasa nonton film makin kebelakang makin tegang. 


  "We were scared, but fear doesn’t look the same as desperation."

eliz

I stumbled upon this collection that I thought was going to be a dark literary fiction novel but that was totally wrong. not even sure how can I describe this genre... magical realism? search up the trigger warnings and you’ll see. it’s not simply horror.

maybe the best way to explain this thing is to leave my ratings per section. here are the stories described in few words:

1. angelita unearthed - the rotting baby’s bone ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. our lady of the quarry - teenage insecurities & lust ⭐️
3. the cart - suspected curse from the poor old man ⭐️
4. the well - nightmares & the woman & the witch & evils & sacrifice & betrayal ⭐️
5. rambla triste - rotting smell of the ‘police city’; there was a shift. political matters mixed with horror stories based on true events? sick & twisted & I enjoyed this the most ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. the lookout - ? ⭐️
7. where are you, dear heart? - lust again; jane eyre; heartbeat obsession ⭐️⭐️
8. meat - musician and his album; cannibalism case ⭐️⭐️⭐️
9. no birthdays or baptisms - furrowed brows while I was reading the whole thing. thought it was just a disgusting porn but the open(?) ending left me confused and wanting to know more who was the ‘he’ ⭐️⭐️
10. kids who come back - missing kids ⭐️
11. the dangers of smoking in bed - ? ⭐️
12. back when we talked to the dead - scanned/mostly skipped because ouija plot wasn’t interesting at all ⭐️

at first I found no values with the stories. boring. then after fifth one, the content started to get better, but narration is still meh at times or maybe it was the translation. idk. this will give you everything you’ll least expect from the title and cover art. the last stories were weak though. overall, I think it’s better than my most recent horror-ish read (the houseguest and other stories). that one had a theme whereas this one’s more diverse, just not as gripping as I would like it to be.

Hellboy TCR

Not on par with "things we lost in fire" and the only story that stood out was "Kids who came back", which was almost as long as a novella. rest is passable.

Bella 

Incredibly Eerie, horrifying and unnerving...

Lia Yuliana

Update 13/03/2022

Find my reviews on :  An Ode to Fiction
Official Release Date : November 2009
Buy the book :
 Amazon |  Book Depository

2.5/5 ⭐️

A collection of short stories that is haunting, disturbing, and mesmerizing that isn't for me.

This anthology started off intriguing, haunting, and sometimes funny. When I read about 9 out of the 11 stories in this book I just wanted it to be over. Enriquez's rhythm got predictable which made the pacing of the story slow and the way the Enriquez weaved the twist, that are disturbing or dark acts seemed a bit too brutish for me. The rawness seemed to lean towards shock value in some of the stories Enriquez presented and I didn't like the repetitive trans slur used in one of the stories included closer to the end of the book. I might try reading the other collection of short stories or maybe I'll read something if Mariana decides to release a novel. Who knows what my mood dictates. I recommend future readers to proceed with caution.

Rebecca Bell

Mallos 

dana

«Tenía que hacer más agujeros porque, lo supo ni bien lo vio, lo único que quería era un cielo estrellado sobre su cabeza. Eso era lo único que quería.»

lauren carla

3.5 actual rating. I liked some of the stories more than others, but that was basically guaranteed. the book was dark, and that made it interesting but there were also parts that were too much for me. some parts were so disgusting and not in a way that made me book enlightening or anything, I just couldn’t lol. the author was very good at employing descriptions of smell to get a point across, which is interesting bc visual imagery is what most authors seem to rely on. there were also a couple stories that didn’t really hold my attention, but yeah…

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed Stories

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