Name: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
Rating: 3.657051282051282 (156 reviews)
ISBN: 9780593134078

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

Maria Laura

'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.

𓆩 𓆪

Grotesque, brutal, unsettling.

OKAY NOW, honest thought.

It's a short stories collection so it's easier to navigate and enjoy because imagine such grotesque story in 200 pages, maybe I would giggle out of insanity. The stories were brimming with hidden meaning, and I love how they either make me wonder "wait, what does it mean?" or simply make me happy for it doesn't give me a solid answer in the end.

High key the most fked up thing I’ve ever read 🫠

ophelia ross 

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

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

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.

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.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed Stories

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