Since I don’t use social media to consume content, I discover new things to read in much the same way we all did in the '90s: if something keeps popping up everywhere or is recommended by people I trust, it goes on my TBR¹.

That’s exactly how I found out about Mariana Enriquez. The first person to mention her to me was Nico Saraintaris, and after that, I started noticing her name in many other places. I watched an interview on Gelatina, which I really enjoyed, and my brother Manuel also told me he was a fan. With those endorsements, she officially made it onto my TBR2024 (which, at this rate, will probably remain unfinished, haha).

Even though I’m all for dismantling capitalism, I still enjoy turning October into a spooky month, so I picked up Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Things We Lost in the Fire) as my Halloween read.

This was my first time reading Enriquez. I had thought about starting with one of her novels, but I didn’t want to dive into something that big right away, so I chose one of her short story collections instead to get a better sense of her style and something more digestible.

There are some really great stories—El patio del vecino (The Neighbor's Courtyard), Bajo el agua negra (Under the Black Water), Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego (Things We Lost in the Fire)—and others that didn’t grab me as much. Still, even when the plot or the ending didn’t fully resonate with me, the writing was so good that I enjoyed the ride anyway. I love when the prose is so smooth that it keeps you reading effortlessly.

This page-turner quality has me even more excited to read her novels. I feel like that ability would really shine in a longer format, where the journey is more important than the ending.

In short, Things We Lost in the Fire is definitely worth reading, if only for how masterfully it’s written. I really liked it, and it’s made me eager to dive into more of Mariana Enriquez’s work.