Book Review: “A Sunny Place for Shady People” by Mariana Enriquez

Jul 26

Håfa adai and welcome to spooky season, my favorite month of the year! Throughout October 2025, I will publish reviews for works of horror, suspense, and the supernatural. The first two weeks of October also overlap with Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States! So, in these first two weeks of October, I will post reviews for works of horror written by Hispanic authors. My fourth pick for Hispanic Heritage Month and second pick for spooky season is A Sunny Place for Shady People, by Mariana Enriquez.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Horror bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Mariana Enriquez’s A Sunny Place for Shady People takes the reader on a creepy ride across Argentina and the United States through a dozen tales of ghosts, ghouls, reincarnated ghosts, vengeful spirits, and other malevolent forces. In a collection of enticing, enthralling, unsettling, and surreal short stories that blur the lines between what we are made to believe is good and what we are told is evil, these tales depict a woman who must help the dead realize they are dead, a young woman who cannot give up her sexual affairs with spirits, a young girl who claims to see the animals around her as the ghosts of victims, and more.

My Sad Dead
A Sunny Place for Shady People
Face of Disgrace
Julie
Night Birds
Metamorphosis
Hyena Hymns
Different Colors Made of Tears
The Suffering Woman
The Refrigerator Cemetery
A Local Artist
Black Eyes

Important Trigger Warning for A Sunny Place for Shady People

The stories within A Sunny Place for Shady People depict physical violence, sexual assault, kidnapping, murder, child abuse, animal cruelty, and drug use. These themes are essential to the stories shared. If these are themes that would cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.

My Thoughts on A Sunny Place for Shady People: 4.5 stars

In A Sunny Place for Shady People, Mariana Enriquez presents 12 unique short stories of horror, suspense, and the supernatural. Told from the first-person perspective of many (mostly unnamed) protagonists across Argentina and the United States, these stories follow the first-person perspective of various protagonists as they navigate their twisted worlds.

Instead of going into detail about all 12 short stories, I will focus this review on my top three picks from this collection, listed in the order they appear in the book.

My Sad Dead

An older woman has developed a unique ability after the death of her elderly mother: she can see and speak with the dead. But the dead do not always immediately realize that they are in fact dead. And, once they do understand their new form of supernatural existence, they are typically in states of shock and disbelief, needing guidance to find a way to move on. My Sad Dead explores the nuances between fault, guilt, responsibility, and culpability as the victim of a recent abduction and murder—a boy with an Italian last name—demands the protagonist to explain why no one came to his aid.

Night Birds

A young girl will stand behind her little sister Millie no matter what; even when Millie pathologically lies about their family’s lineage, threatens to murder their grandmother with a paintbrush, then tells her that she does not really exist but just imagined having an older sister to cope with being sent to an asylum. Millie’s delusions take a new turn after she discovers that her grandmother killed the kitten she believed was the reincarnation of a little girl recently murdered near their town. Night Birds explores various forms of violence against women, girls, and other demographics when Millie explains to her older sister that the many birds living around the nearby river are also reincarnations of tortured souls.

Hyena Hymns

A young couple learn about a fire that killed many of the animals at a local zoo. Every animal was accounted for, either as surviving or a casualty, except for a pair of hyenas. Many people claim over the years to hear the laughter of the lost hyenas coming from the jungles and forests at night. But those are just tall tales! Right? When the couple take a hike in towards the abandoned teachers’ college, they encounter something far more terrifying than unaccounted hyenas. Hyena Hymns explores how, more often than not, the actions of human beings are far more horrific than the rumors of unseen animals.

My overall rating for Mariana Enriquez’ A Sunny Place for Shady People is 4.5 out of 5 stars. I did not read or listen to the original Spanish-language version of this book. Instead, I listened to the English-language audiobook, translated by Megan McDowell. I definitely want to add the Spanish-language original to my personal library! After my first listen of the audiobook, I revisited multiple short stories in this collection multiple times. While there are intense themes and gory scenes depicted throughout this book—from crime to supernatural and magical—I consider the stories in this collection to be moderately intense horror. I highly recommend A Sunny Place for Shady People to fans of shorter fiction and not-so-intense horror.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 20 October 2025