This is my first real big book in a while. Nearly 600 pages for Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez.
This is a supernatural / horror genre book with locales in South America and England and Africa for a tiny bit too. For a long novel, it moves pretty swiftly snd considering the time jumps from section to section and lead voice changes, is easy to follow along with.
The book is centered on Juan and his son Gaspar in the days and then years following the death of the wife and mother., Rosario who was born into a truly weird cult whose members thinks they can find eternal life from the Darkness. But you do not want to mess with the manifestation of it because it will take fingers, arms or eat you alive.
Juan is the medium from which the Darkness is summoned but being that middle man is killing him and he does not want that for his son which is the main plot driver.
I would give Our Share of Night a mild recommendation. If you can get past the inescapable fact that the father does not communicate to his son anything that would help him against the cult then you will be OK. So many events could have been avoided with a simple five minute conversation. The other big issue for me was the rushed ending. A book this long shouldn’t have to speed through the action at the end and then just abruptly end.
You will need a few different beers for this one and my main choice would be to try a couple things. First, look for a raspberry or cherry chocolate stout. Blood and darkness. You could also do a Guinness blend with the Irish stout with a fruited wheat beer or if you want to get experimental, a fruited sour.