Review: Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories

Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Things We Lost in the Fire is a short story collection that focuses on themes and settings encompassing South America, particularly Argentina. The stories themselves explore a wide range of human emotion, from friendships and familial connections to relationships poised at the beginning of the end.

Along with these common emotional themes, the ghost stories of the area are explored. Some stories tackle real ghosts with a bit of magical realism, while other stories the ghosts are much more ambiguous, not necessarily a physical haunting but a haunting of the mind.

The only part of this collection that I found a bit confusing was that some of the stories used similar names, such as Roxana, Pablo and others that made it seem like the stories may be connected and talking about the same characters, but probably were not.

Short story lovers will want to check out this collection, which leaves the reader not knowing what's coming next with plenty of twists and surprises.

*Book provided by Penguin First to Read

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