The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Stories

By: Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell - translator

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler

“The beautiful, horrible world of Mariana Enriquez, as glimpsed in The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, with its disturbed adolescents, ghosts, decaying ghouls, the sad and angry homeless of modern Argentina, is the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”—Kazuo Ishiguro, The Guardian

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • FINALIST: Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Ray Bradbury Prize, Kirkus Prize • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, New York Public Library, Electric Lit, LitHub, Kirkus Reviews

Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre. Populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her new collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken—fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history—with bracing urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can’t let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death when it fails to respond correctly to a moral dilemma.

Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

©2021 Mariana Enriquez (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"The beautiful, horrible world of Mariana Enriquez, as glimpsed in The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, with its disturbed adolescents, ghosts, decaying ghouls, the sad and angry homeless of modern Argentina, is the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time.”—Kazuo Ishiguro

“Mariana Enriquez’s fiction is haunted by the specter of late-twentieth-century Latin American history. . . . Yet because the fiction is so alive, the experience of being in her world is enjoyable.”—Francine Prose, New York Review of Books

“Stories of spirits and disappearances collectively address the mystery of loss through narratives that are as gripping as they are chilling.”—Chicago Review of Books

Okay

There were multiple users of the T slur in the book. I didn’t like that. Some stories were better than others. I liked the ones about the dead baby and the cannibal teens. The one about the heart fetish was interesting as well. The other stories were more depressing than scary.

Entretenido!

Me gustaron mucho las diferentes historias! Cortas, interesantes y entretenidas, algunas con comunes denominadores. No lo encontré en español y me toco escuchar el libro en inglés. Me gustó la narración!!

Another excellent short story collection!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an author better at creating compelling social commentary through horror. She has this way of effortlessly weaving elements of horror through horrible things treated mundanely (human trafficking, political suppression, etc) that makes every story interesting and fresh. I admittedly liked Things We Lost in the Fire better (it’s one of my favorite all time books), but this is still really awesome and incredibly creepy in many places. Definitely read!

new favorite author

Mariana Enriquez is a genius. Would recommend to anyone who likes horror + magical realism. I have listened to this audiobook and Things We Lost in the Fire over and over since I discovered them; I wish she had 10 more collections like these.

Just not my style?

I did not enjoy the emphasis on mean people’s explicit thoughts and the amount of graphic sexual description. I liked the long story in the latter portion of the book and portions of many of the stories. If I could go back, I wouldn’t use a credit on this book.

Unnecessary accents?

Yes, this book is originally in Spanish but the fact the narrator spoke perfect English during described yet switched to an accent during dialogue was veryyyy unnecessary and lowkey racist?

DNF for me

I Did Not Finish this title. The stories seemed bland and amateurish. I’m assuming I’m not the target audience and maybe for some YA fans this might be really great.

It’s just OK

Interesting to follow some of the common metaphors of the stories, but altogether flat, lacking life, and easily forgettable. I’ve never understood the immense hype this author gets.