Blog Post 3

Synopsis

Our Share of Night is a story of a father and son, both engulfed in remarkable grief over the mysterious death of the wife and mother they both adored. A father, desperate to protect and withhold his son from the selfish grips of The Order. A family that performs unspeakable acts in search of mortality, this novel circulates the themes of magical realism within Latinx culture. 

Character Development

Juan: protagonist, father of Gasper, long blonde hair, has a debilitating health condition called Arrhythmia, Juan is a powerful medium possessing many magical powers, and the ability to perform spells and rituals. Juan’s physical body acts as the door for The Darkness during Ceremonials of The Order. Juan’s powers seem to be weakening, perhaps due to his health condition or perhaps Juan’s cycle of power is reaching its end. He is a widow, struggling to grieve his wife Rosario. Rosario died three months ago (hit by a bus). Juan has attempted to summon Rosario every night since she passed, but to no avail, he believes something is blocking Rosario from the bridge of communication. Juan suspects the order is responsible.

Gasper: son of Juan, six years old, blue eyes, has woke up crying every morning since his mother died, also possesses some powers and is expected to be Juan’s heir.

Tali (Catalina): Tali is the child of Adolfo Reyes and his coriander lover, Leandra. She is Rosario‘s half-sister, making Juan her half-brother-in-law. Juan and Tali have a complicated love for each other. Juan thinks perhaps in a different life, Tali would have been his, however, both understand the complexities and politics involved in The Order and the way things have to be. She is a trusted confidant of Juan, helping him protect Jasper from The Order, risking her own life and doing so.

Stephan / Esteban: is the oldest son of The Order leader, Florence Mathers. Has previously been marked and healed by The Darkness(Juan) with the scars to prove it. Florence considers it to be a great honor to be marked by the darkness. The marked have greater access to knowledge, rituals, and decisions within the inner circle. Like Tali, Stephen is a trusted confidant of Juan, helping him protect Jasper from The Order while risking his own life and doing so.

3 Leaders of The Order: Mercedes Bradford, Florence Mathers, & Anne Clark

Summary: Part 1 & 2

This story begins with Juan and Gasper preparing for a trip. Several pitstops along the way show character development for Juan and Jasper. During their hotel stay, Juan takes notice to Gasper’s powers enhancing and growing stronger. For example, Gasper can see ghosts, or “echoes”, as Juan refered to them. Juan was showing his son how to “expel a discarnate”, making the echo go away. While Gasper sleeps, in the hotel bathroom Juan tries to summon his deceased wife Rosario, as he has routinely attempted every night for the past three months. Unfortunately, he has never been able to successfully summon her, even though he has done so, so many times before with other spiritual beings. Juan has a theory that someone or something is blocking Rosario from being able to communicate. He relentlessly suspects The Order might be to blame. Juan seeks out Tali, a fellow member of The Order and trusted confidant, to discuss his theory about Rosario, the possible involvement of The Order, and the misfortunate fate that awaits Gasper. The Order leaders have means to test Gasper with seven tests to discover if he is destined to be the heir of Juan, or if he is meant for nothing more than a bodily host for Juan to take over, feeding immortality.

“Gasper is trapped. They want him to be my heir, either he inherits my ability to summon the darkness or I’m going to transport my consciousness into his body when the moment comes and then I’ll be trapped.”

Juan

Juan‘s powers are weakening him more and more after each use. He gets drained after in a way he didn’t used to. The exact reason for this is still unknown. He knows for sure though that he can’t protect Gasper alone and needs help. Juan asked Tali to do what she could do to block Gasper‘s magical abilities in the meantime, while trying to come up with a plan.

“If we can keep them from realizing, make the test negative as usual, then the only option is to wait for him to come of age so I can take over his body, and I know that in the intervening years, I can figure out how to get them away from him”.

Juan

They leave Tali‘s house to make their way to the Bradford estate, as they are awaiting his presence for The Ceremonial. Before doing so, Juan and Gasper go to a cemetery to perform an Invocation ceremony, calling on the fifth spirit in hopes of some clarity on the whereabouts of Rosario. “She is with those who speak to you”, is the riddle Juan was left with to decode the meaning of on his own, leading to only more suspicions of the leaders of The Order. Upon arrival at the Bradford mansion, Juan reconnects with another well-established friendship, Stephan, the son of one of the leaders and long-time trusted confidant.  Stefan agrees to help protect Gasper and work alongside Tali’s abilities, to completely conceal the developing powers of Gasper, essentially greatly putting their own lives at risk. As of yet, Tali and Stephans efforts are proven effective after Gasper was tested by the leaders of The Order and failed to prove he had any magical capabilities. After the Ceremonial, Juan’s presence was requested by the leaders of the order in a meeting. Tensions rose quickly when he confronted the leaders of his suspicions and relayed the message given to him by the fifth spirit. The leaders waste no time in telling Juan, that they, in fact, do have Rosario. They don’t know where she is exactly. She isn’t in The Darkness, but in another realm. They protest that even though they do not know how to undo this spell, that they did this. The Order wants to continue to have control over Juan so he would have to continue summoning for The Order and continue to be their “door” to The Darkness. The leaders say they will stop at nothing and continue to test Gasper. If he is marked, he will be Juan’s heir. If he is not, Juan must perform the Rite-of-Passage on Gasper taking over his body and replacing it with his own soul, leaving the soul of Gasper to be gone forever.

My Thoughts…

Mariana Enriquez dives into several elements and themes of magical realism within Latinx culture. The blending of reality and fantasy in this novel displays the matter-of-fact presentation of magical events alongside the mundane day-to-day life, such as Juan being a struggling grieving widow, trying to grapple raising a little boy alone. The spectrum of magical realism is displayed in the novel with fantastical and horrific events. Themes in Latinx culture, such as isolation and community, are shown with Juan, feeling alone as a widow and within his mission to protect his son, meanwhile, reaching out to his small community (Tali & Stephan) for help with protection. Cultural and Historical Context can also be supported by the backstory of how the Bradford estates, Puerto Reyes, came to be. The Bradfords immigrated from England to find themselves Acculturated and Assimulated to the cultures of Argentina. The Bradford’s weren’t English themselves; they had been born in Buenos Aires, spoke both English and Spanish and attended British schools. Acculturation following an Assimulation model, I suspect would have been easier for them due to their financial privileges, giving them an upper hand then the majority of other immigrant experiences. The Power of Imagination shines through from author to reader with Enriquez’s impeccably detailed, sometimes grotesque descriptions.

Juan drew a circle around Mercedes mouth, and in his open palm he caught his mothers-in-law’s lips and teeth. Then he cauterized the wound. He licked each tooth clean and chewed the lips before Mercedes bulging eyes.