Shadows on the Road

Juan, a powerful but ailing medium, and his young son Gaspar drive through Argentina's haunted landscape, pursued by the secretive Order that covets their supernatural gifts. The journey is fraught with tension, grief, and the ever-present threat of violence, both mundane and otherworldly. Juan's health is failing, and he is desperate to protect Gaspar from the Order's plans, which involve using the boy as a vessel for dark rituals. Their bond is deepened by shared loss—Gaspar's mother, Rosario, is recently dead—and by the knowledge that their lives are shaped by forces beyond their control. The road is both escape and destiny, a liminal space where the living and the dead intermingle, and where Gaspar's own powers begin to awaken.

Inheritance of the Dark

Gaspar's family history is revealed as one of privilege, violence, and occult inheritance. The Order, a cult of the Argentine elite, has for generations sought to harness the power of mediums—those who can channel the Darkness, a primordial, hungry force. Juan's own childhood was marked by illness, abduction, and training at the hands of the Order's doctors and priests. Gaspar's mother, Rosario, was both a scholar and a witch, and her death has left a void that neither father nor son can fill. The family's estates, especially the jungle mansion of Puerto Reyes, are sites of both sanctuary and horror, where the boundaries between worlds are thin and the past is never truly buried.

The House of Bones

In Buenos Aires, Gaspar and his friends—Vicky, Pablo, and Adela—are drawn to an abandoned house rumored to be cursed. Inside, the house is impossibly vast, filled with shelves of human remains: teeth, fingernails, eyelids. Adela, who is missing an arm, is lured deeper into the house and disappears behind a door that will not open. The others escape, traumatized and forever changed. The disappearance is never solved, and the house becomes a symbol of the violence and secrets that haunt Argentina, where the disappeared are never truly gone and the living are marked by their absence.

The Medium's Mark

Gaspar's powers manifest in childhood: he can see and banish spirits, and he is marked by the same darkness that claimed his father. The Order tests him, seeking to determine if he will be a worthy medium or merely a vessel for another's consciousness. Gaspar's relationship with his father is fraught with love, fear, and violence—Juan is both protector and potential abuser, desperate to shield his son from the Order but also willing to wound him in the name of protection. The mark Gaspar bears is both a shield and a curse, setting him apart from the world and binding him to a fate he cannot escape.

Blood and Ashes

After Rosario's death, Juan and Gaspar perform rituals to contact her spirit, using her hair and ashes in desperate attempts to bridge the gap between worlds. The rituals are both acts of love and of violence, requiring blood and pain. The dead travel fast, but Rosario remains elusive, her absence a wound that will not heal. The family's grief is compounded by the knowledge that the Order may have played a role in her death, and that her spirit may be trapped in the Darkness, beyond even Juan's reach.

The Order's Demands

The Order, led by the ruthless Florence and Mercedes, seeks to achieve immortality by transferring consciousness from one body to another. Mediums are both revered and exploited, their suffering seen as a necessary sacrifice. Gaspar is identified as the next Recipient, the vessel for his father's consciousness, and the Order's plans hinge on his compliance. The family's wealth and power are inseparable from their occult practices, and the line between victim and perpetrator is blurred. The Order's ceremonies are orgiastic, violent, and ultimately futile, as the Darkness remains indifferent to their desires.

Sanctuary and Betrayal

Gaspar finds sanctuary with Tali, his mother's half-sister, and with Esteban, Juan's loyal friend and lover. But sanctuary is always temporary, and betrayal is never far away. The family's internal politics are as dangerous as the Order's rituals, and Gaspar learns that trust is a rare and fragile commodity. The adults around him are all compromised, their loyalties divided between love, power, and survival. Gaspar's own agency is limited, and he is forced to navigate a world where every act of kindness may conceal a hidden agenda.

The Child and the Ceremony

Gaspar is subjected to the Order's tests and ceremonies, designed to awaken his powers and prepare him for the Rite of Transfer. The rituals are traumatic, involving blood, pain, and the presence of the Darkness. Gaspar's resistance is both physical and spiritual, and he is aided by the secret interventions of Tali and Esteban, who work to shield him from the Order's gaze. The ceremonies are a microcosm of Argentina's own history of violence and disappearance, where children are both victims and inheritors of trauma.

Doors to the Other Place

The Other Place is a realm of bones, hands, and hanged bodies—a landscape of the dead, ruled by the Darkness. Gaspar learns to open doors to this world, a power that both terrifies and fascinates him. The Other Place is a mouth, always hungry, and those who enter risk being devoured. The Order seeks to use Gaspar's ability to access this realm, believing it holds the key to immortality. But the Other Place is indifferent to human desires, and its gifts are always double-edged.

The Price of Protection

Juan's efforts to protect Gaspar come at a terrible cost: violence, isolation, and the loss of innocence. Gaspar is forced to choose between self-preservation and loyalty to those he loves. The mark his father gives him is both a shield against the Order and a wound that will never heal. The family's history is one of sacrifice—of children, of parents, of friends—and the line between protection and harm is always blurred. Gaspar's survival depends on his ability to navigate these contradictions, to accept both the love and the violence that shape his life.

The Disappeared and the Living

The story of Adela's disappearance echoes the larger history of Argentina's disappeared, the thousands who vanished during the dictatorship. Gaspar, Vicky, and Pablo are haunted by the loss of their friend, and by the knowledge that the world is full of doors that open onto horror. The search for Adela becomes a search for meaning in a world where the past is never truly past, and where the living are always marked by the absence of the dead. The boundaries between memory, dream, and reality blur, and the only certainty is loss.

The Hand of Glory

The Hand of Glory—a severed, mummified hand used in occult rituals—becomes a symbol of the family's legacy of violence and magic. It is both a tool of protection and a reminder of the cost of power. The family's relics—hair, bones, ashes—are all charged with meaning, and their use in rituals is both an act of remembrance and of domination. The Hand of Glory is passed down through generations, its power undiminished but its meaning ever more ambiguous.

The Rite and the Recipient

The Order's ultimate goal is the Rite of Transfer, the movement of consciousness from one body to another. Gaspar is prepared as the Recipient, but the ritual fails—his resistance, and his father's refusal to fully participate, thwart the Order's plans. The failure is both a personal victory and a collective tragedy, as the Order's dream of immortality is revealed as a delusion. The cost of the attempt is high: trauma, madness, and death. The family's curse is not lifted, but transformed, as Gaspar inherits both the power and the burden of his lineage.

The Family's Curse

The family's history is one of repeated patterns: abuse, betrayal, sacrifice, and the hunger for power. Gaspar's story is both unique and archetypal, a retelling of the same old tale in new forms. The curse is not just supernatural, but psychological and social—a legacy of secrets, silences, and wounds that are passed down from parent to child. The family's wealth and privilege are inseparable from their complicity in Argentina's history of violence, and their attempts to escape the curse only deepen its hold.

The Unraveling

As Gaspar comes into his own power, the Order begins to unravel. The old leaders die or are destroyed, and the family's estates fall into ruin. The survivors are left to pick up the pieces, to mourn the dead and reckon with the past. Gaspar's friends, Vicky and Pablo, are also marked by their experiences, their lives shaped by the trauma of loss and the knowledge that the world is full of hidden horrors. The story becomes one of survival, of finding meaning in the aftermath of catastrophe.

The Return to Puerto Reyes

Gaspar returns to Puerto Reyes, the family's ancestral home, now a place of both memory and danger. The house is full of ghosts—literal and metaphorical—and Gaspar must confront the legacy of his family and the Order. The return is both a reckoning and a new beginning, as Gaspar claims his inheritance and begins to shape his own destiny. The past cannot be undone, but it can be faced, and the future is an open question.

The Final Sacrifice

In the end, Gaspar must make a final sacrifice, leading the remaining members of the Order into the Other Place, where they are consumed by the Darkness they sought to control. The act is both vengeance and liberation, a closing of the circle that began with his father's desperate flight. Gaspar is left alone, but free, his power now his own. The cost is high—loss, loneliness, and the knowledge that the world is full of doors that open onto horror—but the possibility of healing remains.

Black Flowers in the Sky

The story ends with Gaspar haunted but alive, marked by the past but not destroyed by it. The black flowers of his migraines are both a symptom of his suffering and a sign of his survival. The world remains full of danger and loss, but also of beauty and possibility. Gaspar's journey is not one of redemption, but of endurance—a testament to the power of memory, love, and the refusal to be consumed by the darkness.

Characters

Juan Peterson

Juan is the central figure whose supernatural abilities and tragic past drive the narrative. Born with a congenital heart defect, he is taken from his working-class family by the Order, who recognize his potential as a medium for the Darkness. Juan is both victim and wielder of power, marked by violence, illness, and a deep ambivalence toward his own gifts. His love for his wife Rosario and son Gaspar is fierce but often destructive, as he oscillates between protection and abuse. Juan's refusal to let the Order use Gaspar as a vessel is both heroic and doomed, and his ultimate sacrifice is to mark his son in a way that both shields and scars him. His psychological complexity—rage, tenderness, self-loathing—makes him a deeply human figure, even as he is caught in the web of the supernatural.

Gaspar Peterson

Gaspar is the novel's emotional core, a child and then young man shaped by loss, violence, and the burden of supernatural inheritance. Sensitive, intelligent, and haunted by visions, Gaspar is both a victim and a potential perpetrator, forced to navigate a world where love and harm are inseparable. His relationships—with his father, his friends, and his extended family—are marked by both intimacy and betrayal. Gaspar's journey is one of survival and self-discovery, as he learns to wield his powers, resist the Order, and come to terms with the legacy of trauma he has inherited. His psychological arc is one of endurance, not redemption, as he seeks meaning in a world where the past is never truly past.

Rosario Reyes Bradford

Rosario is both a presence and an absence, her death haunting the narrative and shaping the destinies of Juan and Gaspar. A brilliant anthropologist and practitioner of folk magic, Rosario is both a product and a critic of her elite family. Her love for Juan is passionate and combative, and her efforts to protect Gaspar are both heroic and ultimately futile. Rosario's legacy is one of knowledge, resistance, and sacrifice, and her absence is a wound that drives the story's emotional stakes.

Tali (Catalina)

Tali is Rosario's half-sister and a practitioner of folk magic, running a temple to San La Muerte in Corrientes. She provides sanctuary and guidance to Juan and Gaspar, working behind the scenes to shield them from the Order's gaze. Tali's loyalty is fierce, but she is also marked by her own losses and compromises. Her relationship with Juan is complex—part lover, part sister-in-law, part co-conspirator—and her role as protector is both a source of strength and a burden.

Esteban

Esteban is Juan's closest friend and occasional lover, a member of the Order who works to protect Gaspar from within. His loyalty is unwavering, but he is also compromised by his own history and the demands of the cult. Esteban's role is that of the confidant and fixer, the one who navigates the Order's politics and provides practical support. His relationship with Gaspar is marked by both affection and distance, as he struggles to balance his own survival with his commitment to the Petersons.

Florence Mathers

Florence is the matriarch of the Order, a woman of immense power, intelligence, and cruelty. She is both a believer and a manipulator, willing to sacrifice anyone—including her own children—in the pursuit of immortality. Florence's relationship to Juan and Gaspar is one of both reverence and exploitation, and her psychological makeup is defined by a cold, calculating ambition. She is the embodiment of the Order's ethos: power at any cost, and the subordination of the individual to the collective will.

Mercedes Bradford

Mercedes is Rosario's mother and Gaspar's grandmother, a woman marked by both privilege and suffering. Her cruelty is legendary—she is responsible for the abuse and mutilation of children in the Order's search for mediums—and her own body bears the scars of violence. Mercedes is both a perpetrator and a victim, her actions shaped by the logic of the cult and the traumas of her own past. Her relationship to Gaspar is one of both hatred and fascination, as she seeks to control and ultimately possess him.

Betty (Beatriz)

Betty is Rosario's cousin and Adela's mother, a former leftist militant who returns to the family after the destruction of her political group. Her daughter Adela is taken by the Darkness, and Betty's grief and guilt drive her to madness and exile. Betty's story is a microcosm of Argentina's history of violence and disappearance, and her relationship to Gaspar is one of both kinship and betrayal.

Adela

Adela is Gaspar's cousin and childhood friend, a girl marked by both physical difference (her missing arm) and supernatural significance. Her disappearance in the haunted house is the novel's central trauma, echoing the fate of Argentina's disappeared. Adela becomes both a ghost and a symbol, haunting Gaspar and his friends, and embodying the unresolved grief at the heart of the story.

Vicky and Pablo

Vicky and Pablo are Gaspar's childhood friends, each marked by the trauma of Adela's disappearance and their own brushes with the supernatural. Vicky becomes a doctor, gifted with an uncanny diagnostic ability, while Pablo becomes an artist, haunted by visions and the touch of the dead. Their relationships with Gaspar are defined by loyalty, love, and the shared burden of memory. Both are survivors, their lives shaped by the events of their childhood and their ongoing struggle to find meaning in the aftermath.

Plot Devices

Generational Trauma and the Disappeared

The novel uses the motif of generational trauma—familial, social, and supernatural—to explore the legacy of Argentina's dictatorship and the culture of disappearance. The personal stories of Gaspar, Adela, and their families are intertwined with the nation's history, and the supernatural elements serve as metaphors for the real horrors of political violence. The disappeared are both literal and symbolic, haunting the living and shaping their destinies.

The Order and Ritual

The Order is both a literal antagonist—a cult seeking immortality through the exploitation of mediums—and a metaphor for the corrupt, self-perpetuating power structures of Argentine society. Its rituals, ceremonies, and hierarchies mirror the logic of dictatorship and privilege, and its hunger for immortality is revealed as both futile and destructive. The Order's use of children as vessels and victims echoes the real-world abuses of the era.

The Other Place and Haunted Spaces

The Other Place—a realm of bones, hands, and hanged bodies—is both a supernatural space and a metaphor for the past that cannot be escaped. Haunted spaces, tunnels, and doors recur throughout the novel, serving as sites where the boundaries between worlds blur and the living are confronted with the unresolved traumas of history. The motif of doors—what can and cannot be opened, what is hidden and what is revealed—structures the narrative and the characters' psychological journeys.

The Mark and the Body

The novel uses the motif of the mark—scars, wounds, missing limbs, and the Hand of Glory—as symbols of both power and trauma. The body is a site of both suffering and resistance, and the transfer of consciousness is revealed as a form of violence. The marks borne by Gaspar, Adela, and others are both shields and wounds, setting them apart and binding them to the past.

Narrative Structure and Multiplicity

The novel employs a non-linear structure, moving between past and present, childhood and adulthood, and shifting between the perspectives of different characters. This multiplicity reflects the complexity of trauma and memory, and allows the story to encompass both the personal and the collective, the supernatural and the historical. The use of documents, testimonies, and embedded narratives (such as Olga Gallardo's article) adds layers of meaning and ambiguity.

Foreshadowing and Recurrence

The novel is rich in foreshadowing, with motifs and images recurring across generations and timelines. The disappearance of Adela echoes the fate of the disappeared; the rituals of the Order mirror the violence of the dictatorship; the marks on the body are repeated in different forms. These recurrences create a sense of fate and inevitability, but also of the possibility of resistance and change.

Analysis

Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night is a sweeping, gothic meditation on the legacy of violence, trauma, and power in Argentina's recent history. Through the lens of supernatural horror, the novel explores the ways in which the past—personal, familial, and national—haunts the present, shaping destinies and perpetuating cycles of harm. The Order, with its rituals and hunger for immortality, is both a literal antagonist and a metaphor for the corrupt, self-perpetuating structures of privilege and violence that define Argentine society. The story of Gaspar and his family is one of survival, endurance, and the search for meaning in the aftermath of catastrophe. The novel refuses easy redemption or closure; instead, it offers a vision of endurance, where the scars of the past are both wounds and sources of strength. The supernatural elements—haunted spaces, portals to the Other Place, the mark of the medium—are not escapes from reality, but intensifications of it, metaphors for the unresolved grief and horror of the disappeared. In the end, Our Share of Night is a testament to the power of memory, love, and the refusal to be consumed by darkness, even as it acknowledges that the past can never be fully exorcised. The lesson is not one of triumph, but of survival: to endure is itself a form of resistance, and to remember is to honor both the living and the dead.

Last updated: September 27, 2025