Somebody is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez
“An enchanting, highly personal tour of some of the most iconic cemeteries of the world—part travelogue, part memoir, part “excursions through death” (Los Angeles Times)
That quote made me really interested to read this book! So I quickly got the audiobook from my library and 2 min in stopped listening. The audio narrator was too breathy for me. So I decided to pick up a physical copy. Looking back I should have taken that as a sign that this book was not for me haha. The vibes were off…and I’m someone who likes wandering around in cemeteries! I did not enjoy this book.
I know that this book was marketed as part travel journal part memoir but I was not expecting how much memoir this book is. I know that might sound silly cause like what was I expecting. But often throughout this book I found myself thinking “girl can you go back to the cemetery please!”.
But more than that…the vibes are off.
There were some passaged that discussed the colonization of south America and how Indigenous people were stripped from their homes and murdered because some white men decided that they wanted their land. But there was just a ringing in my ears the whole time like a warning sign. Sometimes I felt like not enough history was explained or like a piece was missing. I would almost say some heart was what was missing.
Having previously read Our Share of Night by the author I knew she clearly has a fascination with death and how different cultures feel and process death. So I thought this would be more of an exploration of that. And it just felt clunky. I felt like I was hiking and couldn’t ever get a good footing to enjoy the hike. Each chapter felt like I was slipping on the rocks. The imbalance of memoir and travel journal was really jarring. Example she shares her relationships in depth. While interesting I didn’t really care. I don’t need to read who you are dating and who you marry when I’m wanting to read about cemeteries across the world.
There is also a chapter with her being in New Orleans. And real talk, I don’t like anybody who is not Black talking about Hoodoo. It just irks me. So I was not jazzed about this book and honestly speed read through it.
This book was not for me. Just point blank period. I did not enjoy this, I think some topics within were mishandled. And I think this had way to much memoir.
