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dgrachel's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
4.5
I love this latest collection of noir stories from Akashic Books. They are bleak and gray, but many of them have wonderful, unique characters, and several have clever twists I never anticipated. As with most short story collections, a few were disappointing for me, but their formulas may be perfect for another reader.
I found myself confused by many of the stories in Part I: The Insulted and the Rebellious, but I still enjoyed them, and really loved the repeated refrain in "Seeing is Believing" by Insa Sane. "The Metamorphosis of Emma F" by Christian Roux was devious, but used over the top vulgar language that ruined the story for me.
The three stories in Part II: Attempts at Escape were all very different, but still good. "Beneath the Peripherique" by Marc Villard would have been perfect, IMO, if it had ended two pages earlier. I hated the ending.
All of the stories in Part III: Scarfaces of the Suburbs were delightful (can you say that about a collection of stories peopled with murderers, thieves, and prostitutes??), and this was probably my favorite section.
Part IV: Ghosts from the Past contained some of the saddest stories. I wouldn't have chosen to end with "The Day Johnny Died" by Patrick Pecherot. I probably would have led the section with that and ended with "The Shadows of the Trapeze" by Anne Secret, as I found that one a little less hopeless and prefer to end a collection with at least a glimmer of hope.
Regardless, it's a great volume of stories and I am so grateful to both LibraryThing and Akashic Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
I found myself confused by many of the stories in Part I: The Insulted and the Rebellious, but I still enjoyed them, and really loved the repeated refrain in "Seeing is Believing" by Insa Sane. "The Metamorphosis of Emma F" by Christian Roux was devious, but used over the top vulgar language that ruined the story for me.
The three stories in Part II: Attempts at Escape were all very different, but still good. "Beneath the Peripherique" by Marc Villard would have been perfect, IMO, if it had ended two pages earlier. I hated the ending.
All of the stories in Part III: Scarfaces of the Suburbs were delightful (can you say that about a collection of stories peopled with murderers, thieves, and prostitutes??), and this was probably my favorite section.
Part IV: Ghosts from the Past contained some of the saddest stories. I wouldn't have chosen to end with "The Day Johnny Died" by Patrick Pecherot. I probably would have led the section with that and ended with "The Shadows of the Trapeze" by Anne Secret, as I found that one a little less hopeless and prefer to end a collection with at least a glimmer of hope.
Regardless, it's a great volume of stories and I am so grateful to both LibraryThing and Akashic Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.
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