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ridgewaygirl's review
3.0
San Juan Noir is a collection of crime stories edited by Mayra Santos-Febres. Most were written originally in Spanish and there is a Spanish language edition available. This collection is slenderer than the other books in this series, but Santos-Febres has made up for this by choosing stories that are relentless dark. The stories, like in most anthologies, an uneven group and having a single translator for all the stories makes all but a few sound as though they were written by the same person. Still, there were several memorable stories.
Death on the Scaffold details the narrator's unrest at losing their privacy when their apartment building is undergoing renovation and a scaffolding is erected that passes in front of the living room window. In A Killer Among Us, a schoolboy and his friends join a group of neighbors who have found the body of a murdered man. Y tells the story of a teacher's search for his missing student, and Death Angel of Santurce narrates the final hours of a woman's life.
The Akashic Noir series is strongest when the subject matter is somewhere off the beaten path. This edition has provided me with a half dozen authors to keep an eye out for.
Death on the Scaffold details the narrator's unrest at losing their privacy when their apartment building is undergoing renovation and a scaffolding is erected that passes in front of the living room window. In A Killer Among Us, a schoolboy and his friends join a group of neighbors who have found the body of a murdered man. Y tells the story of a teacher's search for his missing student, and Death Angel of Santurce narrates the final hours of a woman's life.
The Akashic Noir series is strongest when the subject matter is somewhere off the beaten path. This edition has provided me with a half dozen authors to keep an eye out for.
git_r_read's review
3.0
Anthologies. Hit or miss with me, sometimes in-between. This was the latter. First half was fab, second half didn't appeal to me. That doesn't mean it won't to a different reader. Noir is grim, no levity for the most part. Gritty and grimy. That definitely describes the stories in this book. Gut-wrenching, sad, angry.
bookdragon217's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Animal death, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Cursing, and Colonisation
seriela_alba's review
5.0
This is the English version and I purchased the Spanish edition to reread in the original language (except for one story). As the title suggests, the 14 stories from as many writers, are dark. Each one transported me to each of the distinct parts of San Juan. Each story is as different as the writers while playing with their idea of "noir". I can't wait to read the Spanish version.
tonstantweader's review against another edition
4.0
I have been a fan of the Akashic Noir series for years and my two rows of my bookshelves groan under their weight. They combine two of my great reading passions, armchair travel and the grim, often mordant, world of noir fiction. It is fascinating, too, to discover how the many different authors interpret noir for their city or their country. In San Juan Noir, the editor Mayra Santos-Febres’ own fascination with the erotic, with gender fluidity and human sexuality played a heavy role in her story selection.
But don’t let that give you the idea there is no variety. The first story begins in the rarefied air of high-rise living with a main character who seldom leaves her apartment or her building, ordering in anything she wants. Other stories feature the poorest of the poor, scrounging what they can on the edges of society. There are tourists, hotel clerks, pimps, prostitutes, fishermen, hitmen, journalists, teachers, and panty-snatchers. All kinds of people are represented and all layers of society.
There is little of the whodunnit in these stories. In fact, they do not resemble anything like traditional mysteries. These are stories drenched in the moody waters of noir, rich in emotion, passion,love, fear, and despair. They are the stories of life on the edge, sometimes slipping, sometimes sliding, sometimes leaping and sometimes soaring right over the edge.
4paws
I have never been to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but I traveled some of its streets in these stories. Of course, the city is more than noir. That’s what I love about the Akashic Noir stories, these are not the Tourist Bureau stories of the city. They are gritty, sometimes nasty, sometimes gross, but always interesting.
San Juan Noir is certainly the most frankly sexual of all the Noir editions I have read. There are some scenes that are very graphic, very erotic. This is not a book to gift your Aunt Irene. But then, you’re going to want to keep it for yourself anyway.
For the first time, Akashic Books released their anthology in both English and Spanish. I read about half the stories in the English edition and the other half in the Spanish edition. Some stories I read in both editions. I have to admit this was more difficult to read in Spanish than anything I have read before, except for some Old Spanish literature when they used “f” for “h” and “x” for “j”. There were idioms that baffled me, so I am so glad to have both versions to read.
San Juan Noir will be released on October 4th. I received an e-galley of both editions from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Several related links with my review:
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/san-juan-noir-by-mayra-santos-febres/
But don’t let that give you the idea there is no variety. The first story begins in the rarefied air of high-rise living with a main character who seldom leaves her apartment or her building, ordering in anything she wants. Other stories feature the poorest of the poor, scrounging what they can on the edges of society. There are tourists, hotel clerks, pimps, prostitutes, fishermen, hitmen, journalists, teachers, and panty-snatchers. All kinds of people are represented and all layers of society.
There is little of the whodunnit in these stories. In fact, they do not resemble anything like traditional mysteries. These are stories drenched in the moody waters of noir, rich in emotion, passion,love, fear, and despair. They are the stories of life on the edge, sometimes slipping, sometimes sliding, sometimes leaping and sometimes soaring right over the edge.
4paws
I have never been to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but I traveled some of its streets in these stories. Of course, the city is more than noir. That’s what I love about the Akashic Noir stories, these are not the Tourist Bureau stories of the city. They are gritty, sometimes nasty, sometimes gross, but always interesting.
San Juan Noir is certainly the most frankly sexual of all the Noir editions I have read. There are some scenes that are very graphic, very erotic. This is not a book to gift your Aunt Irene. But then, you’re going to want to keep it for yourself anyway.
For the first time, Akashic Books released their anthology in both English and Spanish. I read about half the stories in the English edition and the other half in the Spanish edition. Some stories I read in both editions. I have to admit this was more difficult to read in Spanish than anything I have read before, except for some Old Spanish literature when they used “f” for “h” and “x” for “j”. There were idioms that baffled me, so I am so glad to have both versions to read.
San Juan Noir will be released on October 4th. I received an e-galley of both editions from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Several related links with my review:
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/san-juan-noir-by-mayra-santos-febres/
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