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abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
2treads's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
– Love is love. Friction is friction. – Shane
This collection sticks to what Noir is expected to be and has been, and while that can take away the more exploratory materials that challenge Noir, these stories are good.
They focus on the characters and their circumstances, their need to satisfy themselves at any cost, and the desperate acts of revenge, personal scams, and double crosses.
The characters and their actions are one with the arid landscape in which they exist on the edge of prosperity and fame, and the authors deftly use this setting to frame their stories of greed, love, and betrayal.
This collection sticks to what Noir is expected to be and has been, and while that can take away the more exploratory materials that challenge Noir, these stories are good.
They focus on the characters and their circumstances, their need to satisfy themselves at any cost, and the desperate acts of revenge, personal scams, and double crosses.
The characters and their actions are one with the arid landscape in which they exist on the edge of prosperity and fame, and the authors deftly use this setting to frame their stories of greed, love, and betrayal.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
tonstantweader's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Palm Springs Noir is the most recent of the Akashic Noir series. Set in the legendary resort city about a hundred miles from Los Angeles. In any resort area, there is always an innate tension between those who visit and those who live there. Usually, the visitors have conspicuous wealth while the townspeople are often living hardscrabble lives in low-paying service jobs that cater to the wealthy who make their homes unaffordable. Palm Springs is no different and that tension infuses several of the short stories in this fabulous new issue in the series.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, who edited Palm Springs Noir contributed one of her own stories, a diabolical case of sibling rivalry and the attentions of one of those service workers, the one who cleans the pool. She also wrote one of the shortest introductions ever and I am so grateful. She manages to define noir and how it has changed over time as well as give us a capsule history of Palm Springs and its society all in five pages. Well done!
There are fourteen stories and not a stinker among them. I thought “The Salt Calls You Back” to be particularly chilling. “The Expendables” is a perfect fit for our Qonspiracist era despite being set in 1981. “VIP Check-In” is another perfect little story .
Palm Springs Noir is an outstanding collection of noir short stories. I cannot tell you how much I love it when editors focus their innovations on finding more diverse voices and characters rather than trying to redefine noir. I love it when editors show they understand the noir aesthetic is already deep and wide and does not need to be elevated. This is an excellent collection and I came away feeling like I understood Palm Springs better than I could if there were a “Real Housewives of Palm Springs” series.
- Palm Springs Noir at Akashic Books
- Barbara Demarco-Barrett author site
- Akashic Noir Series
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/palm-springs-noir-by-barbara-demarco-barrett/
dgrachel's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
It pains me to write this review. I’ve read many Akashic Noir collections, and I've loved the vast majority of them. As with most short story anthologies, the stories are a mixed bag ranging from terrible to amazing, with most falling somewhere in the good to great categories. Out of the typical 14 stories in each collection, there are usually one or two I really dislike, and a handful of gorgeous standouts, while I enjoy the rest. Palm Springs Noir is, sadly, an outlier. To me, the majority of the stories were poorly paced, ridiculously plotted, and capped off with bad endings. There were a couple that I thought were brilliant: The Expendables by Rob Roberge and The Stand-In by J.D. Horn being my favorites. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s The Water Holds You Still and Alex Espinoza’s The Salt Calls Is Back, were also good. I really appreciated the creepy atmosphere of Espinoza’s tale and the surprising ending. The rest were either boring and unremarkable, or like The Loop Trail by Ken Layne, ended so badly that they actually made me mad. If The Loop Trail had ended two pages sooner, I'd have loved it. As it is, I'd really like the 5 hours of my life back that I spent reading this collection.
I’m grateful to Akashic Books and LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are purely my own.
I’m grateful to Akashic Books and LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are purely my own.
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