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A review by mdkha
Berkeley Noir by Owen Hill, Jerry Thompson
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Berkeley Noir is a mixed bag, as all anthologies are. So rather than complain about how this story or that one didn't hit for me I'd rather talk about the ones that did.
Or one in particular, Jason S. Ridler's story "Shallow and Deep". It's been approximately a year since I read that story and I still think about it. A story about the making and selling of deep-fake porn, commissioned for a single patron, and the camera man who films the necessary footage for the deep-fake as a side gig from his primary job as a teacher/tutor.
It's a dark story that doesn't over stay its welcome, doesn't overexplain, and leaves you with this unsettled feeling in your gut that maybe you have stumbled into this profoundly vulnerable moment, one you shouldn't have. It's a story about shifting and unclear power dynamics, of the way wealth and age and gender mediate and transform those dynamics. I've reread the story four or five times and I'm still not sure I've really come to grips with it. Every reading leaves me still feeling like I'm not finished yet.
Or one in particular, Jason S. Ridler's story "Shallow and Deep". It's been approximately a year since I read that story and I still think about it. A story about the making and selling of deep-fake porn, commissioned for a single patron, and the camera man who films the necessary footage for the deep-fake as a side gig from his primary job as a teacher/tutor.
It's a dark story that doesn't over stay its welcome, doesn't overexplain, and leaves you with this unsettled feeling in your gut that maybe you have stumbled into this profoundly vulnerable moment, one you shouldn't have. It's a story about shifting and unclear power dynamics, of the way wealth and age and gender mediate and transform those dynamics. I've reread the story four or five times and I'm still not sure I've really come to grips with it. Every reading leaves me still feeling like I'm not finished yet.