Susie Bright

This is the third of the Noir series that I’ve read, after New Orleans and Oakland. I think it’s a great series — in each of them, the city is not just the setting, it’s a character in itself.

Santa Cruz is famously a beach and surfing city, with a lot of eccentric characters. But it’s also home for a lot of people who live on the fringe, and they take the lead in many of these stories. There are surfers who just aren’t viable, either emotionally or financially. There are people show more from the rural areas to the south of Santa Cruz, in tough straits and criminal temptations. And there are the people — teachers, private investigators, . . . — who, either by choice or the class stratifications woven into American culture, barely swim at the surface.

The locations of the stories are distinctive and evocative of Santa Cruz life — Pacific Avenue downtown, the woods and hills of UC Santa Cruz, the surfing spots at Steamer Lane, Cowell’s, and Pleasure Point, . . . I was surprised to see a story set even in my own neighborhood, The Circles.

Some stories also conjure the kinds of attitudes and noirish disorders that plague people no matter where they live, like people who act as though the world is truly against them, that the guy who got to the stop sign first (or to the lineup at Steamer Lane first) is an asshole for it. Everybody is just an asshole, and it’s my job to fight back.

The stories are pretty dire — the first set of stories take up the theme of serial killers. It’s definitely not soft, touristy, beachy noir. Characters are disturbed, bent on destruction, just like in all noir stories, but maybe even with a little harder, more desperate edge.

If you live in Santa Cruz, you’ll enjoy that maybe slightly perverse pleasure of seeing your city in its worst lights. If you don’t live in Santa Cruz, this may not be the tourist industry’s best marketing tool, but you will get a flavor of what’s under the rocks at the beach or buried among the redwoods. show less

Of the three novellas presented here, two are really wonderful.... The works of Eric Albert and Greta Christina are both entertaining and original, each presented with a perfect dose of humor and eroticism. With believable characters and fast-moving writing, both of these works are fast and enjoyable reads, and in all honesty, this collection is worth searching out for them alone.

On the other hand, the third novella simply isn't up to the level of the other two. Told from the point of view show more of an immature 14-year-old who comes across as being unbelievably ditzy and unlikable, the work simply wanders. Where I read each of the other novellas in a single respective sitting, I couldn't stand the annoying pov of this novella for more than a few pages at a time, and while I finally powered through the last twenty pages of it today, just to be done, it simply wasn't enjoyable, or even particularly well-written. This may be the view some individuals have of teenagers, but most teenagers actually aren't quite this dumb and unthinking, not to mention inconsistent.

Simply, the first two novellas in the collection are well worth the read, funny and original and clever. The last one is one to skip. show less

As a person who came of age during the roaring '70's only to enter college and adulthood for the early years of HIV, I've always admired Susie Bright. She's been a sex-positive educator throughout her career - openly gay, an editor of annual collections of erotic stories. She founded On Our Backs, the first magazine for gay women. She was the first female critic of the X-Rated Critics Organization and wrote feminist reviews of erotic films for the Penthouse Forum. She sassy and funny and was show more a beacon during the Reagan-era for treating sex as a normal and extra fun part of life. I was really excited to get this memoir, but stopped reading about halfway in. It's not that it wasn't well-written or interesting (it is both), but for some reason it just didn't grab me. Maybe I already know as much as I want to know about Susie Bright? show less

Susie Bright has given us a particularly strong addition to the Akashic Noir Series. Many times I try to pick one or two of the best stories to mention when reviewing entries to this series, but Santa Cruz Noir is pretty consistently strong all the way through. These are all stories where things go wonderfully wrong. If that's your thing, as it is mine, pick this one up. You'll enjoy it.