Ariel Gore

I have read a number (many!) of the Noir series of different cities and enjoyed them all. This one may be my favorite: perhaps because I’ve always dreamed of living in Santa Fe and loved my visits there. But I have never seen the side of Santa Fe portrayed in these dark stories. Not that I want to, except through the vehicle of fiction.

In Santa Fe Noir (part of the Akashic series, edited by Ariel Gore), the stories are not the voices of the tourist or former urbanites come to live in the show more artistic haven that is the beautiful Santa Fe. Instead, as stated in the introduction, “you will hear the voices of the others: locals and Native people, unemployed veterans and queer transplants, the homeless and the paroled-to-here.”

In my own naivete, I never thought there was another side to Santa Fe. This volume is a serious wake-up call while also being seriously entertaining (in a very dark fashion). While keeping the natural beauty of the setting, this Land of Enchantment holds other stories than the usual tourist versions.

Edited by Ariel Gore (whose own contribution is also excellent) I don’t think there is a story in the entire collection I didn’t enjoy—a rare feat for an anthology in my experience. These are crime stories of the cold, hard kind in a harsh world with no room for the homeless, the poor, the indigenous—all the people that have been “othered” by the more comfortable, conforming, affluent world.

It’s hard to choose favorites, but I particularly loved Elizabeth Lee’s “Waterfall,” set in a beautiful spa which promises new life but become an especially gory crime scene and Ana Castillo’s (an author whom I love) more supernatural one, “Divina: In Which Is Related a Goddess Made Flesh.” These are just two examples of the many styles offered in this volume.

An outstanding entry in the Akashic series. My favorite so far. My thanks to Akashic Publishing, Ariel Gore, and LibraryThing for providing me with a copy for free. show less

I am 100% behind the witch revival. This book captured the witchy magic of the 1990s west coast queer life, from bell hooks to Anita hill to take back the night. A balm to read during the Kavanaugh hearings, I blew through this in a few days. Love.

This book just happened to catch my attention from the library shelves. Probably the bold covers and the Feminist Press logo. Once I picked it up, I was intrigued that it was by Ariel Gore -- creator of Hip Mama, which I loved back in its heyday.

This book made me feel all the feels. It took me a bit to get into the swing of it -- it's fiction, but it feels like memoir, but then there is magick sprinkled throughout. I had to get over my "but what is REAL?" thing. Once I did, this book really show more packs a wallop. It's one thing to be of the opinion that teen/single/poor moms are unjustly vilified in this country and quite another to experience it through this book. From the constant demonizing from the "family values" right to the random acts of hate to the way services that were supposed to help her actually endangered her -- all woven through with feminist texts and other critical theory Ariel reads to her baby as she's studying. Ariel questions it all. I felt the horror and the rage and the fear and the weeping and the hope.

It's really hard for me to write coherently about this book. When I finished reading it, I had the nonsensical but also very strongly visceral feeling that I wanted to fold this book up very small and slide it into my heart. I finally had to special order my own copy after returning this one to the library. show less

I've read a number of the Akashic Noir books, but this one stands out as my favorite at this point. On top of giving a powerful and varied view of Santa Fe, the collection features outstanding writing with a clear intention of honoring diversity. This diversity not only comes across in the cross-section of authors featured and their varied stories, but in the inclusion of LGBTQ characters and related storylines which together make this feel like the most progressive and diverse collection show more I've read in the series so far. Noir can sometimes feel dated (to my eye, anyway), but nothing in this collection feels dated, and the editor's attention to varied tones and atmospheres allows the noir feel to shine without the collection ever being repetitive or all of the same flavor.

If you're thinking about trying the Akashic Noir books, this is the first one I'd point you to. I've found stories I've enjoyed in each one, but this whole collection is pretty fantastic, and nearly every author is one I've marked down to follow and find other works from. show less