Salsa Nocturna

Meanwhile, I'm not even halfway through the first story and I'm already giggling my ass off and jonesing to re-read Half-Resurrection Blues and anxiously tapping my foot for Shadowshaper.

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I love how this was a collection of short stories AND its own novel--it's like Louise Erdrich but not--and it makes me want to re-read HRB even harder. Dare I say, it managed to have even spookier moments--the kind that gave me...maybe not quite nightmares, but fascinating creepy dreams (that's TWO books now this year that actually infiltrated my dreams! dayum). I love how the red-tape world of bureaucracy plagues the realm of the dead and all the ways the characters work to subvert it, as well as the history, neighborhood dynamics, and show more tenderness that thread through the stories. This side of NYC Older is creating is endlessly intriguing and hilarious. I can't wait for more more more. show less

Daniel José Older is a poet. Even if I hadn't enjoyed the subject matter of his book I would have read along happily, devouring words like these:

I'm alive and capable of love, and love is a fucking river. It's never ending and it flows through us, all around us, keeps us alive and decadent, fierce from struggle and genuine in our vulnerability.

But I did enjoy the subject matter, very much. Salsa Nocturna is a collection of linked short stories about ghosts, New York City, magic, music, and love. I truly hope Older writes more in this well-developed and culturally rich world.

Salsa Nocturna is a collection of fairly tightly linked short stories set in a mostly Latino neighborhood in New York City -- a New York that's positively teeming with ghosts. Not unregulated ghosts, though: they're watched over by a bureaucratic Council of the Dead, who send dead (or, in one notable case, half-dead) ghost hunters after those they feel need to be kept in line.

The stories, I think, feel a little bit rough around the edges, in ways that aren't always easy to identify. Imperfect pacing, maybe, or plots that aren't as fleshed-out as they might be, or emotional beats that feel just a little bit off. It doesn't help, I'm afraid, that this volume really could have used the attention of a good copyeditor. But there's also a lot show more here to appreciate: an imaginative, attention-snagging premise; vivid, earthy character voices; and some sharp moments of humor and social commentary. I like the urban minority focus, too. Even us middle-class white people get tired of reading about middle-class white people all the time.

All-in-all, this collection gives the impression of Older as a writer who may not yet be fully polished, but who is definitely someone to watch. And I am watching... He has a new novel out now set in the same world featuring at least some of the same characters -- one that's from a larger publisher, and has thus hopefully gotten a little more editorial attention -- and I already have a copy sitting on my TBR shelves that I'm looking forward to reading.

Rating: This one is hard to rate. I'm going to call it 3.5/5. It's flawed enough that I can't quite bring myself to rate it higher, but I will say that I feel a lot more enthusiasm for it than for most books that get that rating. show less

I didn’t win this book as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer. I won it as a backer of Crossed Genres’ Long Hidden kickstarter!

I love winning free books, especially books as good as Salsa Nocturna.

Salsa Nocturna is a collection of supernatural noir short stories written by Daniel José Older. Characters and locations overlap (they all take place in New York City), but you can read any of them and feel grounded in each tale’s part of the circle. But read them all and more things click into place.

I’m not sure where to start with how great these stories are. Older’s writing is gorgeous and true. In the best stories in this collection, Older’s words have a magical cadence to them.

Older also has a way with characterization. I ended up show more loving everyone he introduced me to, especially Carlos, the half-dead Puerto Rican soulcatcher who’s the focus of several of the stories. And Gordo, a musician who can see the dead. Oh, and Cici, an old woman with many stories. Yeah, I could go on, but you should meet all these people. They’re awesome. (Okay, I didn’t love the bad guys, but they felt real to me.)

He even made me love New York City a bit, which is a pretty big accomplishment. I’ve never been a fan.

My favorite stories in the mix are many. “Tenderfoot” introduces us to Carlos and has such a joyful ending I cheered when it came. “Skin Like Porcelain Death” might be the scariest of the bunch but I find dolls as creepy as clowns, so that’s where I’m coming from. “Protected Entity” is creepy, too, and dark, as Carlos goes about tracking down a serial killer who’s murdering children of color in what’s now a white part of Harlem. “Red Feather and Bone” is brilliant. I’m in the midst of reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which added another layer of resonance when I read Older’s story for a second time. “Forgive Me My Tangents” is adorable, bringing together two of these wonderful characters and creating possibilities for them.

I’ll admit, there are some stories in Salsa Nocturna that I didn’t like as well. “Magdelena,” for example, felt a little rushed (although I love Krys), and “Love Is A Fucking River” left me on the shore, although I love the cab driver. Your mileage may vary, of course.

And then we have that cover: a beautiful image that hints at the magic inside. Saddi Khali created it.

So pretty, inside and out. Read this! show less

SALSA NOCTURNA, Daniel José Older’s first short story collection, contains thirteen interconnected tales about the ghosts of New York, the organization that attempts to regulate them, and the mortals who get caught up in the whole thing.

I love interconnected short story collections because they feed on themselves in much the same way novels do, but without the particular commitments a novel demands of the reader. You can read, and enjoy, the stories in any order, with or without the others, but they become much richer when you take them all together. They’re small glimpses into a fascinating world, with the promise of more for anyone who wants it. They’re like a long-running series you can read in a jiffy.

These particular stories show more center on Carlos, a not-quite-deceased dude, and the various folks he comes to know through his work for the Council of the Dead. They’re urban fantasy of the most literal sort; that is, they examine the fantastical tensions that arise in an urban environment. NYC is a large, diverse place, and its ghosts embrace no universal view of the afterlife. These differences of opinion often escalate to the point where Carlos and his cronies have to step in and regulate matters--only, the more they regulate, the more they wonder if the COD has the right of it. Taken individually, the stories are entertaining supernatural tales that often offer a powerful underlying message. Together, they become a wider story of questioning and disillusionment.

Older also pays close attention to the racial tensions among the living and the dead. One story focuses on cultural appropriation, while another features some powerful images of slavery. All the central characters are themselves people of colour from different backgrounds, adding a wide variety of perspectives to the mix.

I can’t claim to have loved all the stories, but the majority did it for me in a big way. This is a solid collection, sure to appeal to short fiction fans with a taste for contemporary fantasy and horror. I enjoyed it so much that I just had to pop on Twitter the moment I finished so's I could share that feeling with the author (and anyone who happened to be listening in). Older tells me there will indeed be more stories with these characters, and he’s completed a full novel about Carolos to boot. Here’s hoping it hits shelves good and soon. I want to know what’s next for these folks!

And psst--if you want a taste of Older's fiction before you commit to the collection, the title story originally appeared on STRANGE HORIZONS.

(This review first appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina.) show less

An interlinking, interwoven set of paranormal short stories that knock it out of the park time after time - there's a paranormal-noir base, with a good slug of horror, a shot of New York night life, and that thread of friends-who-are-family which I can never resist.

This haunted New York feels more real than most of the representations that show up in the mainstream media, and the anthology format gives a whole range of voices centre stage. The patchwork whole they create just sings out with quality - highly recommended.

This was such a great collection of stories. Just before I started reading this book, I was thinking about short stories and series books and thinking that it would be great to combine the two. Daniel Jose Older did exactly this.

All the stories are told in first person, and it's not always easy to tell when the narrator is male, female, young, old, alive, dead, or half dead. Carlos and Gordo are two of the more prominent characters and I'm a little in love with both of them.

Carlos is half dead who sometimes has to be the hit man for the Dead side, but he's a little rebellious. With the help of his living and ghost friends, he does the right thing.

Gordo is an overweight mellow dude who takes what life deals him with good humor and easy show more acceptance. He loves music, kids, and can see ghosts. He takes none of these for granted.

This small book of connected short stories is fantastic genre fiction. So fantastic, dare I say, it is literary: poetic, humble, musical, spiritual, and deep. It deserves to be studied both for its ethnic/cultural perspective and NYC grit.

So much imagery! From the story, "Salsa Nocturna": "I could now make it out definitively to be a melody; a lonely, minor key melody, beautiful like a girl with one eye standing outside a graveyard."

Mix that in with frank, sometimes crude, language, throw in some ghosts just trying to get by (and some who are are far too ambitious for comfort), family, community, race relations, politics... I can't possibly give this great book the clever review it deserves. All I can say is I loved it and I can't wait to read more about these characters. show less