The stories of this anthology are all well-written and diverse in terms of style. Composed of ingenius writers such as Jessica Hagedorn (Dog Eaters) , Budjette Tan (Trese) , Lourd De Veyra ( Super Panalo Sounds!) and others, with their respective writing styles and storytelling, you can’t go wrong on buying this book.
As a fan of short narratives, I liked most of the stories in Manila Noir. Though I find some (a story or two) in this collection ordinary in terms of plot or the story as a whole,for me, the best story in this collection is THE PROFESSOR’S WIFE by Jose Dalisay. The writing is direct to the point and the story is not tortuous. I’m not saying that the rest of the collection are winding, I just like Dalisay’s way of storytelling.
Since this book is a collection of stories from various authors, it’s not easy to rate this book as a whole. I can’t really say that the anthology is perfect unless I ended up rating ’em one by one with five stars on all the stories respectively. And if each story’s merit is concerned, well, it depends on who you ask. Maybe the story is simply not for me in terms of style and genre, or it was overpowered by the other story on the anthology. One thing sure, if you’re a fan of Noir, you will like this book too. Although, I don’t actually find the other stories close to the word ‘Noir’.
But yes, a very good read indeed.
4 Stars!
– JB
Juan Bautista Stories 