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Title: Feminist noir leaves an empty feeling
Review: While Moore has a flair for dark descriptions of NYC nightlife and the singles scene, it seems evident she has no interest in characterizing heterosexual relationships unless they involve males as ego-cruising masochists and women as depressed suicidals. Darkness in noir fiction is fine but here the characters are so segregated into stereotypical holes that I found myself wondering about the author's view of the real world rather than those of the characters. Still, it manages to intrigue, and the dialogue is crisply written. My biggest complaint, however, is the ending which, without giving it away, is unexpected and quite unfair when you consider the book was written in the first person. I felt cheated, that the author was laughing at her readers. Yes, rules may be made to be broken but readers still expect a modicum of fairness and the final page disregards that.
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